Category Archives: Resources for Help

Effective Learning Strategies Away from the Classroom

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Athletes Connected continues its resource stories for student-athlete coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. This story is about learning strategies.

By Nick Velissaris, Ph.D., Athletic Counseling Team Clinical Neuropsychologist

Over the past few weeks, our lives have shifted in ways we could never have expected. Below we are going to address positive ways to create and maintain an effective learning environment.

Create a Learning Environment
This is a time in which we have generally adapted to our basic needs, but might still be struggling with the expectations of academic performance in this novel situation. We are creatures of habit and pull towards our comfort zone, especially in stressful situations.

In a lot of cases, the changes to online education and isolation do not allow for our preferred study routine. There is no longer required study table time, a spacious desk over at the Academic Center (AC), learning specialists on call, a quiet study environment, discussions, labs, applied learning modalities, etc.

Breaking up study time with breaks not only makes it easier to refocus attention, but it also increases efficiency in learning. Break options can be limited in isolation, but are still needed.

In most cases, study table time becomes when my family goes to sleep, the desk at the AC becomes a table or bed, and the quiet study environment becomes an annoying little brother. So what can we do?

The goal for a new study plan is to keep as many successful aspects of your old study plan as you can, and minimize the aspects that have been most negatively impacted by the situation.

In most cases, you will not be able to directly substitute something in your new plan to replace something from your old plan, so this will be a compromise. Our goal is to make that compromise as small as possible. For example, “Well, I don’t have a desk to study at like the AC, I guess I will just have to study lying in bed watching TV” is not a small compromise.

Instead, set a time when you can clear a kitchen table, turn off the TV, and have your new study spot feel similar to the desk at the AC. The further away from an ideal study environment you get, the longer it will take you to learn the same information. The longer you are trying to learn and study, the more difficult it becomes to stay motivated.

The first step to adjusting your new study environment is to evaluate yourself. How do you learn best? What interferes with your optimal learning style in this new study environment? When you can’t get motivated, what made you motivated before isolation? What are your biggest distractions? Do you prefer reviews or a study group with others?

Asking yourself these questions can help identify your ideal study plan to adapt to your new isolation situation. Try to keep as much consistency as possible. Here are a few basic examples of compromises that can remain effective learning strategies:

HOME OFFICE

One major change is that you will likely be studying in your home. Create a temporary study area or area you can transform into a good study environment. It can be a specific timeframe where the kitchen table is unoccupied, turning a room into a study room, or making a dedicated study area in the corner of a low traffic room. Do not let this study area overlap with leisure or sleeping if possible.

SCHEDULE

If you had study table or a specific time when you used to study, continue that schedule. If you can’t continue the same schedule, create a routine where you can have the same study time blocked off each day of the week.

STUDY BREAKS

Breaking up study time with breaks not only makes it easier to refocus attention, but it also increases efficiency in learning. Break options can be limited in isolation, but are still needed.

Breaks should include a change of scenery (e.g., leave your study area and walk outside for ten minutes, get off the computer you use to study and do something else, etc.) and take a real break. Sitting in the same spot looking at your phone is not different enough from studying from a computer to give your brain an attention break.

NOTES/READINGS

Take notes the same way you did before with normal classes. If you handwrite your notes in a normal lecture, then hand write them with online lectures too. If you usually print readings or print your lecture slides, print them out now for the online lectures and studying as well if you are able.

DISTRACTIONS

Find a quiet place to study without many social interactions. This also applies to areas of your residence that have distractions. Do not study in the living room while your family watches TV. If you must, then download a white noise app and use headphones when studying.

PHONE

Use of social media, text, online communication will all drastically increase during isolation. With this increase, comes a higher attraction to distraction. When studying, mute notifications on apps that distract you and save them for dedicated study breaks.

GROUP STUDY

If you had study groups before, reach out to people in your class and set up a regular study group time using video chat apps.

MENTAL HEALTH

Anxiety and stress impacts our ability to learn information. If you are highly stressed or feeling overwhelmed, try relaxation exercises, yoga, or working out before studying. If you meet with an Athletic Counselor regularly, maybe schedule your study time for after your session to improve motivation.

