Mindfulness in Multiple Sports
By Team Speed Admin - October 2, 2018
The other day, an interesting discussion broke out amongst the trainers and athletes here at Sterling’s Team Speed. When combining multiple sports into your routine, what are the benefits and drawbacks? Do the sports compliment each other? Or, are they potentially detrimental to your body? This conversation is important, so let’s have it.
Some examples of the sports discussed included soccer, swimming, dancing and gymnastics, in addition to other athletics like yoga and pilates. We see a lot of young athletes in here, and about half of them play multiple sports. Now, there are certainly some implications as far as injury potential when athletes specialize in just one sport early on in their life, and this is a topic we covered in one of our more recent blog posts. This post is going to cover ways athletes can be more mindful and practice injury prevention while playing multiple sports.
Body Awareness
Different sports work different muscles and demand specific movements from various areas of your body. Because of this truth, it’s important for any athlete (one who specializes, or one who plays multiple) to practice good body awareness. Knowing which muscle group would benefit from more strength in one sport versus that same muscle group demanding flexibility in another sport is absolutely critical in preventing injury, and maintaining the proper athleticism for both sports. For example, someone who plays soccer is going to have high demand on building strength in their hamstring muscle. If this same athlete also participates in gymnastics, dancing, yoga, or something similar, the hamstring muscle requires flexibility over strength. With the proper body awareness, you can work the two sports to actually compliment the other. However, without body awareness, the athlete may have a higher risk of injury.
Do Your Homework
Take the time to learn more about the demands of the sports you love and what steps you can take to make the most out of each of them.
Often, athletes face the roadblock where they need to choose which sport they are going to specialize in, and participate in the other sport as more of a supplement to the primary sport. For example, swimming would be a great supplement to any sport for endurance and breathwork. Similarly, yoga would be a great supplement for flexibility and fascia mobility.
Do what you can to keep your body safe while being the best athlete possible in each sport you participate in.
Hire a Private Coach or Trainer
There’s many benefits to hiring a private coach or trainer, and certainly one of them is that they’ll do your homework for you. Sports performance trainers already know a lot about the sports you play, what is demanded of your body, and what kind of training will make you a better athlete, so why not also task them with helping you be the best athlete possible in multiple sports? A private coach is going to help you balance out your muscle groups specific to the sports you play, which is going to help prevent injury as well. Injury prevention is huge for elite athletes, and hiring a private trainer is a great way to decrease the likelihood of getting injured. Your private coach will also help you with mental toughness, and how to best practice mindfulness while participating in multiple sports.
The coaches at Sterling’s Team Speed are world-class and ready to work with any athlete. Start today with your Complimentary Private Training Session. Send us an email or give us a call at 303-779-3640.