𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞

My Sport Tips (volleyball + cross country)

General Sports Tips
- Always get a good stretch. It will loosen up your muscles and prepare you for your sport
- Drink a lot of water about 10 minutes before you start. If you really need energy, drink a sip of coffee. Sometimes I do that if I need an energy boost.
- In order for you to actually function, you have to make sure you've eaten enough throughout the day so you have a good source of energy. Food is very important.

Volleyball
This is a game purely based off teamwork. Once your fluent in the basics, all you gotta do is learn to communicate with your team.
- Don't be afriad to get the ball. Trust me you have kneepads and it's time to put those to your purpose. It's ok, you have nothing to lose from practice.
- A trick to any sport is efficiency and being fast. The faster you act and respond, the more likely you'll intimidate your opponents
- When it's your turn to serve, what I like to do is bounce the ball really hard and creates a loud noise that really intimidates them. It works like 70-80% of the time
- If anything it's always best to start with the basic stuff. Do practice bumps, passes, and lastly sets.
Swinging your arms causes the ball to go flinging REAL high. Tense your arm muscles can allow you to control how high you want it to go. Work your way up to getting the ball over the net and such
- Watch people do it. The more you hace the image in your head, the better the idea and the more clear the idea, the more your able to believe you can do it. And make sure to apply those things you see in your practices.
- Have confidence. Confidence makes you want to become better. It allows you to trust in your abilities and that's what's important for you. Believe and trust in yourself.
*ill update with more useful advice*

Cross Country
- Cross country is both mentally and physically stimulating. It tests your endurance, not how fast you can run, but how long you can last
- if you want to be able to improve, the best advice I can give is to never stop. That's how you'll build your levels in lasting longer. So never stop running.
- If you're going to practice endurance, stop bad habits like drinking water every 5 minutes. Trust me you really don't need it.
- Knowing How you should never stop, you should set the pace. Learn how to breathe correctly and run correctly.
- Be sure to get a really good stretch.
- Drink lots of water the day before meets.
- When you run faster, you sacrificing your aching in your calves for the pain in your chest. Usually, the slower you run, the more pain there will be in your legs and you'll be able to breathe better and the faster you run, the better your legs feel but you'll feel your throat burn. Learn to balance that out.
- Diet is so important. You body needs to fuel up everyday because you will using A LOT of energy. That's why people who are active generally eat more than the average human. Keep a consistent time for when you eat your meals. Don't eat all at once because it's just like sleep. You can't catch up on sleep or catch up on food from the meals you've missed. In fact if you don't eat enough, you won't have any energy to burn any fat just a tip. If you don't eat enough and you suddenly exercise, your body will go into survival mode and actually do the opposite which is store up fat. Diet is so important for your health.
- One mind trick I personally love is imagining yourself in the body in front of you. By imagining you're in someone's shoes, it tricks your mind to "move" like them and go a little bit faster.
- Since cross country also has a strong mental aspect, you have to learn self motivation and tell yourself to beat the person in front of you and the next and the next. Work at one opponent at a time.
- This might not work for everyone but look at the ground. It's weird because time moves slower and you seem to move faster. Only use it when you're right behind someone.
- If you want to reduce the pain, get a song stuck in your head. You'll focus on that than what's hurting you.
- Try to reduce how many times you slow down. It'll only make you slower. Remember to keep a pace.
- Don't put your arms to high when you run and square up your shoulders.
- Also note once you pass someone, they are less likely to pass you again. Set small goals for yourself like passing one person at a time. And remember it's not about beating others, it's about beating your personal time.

Also a little bonus tip. Eat peaches whenever you do sports. They're abundant in iron and potassium which is very good for you.