Contact your mental health provider or reach out to the Athletic Counseling Team if you feel this change is beginning to be more of an issue than expected. Do not wait until you are struggling, because a lot of times it just takes a brief chat or support to get us back feeling how we’d like to be.

There may be slight differences in study planning if you have ADHD, a learning disability, or anxiety. Please follow the recommendations listed in your education plan, neuropsychological evaluation, or mental health documentation.

Use Repetitive Learning
Once you have a good study environment and good study plan in place… repetitions, repetitions, repetitions. Just like tying your shoes, learning a new athletic skill, playing an instrument, or navigating a new city, the most effective way to learn information for an exam is with multiple repetitions.

Your brain stores information at a certain rate. The ability to remember that information accurately is greatly increased each additional time you attempt to learn it. The more you repeat the information you are studying, the better you will be able to store and remember it for the exam.

Although just a brief example and not an exact comparison to studying, you can do a quick test to see this benefit. Do a memory test where someone says 20 words and then repeat back to them as many as you can remember. How many did you get? Do it again. How many did you get this time? If this were a typical test in school with 20 questions, each additional word would be a 5% increase in your score.

Think of the words as representing lecture slides, notes, text chapters, etc. The increase in your memory test can show you how much you improve with one extra repetition in your studying the material on the exam. Flashcards or apps like Anki are a perfect way to easily increase your repetitions.

Know that you are not alone in your struggles. If you need additional help creating or adjusting to your new learning plan, reach out to your Academic Advisor, the Academic Success Program (ASP)* staff, and/or the Athletic Counseling Team.

*for student-athletes not at Michigan, reach out to your school’s version of ASP, or your school’s Academic Support or Student Support Services units for assistance with learning strategies.

Additional Resources

About the Author
Nick Velissaris, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist and athletic counselor with the University of Michigan Athletic Counseling Team. He has been at the University of Michigan since March 2019 and specializes in assessing and improving the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning of our athletes. He holds two master’s degrees (clinical-behavioral psychology, clinical psychology) and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with specialization in neuropsychology. Dr. Velissaris is a Michigan graduate and was a varsity letterwinner in wrestling.

The New Perspective: Adapting to Isolation

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Athletes Connected is compiling a set of resources for student-athletes for coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. This story is about adjusting to isolation with some helpful positive self-talk when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed.

By Nick Velissaris, Ph.D., Athletic Counseling Team Clinical Neuropsychologist

Over the past few weeks, our lives have shifted in ways we could never have expected. While there have been many resources and notifications for what we have to do to prevent transmission and remain safe, there have been very few offering guidance on how we can maintain our daily lives with the same success we had pre-isolation.

Quarantine and social distancing do not just change human interaction. They impact our routine, schedule, motivation, structure, and productivity needed to remain a successful student-athlete.

Feeling anxious or overwhelmed?
Here’s some self-talk:

– “this is happening to everybody”
– “this is temporary”
– “we compete against others”
– “same as it was before isolation”

Coaches and trainers have provided workouts to maintain fitness in isolation. Social media and various apps have allowed for improved socialization and mental health. Online classes and technology allow for continued lectures, classes, and exams.

Nevertheless, completing these workouts, engaging with others online, and being a successful student in isolation relies much more on self-initiation and self-motivation. Support systems such as a strict schedule, attendance policies, team rules, study table, tutors, office hours, etc. are wonderful resources for learning, but a byproduct of having such advantages can be the perceived difficulty when they are not available.

So what can we do to maintain some consistency and comfort in learning when everything feels like it has changed so drastically overnight?

In this week’s stories, we address how you can adapt to isolation (today) and offer certain strategies to assist you in your academic learning (Wednesday, April 1).

Adjust Your Perspective
Optimal learning is significantly reduced by anxiety caused by crisis situations. Coping with stress in a positive way can minimize the impact a crisis situation can have on our ability to learn. When negative things happen to us, we tend to catastrophize the outcomes to make things seem worse than they actually are.

