IN SEASON VS OUT OF SEASON DEMANDS As a D1 Soccer Player

Being out of season for a college sport has a context of being less busy and less stressed out. But is this really true?

When I am in season, I definitely have more time devoted to practice, traveling and games and it is definitely safe to say more time consumed by my sport. During the fall (in season for me) we have soccer 6 days of the week with 1 off day. This looks mostly the same each week. We have the morning slot for practices so we train everyday before classes. Wednesday we also have lift. Here is an organized way of looking at it:

In Season:

Monday: off day

Tuesday:Training 730-9/915

Wednesday: Training 730-845 (light if game the next day) & Lift 9-930

Thursday: Gameday or Training 730-9/915

Friday: Training 730-9/915

Saturday: Training 730-9/915 (light if game the next day)

Sunday: Gameday

Travelling in season can look like:

Travelling on Wednesdays for an overnight Thursday game,

traveling Thursday for a travel day game,

Saturday night for an overnight stay Sunday game,

Sunday for a travel day game.

Most times we drive a bus but on occasions where we play 10 hours away we will fly. Usually when we fly it is a lot of hassle with packing, connecting flights, and remembering everything.

Out of Season:

Monday: Training 7-815 & lift 830-9

Tuesday: Training 730-9

Wednesday: Training 7-815 & lift 830-9

Thursday: Training 730-9

Friday: Film at 12 Scrimmage at 1230-130

Saturday & Sunday: Off days

Fall Class Load and Work:

In the Fall, I do my best to minimize my course load. By this, I mean the same amount of classes but strategically taking ones that I will be able to keep up with when traveling. As I have spoken about previously, I am a communications major with a focus in television and multimedia so a lot of my classes include projects that involve filming in person, at games and other field shoots. Therefore in the Fall I have focused on the required core classes like math and science. I would say it is definitely really stressful missing class for games and having to catch up on notes and studying is difficult, but it has been something easily managed just by taking initiative and reaching out to teachers about what days I am missing so that I have the notes to study on the bus and can learn the math lessons I am missing that day.

I also try to work as much as I can without stressing myself out to much. I currently intern with Athletic Media for Southeastern and because I have games I am not able to go to as much in the fall, so I try to cover more practices during the school week.

Spring Class Load and Work:

In the Spring this all looks a lot different. Firstly, my classes are more aimed at my major classes so that I have a lot more flexibility with checking out gear, time to get to games or practices, interview scheduling and volunteering extra time at the channel to learn more, while also working even more hours for athletic media.

Right now on top off my spring training and game schedule, I work around 20 hours a week at different games and practices. This consists of attending the games to film and then editing highlights and clips for social media after. As far as my classes go, I have 3 in person and 2 online which makes the flexibility in my schedule a lot easier to manage. I knock out all my online assignments before the week begins so that I can make my work schedule and know what times I have to film my class projects and edit them.

Because I am taking the classes for my major, so much more work is done outside of class for these rather than in class. In class we learn about the projects, hear from professionals in the industry and do camera/editing/lighting workshops to prepare us for when we film and edit on our own. With that being said, I have to really focus on scheduling and time goes by so so fast. Editing my projects together takes so much time and focus in order to create the best version possible.

Overall:

Ultimately the Fall classes are easier for me to be successful in because I utilize the time on the bus to really study and complete assignments where in the Spring most of my classes are hands on and add so many hours of work to my week outside of my class schedule. So i would definitely say for me the Spring is a lot more time consuming with class than the fall.

Season Training Demands:

As far as training goes, yes more time is being spent at training and doing film, however the Spring is really when we get to push ourselves in practice with workload and challenging ourselves. Since we don't have two games a week and most times we don't even have one besides at the end of Spring, we do a lot of conditioning, heavy lifting and extra work which is very taxing on our bodies. Nothing really compares to a game though so when we do have two games a week I would say that is the hardest but both days before games are light so it evens out since the spring is demanding every week day.

It is really nice though having weekends off in the spring because it really lets me reset and get ahead of my online assignments, give my body a break and actually get to enjoy time out with friends. It also gives me flexibility to work at games and catch up on any editing or get to try more things out like videos asking athletes questions or mic'd ups.

I think for me the Fall and Spring each have its unique qualities that make them challenging.

What else changes in season and out of season?

Other things in the fall to keep in mind is that my family comes to games a lot of them time which I am super grateful for but it also makes me have to stay on top of assignments and studying even more because I want to spend as much time as I can with them when they are here.

I also get very stressed in season about performance and it can be really hard to clear my mind after a bad practice or bad game whereas in the spring practices are just to get better and keep improving, without the stress of "if I play bad or make a mistake will that impact my playing time?".

Spring is a lot more enjoyable for me because I get to just focus on trying as hard as I can without results of games being so prevailing.

I love the competitiveness of the fall and competing for playing time and to win games but I know all athletes can agree it does get overwhelming and the focus tends to drift from playing because you love it to focusing on results, playing time and winning.

The Spring I can just focus on playing because I love the sport, I get to show up and compete everyday without written results and be present in the moment with my teammates and friends.

It's easier in the fall to take the "I get to's" for granted. Spring is such a great reminder for me of "I get to train 5 days a week", "I get to run before training to stay in shape" "I get to compete and get better" "I get to train with my best friends" and I think as I play my last fall and last season of eligibility I want to take these realizations with me because I get to do all of that in the Fall and Spring, but as the shift focuses to results its easier to take these "I get to's" for granted and forget it really is you get to.

Results/playing time is part of the I get to's. "I get to compete for playing time" "I get to try to win" I get to do my best for myself and my team" and failure to is an "i get to" as well. "I get to fail sometimes" but I am lucky that I have the opportunity to fail because fail allows growth, learning and builds strength.

Key takeaways:

The Fall and Spring have unique aspects that make them challenging in different ways.

The fall most focus is on performance, getting class work done on roadtrips, packing, traveling, fitting in visits from family, working when I can but not as much.

The Spring is a lot of short but intense training, more time for classes, more time to work, weekends off to catch up and reset.

But, all the time that was for packing, roadtrips and studying is replaced by these other things. Which keeps time being used and going fast, but less stressful as far as soccer goes.