Summary: <br> Amidst COVID 19 and all the shutdows everyone has had a season cut short.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Cari Wood has been monitoring mental health for a few years at Redmond High School. In a <a href="https://sportsmedicinebroadcast.com/monitoringmentalhealth">recent podcast,</a> we discussed what this looked like for her.<br> <br> <br> <br> Cari also has a high school senior who is living out all of the things we are discussing.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Now with COVID 19 <a href="https://tinssp.com/about-us/">Robert Andrews</a> has been releasing some articles on how we can help deal with this as parents, athletes, Athletic Trainers, and coaches.<br> <br> <br> <br> Here are the Season Cut Short talking points:<br> <br> <br> <br> 1) Normalize the first week or two. Look at this as a holiday for the first week or so. Athletes suddenly find themselves at home with little to no schoolwork, no structured workouts, and no competitions. <br> <br> <br> <br> Let them sleep in for a while. I see so many athletes who are sleep deprived of their rigorous schedules. The grind of training, school, homework, and competitions has left many athletes with serious sleep deprivation. I see athletes that are 40 to 60 hours a month behind in their needed sleep! And we wonder why athletes seem to struggle so much with anxiety and get overwhelmed so easily. <br> <br> <br> <br> Give them time to get caught up. You will see they will be able to better handle the curveball they have been thrown. They will handle stress, downtime, the experience of being disconnected from their sport and lack of exercise much better with adequate sleep.<br> <br> <br> <br> 2) Have regular family meetings to discuss how everyone is doing, where are they doing well, where are they struggling and where they need help. <br> <br> <br> <br> Your kids will resist at first, but if you do a good job of modeling openness and vulnerability and lead a structured meeting, they will learn to value this time together. <br> <br> <br> <br> The family meetings are also good times to discuss expectations around chores, schoolwork, training and any other topic the family needs to focus their attention on.<br> <br> <br> <br> 3) Help your kids create a written planner for their schoolwork and training schedules. Our athletes are used to structure. They need structure and discipline in their lives. Especially now! In this planner have them lay out their training schedule. You might ask, “what training schedule?” Find out the most important strengths they need to conserve to be ready to get back in the gym or on the court or in the pool. <br> <br> <br> <br> Some might need flexibility, others strength and conditioning. It is time to get creative. <br> <br> <br> <br> I spoke to a gymnast the other day who committed to do an hour and fifteen minutes of stretching at 2:00 p.m. six days a week. Her mother ordered her a rug to use since they have hardwood floors. I have seen videos of kids doing conditioning work on the roofs of apartments in New York City. Go for walks, bike rides, play tennis.<br> <br> <br> <br> 4) Empower them to take responsibility. There are two key traits that determine what level of development we obtain in our lives. One is the capacity to experience empathy and the other is the ability to take personal responsibility for our lives. This is a great time for them to step up and learn personal responsibility and accountability. <br> <br> <br> <br> Another suggestion is to have your athlete find an “accountability partner”. This is someone that they can check in with every day to discuss how their workouts are going, if they did them or did not, and why, and if they need support or need to be challenged to stay committed to the agreement they made with themselves and others. <br>