This is evolutionary, adaptive, and automatic; it’s what has allowed mankind to continue and thrive as it has. We would not have lasted very long if it were our automatic response to say, “Nope, I bet that bear walking in our cave just wants to be friends.” Instead, our brains make us think of bad outcomes so we go into “alert mode” and remain safe.

This is perceived as anxiety/stress. Fortunately, our brains work in both directions and we can think, make adjustments to our initial thoughts, and respond to those adjustments to reduce the impact of that stressor.

We initially go into alert mode with any drastic or abrupt change. Because of this automatic response, it may be helpful to first challenge that initial reaction and evaluate how much has actually changed.

It is also important to identify what has not changed. Try to remind yourself of the following when you begin to feel stressed and overwhelmed due to the current situation:

  • It is easy to focus on ourselves and the loss or inconveniences you have personally experienced…but remember this is happening to everybody.
  • Sometimes it can be automatic to look at the situation you are experiencing and ignore that this is temporary… you don’t need to accept this lifestyle forever, just until the problem is fixed.
  • Remember that in our lives, we compete against others. Upset that you can’t train? Upset you need to study and don’t have the academic buildings or resources you had?
    • Well… so is every other student in your classes and athlete you compete against. The changes impact you the same as your competition, so the impact of this change between you and who you are competing against is the same as it was before isolation.
  • All the changes seem so drastic and different from what you did to become successful… but remind yourself that, as an athlete, you are already very skilled in adapting and persevering through difficulty.
  • You have had to battle injuries and take exams on the road, deal with daily fatigue from training, morning practices before sunrise, keep up with nutrition and sleep, the media, teammates depending on you, etc., but you still were graded the same way as regular students in the classroom.
    • Before isolation, you faced the additional challenges that come with being student-athlete and were successful.

Accept there are new challenges outside your comfort zone, but everyone is facing them, it won’t last forever, and you can overcome challenges better than anyone.

The bold statements can be used as self-talk when feeling anxious or overwhelmed.

In Wednesday’s article, we will tackle ways in which you can create a positive learning environment and utilize repetitive learning.

Additional Resources

About the Author
Nick Velissaris, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist and athletic counselor with the University of Michigan Athletic Counseling Team. He has been at the University of Michigan since March 2019 and specializes in assessing and improving the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning of our athletes. He holds two master’s degrees (clinical-behavioral psychology, clinical psychology) and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with specialization in neuropsychology. Dr. Velissaris is a Michigan graduate and was a varsity letterwinner in wrestling.

An Athlete’s Guide to Coping During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Athletes Connected is compiling a special set of articles for the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with this helpful guide.

By Jeremy Fallis, Depression Center Marketing Communications Specialist

The cancellations, closings and general chaos associated with the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic has left many of us stunned, confused, hurt and looking for things to do. While we can’t address everything that a student-athlete is feeling at this moment, we can provide some general tips that may help one cope with this unique situation. 

Keep a Routine
Life is different. Classes are virtual. Practices, training sessions, lifts and games are canceled. In general, you’ve been asked to keep distance from large gatherings. In light of these unusual circumstances, try to keep a schedule. 

If you normally wake up at 8 a.m., clean up, eat breakfast and head out for your 10 a.m. class, maintain that timeline, and beyond. This sets a tone for your day and will allow you to be more productive. You’ll more easily stay on top of your academics (the semester is almost over!), and find relief against the ever growing cascade of questions from parents, friends, classmates and teammates that normally start with, “what are we going to do now?” 

Healthy Eating
This one may be difficult because of how picked out grocery and online stores are, but maintaining a healthy diet will keep you fresher and happier. Reverting to junk food because it’s most convenient will make you feel good in the moment, but ultimately your body will feel lethargic.

We suggest you maintain your normal times for breakfast, lunch and dinner, while making good eating decisions, when possible. Find some new recipes you don’t normally have time to make and try them out. Planning out your meals in advance will also help you keep a healthier option and prevent you from boredom eating. Consult with your performance nutritionist for additional ideas on what you can do. 

