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Just Do It

By Michael Shanks

As the Nike slogan says, "Just Do It": Hard work is vitally intertwined with the mindset one brings to the game (see fearlessness and confidence). When an individual gets “tired”, more often than not he simply doesn’t have the drive to push himself further, rather than his body literally being unable to continue. He unconsciously “decides” his body can’t continue, in an effort to avoid the physical strains and hurt associated with pushing oneself to the fullest. Unfortunately, this can be a devastating psychological hurdle that many athletes have had trouble surpassing.

Theoretically, distancing oneself from the analytical mind will make the body the only judge of tiredness, which will always outlast how far the lucid mind decides to push itself. What my coaches have always taught, and what my personal experience has reflected, is to focus all thought on one’s role in the larger sense of the team, so as to promote separation from personal thoughts, consequently distracting oneself from fatigue.