We encourage you to practice social distancing, but don’t remain socially distant. Stay in touch with your family and friends

Stay in Touch
If you’re heeding the CDC’s recommendation to socially distance, great job! The CDC is also making sure people are aware of the stresses and how to cope during the pandemic.

We encourage you to practice social distancing, but don’t remain socially distant. Stay in touch with your family and friends. Set up video chats, play online video games, remain active in your group chats, this will help maintain some semblance of normality during these unusual times.

Find Some Me Time
Undoubtedly, more time has opened up in your calendar. Try to improve something about yourself. Write stories, play music, sing songs, fix something in your house/car/apartment, find a new hobby. Whatever it is that makes you, you, do it.

There will be a lot of unplanned downtime, so carve out some free space to explore something that will make you happy, keep you stimulated and engaged.

Ply Your Trade
There is no relief to having a canceled season. Many of us might be unable to play our sport without a teammate. That doesn’t mean you can’t attempt to practice and improve, after all, being an athlete is a big part of who you are.

Go for a run, exercise, lift some weights, hit some balls (in safe circumstances, of course). Again, this will give you moments of peace and continuity with life before the pandemic occurred. Moreover, if you’re looking to compete next year, you’ll be better prepared when your season does roll around.

Distract, Don’t Dwell
It’s impossible to ignore how disappointing losing a season or time with teammates can be. You are encouraged to try and distract yourself. It could be that new hobby we talked about earlier, that new book you’ve been meaning to read or a show that you haven’t binge watched yet.

No one knows for sure how long this present situation will last. Try to take breaks from news stories and social media and interact with another human. Distractions, as long as they’re healthy ones, are good options to pass the time and improve our wellbeing.

Feel Helpless, but Want to Help?
Many of our friends and family are at risk to the current pandemic and some of us will have a want to help others. The Michigan Medicine Health Blog provides 10 ways to help others, and yourself (some of which we’ve stated above).

Still Struggling? Reach Out.
You may still have lots of thoughts, negative or otherwise, swirling around. Remember to practice self-care. We have a skills and strategies page for managing your emotional health. Consider reaching out to a mental health provider, especially if you feel numb or disconnected for more than a few weeks, feel unable to complete daily activities or want assistance in processing your feelings. 

Michigan athletes are encouraged to contact their Athletic Counseling Team. If you’re not a current student-athlete, our “Life After Sport” section touched on how you can find a mental health professional.

Additional Resources

About the Author
Jeremy Fallis is the marketing communications specialist at the U-M Depression Center. For Athletes Connected he is in charge of website management, social media, internal and external communications. He has been at the University of Michigan since July 2016 after a seven-year stint at Penn State as an assistant director of athletic communications. Jeremy also spent two years in athletic communications at his alma mater, Saint Joseph’s, where he he competed on the cross country and track & field teams.

Using Skills Learned in Sport Differently

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By Julie Fielding, Assistant Director of the Michigan Athletics Career Center (MACC)

Looking for a new job or applying for graduate school? You have the skills graduate programs want in their students and employers want in their employees. Below are skills you developed as a student-athlete that will help you market yourself as an excellent candidate in whatever career you pursue after sport.

Teamwork: The Team, The Team, The Team. One of the clearest examples of a skill taught through sport is teamwork. Even after you transition away from competition, for the rest of your life, you will find yourself in situations and in settings that ask you to work with others. Through sport, you learned how and developed your ability to work closely with other people in order to achieve the best outcome. You may not have even liked all of your teammates, but you were able to respect each other and work together to reach your goals.

Leadership: Often when we think about leadership on a team, we think of a coach and the captains, who all play a crucial role in the success of a team. However, even if you were never a captain, your team would never have succeeded if you were not accountable for your own actions and commitment — and expected your teammates to put in the same effort. You have the ability to lead, whether or not you held a “typical” leadership position on a team.

Coachability: Every person and player has strengths and weaknesses. A highly coachable person is able to notice their own strengths and weaknesses, and is also able to receive feedback from a coach, teammate, colleague, or boss about their performance and incorporate what they were told into future plays and projects.

Goal Setting: Even if you didn’t do it consciously, your athletic career was full of goal setting. It may have been big goals like winning the conference title or a championship, but there were likely many sub-goals in between. You may have set goals to beat your PR by a few seconds or pounds, all with the intention that you would become a better performer. The same skills can be used in the workplace or in your personal life. Completing a project by a certain date, reaching a quota, learning a new skill, or other smaller goals may be essential steps on your way to a promotion or other triumph.

Accountability: You were relied on for so much: academic performance, athletic achievement, and maintaining a positive image within a public setting. Setting goals is one thing, but sticking to them is another. You not only hold yourself accountable, you hold others around you accountable as well. This skill is essential to any high performing team, and one you would contribute within the workplace to maximize productivity

Resiliency: Stress, failure, and losses are part of more than just sport. You will have setbacks and you will get frustrated throughout your life, but sports have taught you that you can work through them and keep going.

Adaptability: In any sport, any play or event can go a number of different ways, so you always have to be prepared for multiple outcomes. Your ability to think through different scenarios and have a game plan for those is an incredibly useful skill. Even when things don’t go the way you planned or anticipated, you are able to shift and adjust accordingly.

Work Ethic: You worked hard to be successful as an athlete. You put countless hours into training and practicing. You can take those traits of hard work, determination, and focus into your future careers, jobs, and/or volunteering.

Drive: You wouldn’t have reached the level of athletics that you did if you weren’t motivated. You likely would not have dedicated all that time and put so much effort into your training had you not possessed the drive. It can be difficult to figure out what motivates you if you no longer have a team and coaches pushing you toward a championship, but your love for competition will always be there. Sometimes turning work into a game or telling a friend about a project or goal  can help tap into that drive.

Time Management: Remember when you had morning lifting, afternoon practice, four classes, and homework…and that was just Wednesday? Your athletic career has prepared you well for balancing a packed schedule.

Prioritization: From balancing rigorous academic and athletic schedules, to planning team building activities and community service projects, you continue to enhance and utilize your skills to effectively balance competing priorities. You’ll find your ability to be organized a skill that greatly helps you in your first job, your next job, or within a graduate school program.

Self-Discipline: You were accustomed to getting up early, making smart nutrition choices, and making sacrifices in pursuit of your goals. This type of self-discipline helps keep you on track and focused on not only individual discipline, but team unity.

Ability to Perform in High Pressure Situations: During your lifetime, you’ll be exposed to certain situations that will test your preparation and mental focus. As a student-athlete, you were  able to keep a clear mind when faced with adversity, which can be advantageous when working to meet a tight deadline. You competed in front of thousands of spectators with an expectation to perform at the highest level. You presented to your classmates during a group project, and motivated your team during halftime; now you might find yourself delivering  strategic recommendations to a client or managing employees – being a student-athlete prepared you to excel in moments like these.

Effective Communication:  Being able to communicate is at the crux of any successful relationship, whether that is with a friend, a partner, or a boss. You may have seen this played out in the past when you had to communicate your needs to your trainer or coach, or when you and your teammates needed to get on the same page to win the game. You know from experience that effective communication improves productivity and performance.

Conflict Resolution: Being a part of a team, you were surrounded by people with different personalities, perspectives, and opinions. As you can imagine, this can create disagreements among teammates and coaches. The ability to handle an uncomfortable situation or approach a difficult conversation helps to improve cohesiveness within a team, and as a student-athlete, you’ve enhanced this trait through many years of collaborating with differing personalities to achieve a common goal.

For more career tips, visit Michigan Athletics Career Center. For resume tips, visit the National Association of Colleges and Employers which highlights the top attributes employers want to see on students’ resumes.

About the Author

In her role as Assistant Director of the Michigan Athletics Career Center (MACC), Julie Fielding provides individual and group career coaching sessions and workshops to assist student-athletes in developing competencies needed to make informed decisions regarding life after sports. With over nine years of experience in higher education and career services, Julie is passionate about working with students-athletes on exploring various career paths through experiential learning opportunities and marketing their unique skill set to employers and recruiters.

I’ve Helped You Graduate, Now I Want You to Succeed

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By Ashley Korn, Academic Counselor, U-M Athletics Academic Success Program

As an academic counselor, every four (or five) years you pat your seniors on the back, say goodbye, maybe shed a single tear and cross your fingers that at some point they actually took your advice and are in some way, shape or form ready to take on life after college.

When I send off these seniors, I rarely worry about their GPAs, salaries, or grad school admittance, but more about how they are going to leave their student-athlete identity behind. The idea of no longer being a student-athlete is something no one can truly prepare you for.

Whether you’re going on to start your career, begin grad school or even go pro in your sport, your college self becomes a thing of the past. That false sense of adulthood becomes real: it’s no longer acceptable to wear leggings everyday (unless you’re really lucky), you can’t tear through grab ‘n’ go like a grocery store, falling into a deep Instagram vortex is now part of your post-work plans, and “I can’t, I have practice, or a tutor, or treatment” is no longer a valid reason to get out of whatever it is you don’t want to do.

For some, the allure of a new job, new people, new places, new wardrobes can create a (moderately) healthy distraction from the fact that this piece of yourself has gone missing, but what happens when the proverbial dust settles?

Often when I check in with my now former student-athletes, I’ve come to learn that there are some “staples” to the transition out. Much like their undergrad experience, I’ve discovered that there isn’t any one thing that I can do or say that is going to make this feel better, but I know that if you embrace the fact that life is going to be weird without the structure of college athletics, it’ll make adulthood feel a whole lot easier.

I understand that everyone is unique and the demands of whatever your “first year out” looks like are going to be vastly different than some of your teammates. Nevertheless, I’ve learned a few things–both from my own experience and the experiences of former student-athletes–that have seemingly helped people to get used to this “new normal” that is post-grad life.

there isn’t any one thing that I can do or say that is going to make this feel better, but I know that if you embrace the fact that life is going to be weird without the structure of college athletics, it’ll make adulthood feel a whole lot easier.

Housing & Roomies
As a student, you likely lived with at least one to six other humans in an average at best kinda place. This was great…in college.

Once you graduate, you should be thoughtful about your roomie situation and what kind of place you choose to live. For some of you, the roommmates are going to be your parents and there is nothing wrong with that (here’s to saving a little money!).

For those in the market for a new place to live, I highly recommend you take time and care into where and who you’re living with. Why? Because post-grad life isn’t like an episode of Friends (I mean really, how could they afford that place?!).

If you try and live like you did in college, with all your best friends in a questionable place, you’ll likely act like you’re still in college. Keep the roommates to one or two max; buy some new furniture, decorate your walls without sticky tack, have a real kitchen and learn how to really do the dishes. If you have a shoddy kitchen, you’ll eat out more often and subsequently spend more money.

Now I realize that if you’re moving to a place where the cost of living is high, you might not be able to find a quality place like Rachel & Monica but you likely learned in college a good lesson in how to use your resources, so put that to the test. Ask teammates who know people, perhaps from other teams (both at your school and at others), who might be moving too. Use the right kind of websites and see what options are out there. You might even make some new friends in the process!

Fitness
Here’s the deal, you’re likely going to embrace not having to be “fit” for your sport anymore. But what you will learn is that fitness is likely a part of you and you shouldn’t let that go.

The endorphins that you’ve been releasing through sport, almost everyday for the entirety of your life, shouldn’t just stop. Instead, find a new method. You’re not going to have a strength coach handing you a workout to do every time you walk into the gym. This was probably my biggest battle. I needed someone or something to guide me because otherwise I would just do the same thing over and over again.

Now I’m not saying you should go join a CrossFit gym immediately, but do your research to see what kind of place or what app might be a good fit for you. Reach out to your strength coach for some ideas, and/or find a workout buddy to help keep you motivated now that you don’t have designated times to show up to lift.

Stay Competitive
We know it’s hard to give up your sport let alone that competitive nature that you feel towards it. What I’ve seen a lot of people do to not only fuel that competitive spirit, but also make new friends, and stay active is to join some rec leagues like slow pitch softball, kickball, basketball or volleyball.

I know that I personally would not thrive in this setting, especially because I was a figure skater and, well, hand-eye coordination is not my jam, so instead of joining a league, I went into coaching. I started casually with youth organizations and “learn to skate” programs and then ventured into more competitive divisions/levels. There are lots of different ways to get creative with how to stay involved in competition, you’ll never know what new opportunities it might bring.

Nom, Nom, Nom
Listen, I’m all about food but I learned the hard way that I don’t need to eat nearly as many carbs as I did when I was a competitive athlete. It’s hard to make the adjustment from what you needed to eat to fuel your body when you were competing to being “NARP.”

I am no dietician (I sure didn’t handle the transition well), but there are people that can help. If your school has a dietetics staff, make that part of your exit to post-grad life or reach out to them. I can guarantee they’re willing to help.

In post-grad life, food becomes one of those things that becomes central to the social scene: “let’s go grab dinner! Happy hour there is so cheap! Oooh, we have to go to that new ice cream place” …these are things you’ll hear at least one to five times a week and with that, you should start to understand your relationship with food, and more importantly, alcohol.

A lot of times socializing centers around alcohol. It is something to be aware of, especially if you’re struggling with this whole transition out of college. I am a realistic person and know that many of you will still try and go out like you did in college for at least a few months (some of you…maybe longer) but this is going to get old. Be aware of what you’re drinking and how often you’re doing it because it’s important to develop healthy habits early.

Stay Connected
College is one of the last times you’re going to be with a large cohort of people that are all essentially at the same place in their lives where you’re attending classes, training, competing, and deciding what you’re doing on Friday night.

In essence, it’s one of the last times you get to live without formal “obligations” (they seem like obligations now, but you’ll learn in post-grad life that deciding what tailgate to go to on gameday is really inconsequential).

After you graduate, real world obligations take over and you suddenly lose that ease of planning and the concept of spontaneity. Your friends are suddenly getting new hobbies, have prior commitments, are getting engaged, married or having babies…it’s hard to fathom now, but trust me, it’s the reality.

This change will occur at different times for everyone, it may be one year post college or it may be five or more. This can often lead to feeling isolated and confused about what having a social life really means. This means that staying connected with your friends becomes all the more important.

Checking their insta stories and tweets doesn’t necessarily qualify as “staying connected” but actually calling them should become a thing. You won’t text your BFF’s everyday and those GroupMe’s won’t be as active in about four months.

These are harsh realities about post-grad life, and if you go to grad/professional school, you’ll get a whole new group of people to share these experiences with, but then you’ll cycle back through that same feeling. It’s hard and that’s the honest truth. If you land in a place with former teammates, you might navigate this a little easier, but you’ll soon realize that you’re not always going to be the same person you were when you were in college, and that’s a good thing.

Everyone will navigate this timeline at their own pace, but just being able to have those relationships are critical to helping you make sense of this experience.

Whether it’s by choice or something outside your control, leaving behind your college self as a student and/or athlete is something that takes great awareness. I am by no means an expert to that post-grad life, but I have been fortunate enough to graduate student-athletes and watch them, for better or worse, navigate this transition out of student-athlete life.

Being a student-athlete, no matter which institution you attended, gives you more skills to cope than you likely even realize. Your ability to fail, to work with others, to have small wins, to be dedicated to something, to focus, to fight, all mean you’re going to be prepared for life after being student-athlete it will just take some adjustments, and that is just fine.

About the Author
Ashley Korn has been an academic counselor at Michigan since 2013. Currently she works with student-athletes from baseball, ice hockey, men’s and women’s golf, men’s soccer and women’s rowing. Korn earned her B.S. in journalism and speech communications, and Master’s in student affairs in higher education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Additional Resources

Life After Sports Section

Athletes Connected Get Support Page

U-M Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)