6 Game Changing Tips to Manage College and Sports

Mastering the Juggle: How to Thrive as a College Athlete

In this episode of the Defeat is Optional podcast, Olympic sprinter Ronnie Baker shares invaluable insights and strategies for balancing college life and athletics. Through his personal experiences as a college athlete at TCU, Baker offers six practical tips: accepting the chaos, creating a weekly game plan, locking in top priorities, learning to say no without guilt, building a trusted small circle, and having fun. He emphasizes the importance of time management, prioritization, and using campus resources. The episode also announces the launch of 'Defeat is Optional' merchandise and highlights the significance of maintaining faith and enjoying the collegiate journey.

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Transcript

0:00

He's the third fastest man. Welcome to Defeat is Option. Here comes Ronnie Baker, 9 77. Baker's running away with this one. Surely they can't get back to it. In your journey, the greatness defeat is never the final answer. It's a choice. So let's get to work.

Ronnie Baker 0:16

6:00 AM lifts, 8:00 AM class practice until 5:00 PM group project do at midnight. Yeah. College athletics is no joke, but I learned how to make it work without quitting, without burnout, or losing myself in the process. I am Ronnie Baker, your favorite Olympic sprinter, but before all that, I was a college athlete trying to figure it all out. Today we are going to be answering the questions submitted by tiwa Sams that ask this, how do you survive balancing college and athletics? I can hear the pain in your voice. Okay. And if you ever wanted to get in on the action and have a question answered on the Defeat is Optional podcast, you gotta go over to the Defeat is Optional podcast page and be on the lookout for the polls. I do. And maybe your question will get selected and I'll do a devotional specifically for you. Secondly is the defeat is optional. Merch has officially launched with our very own wristband. It has the slogan, defeat is optional, along with Second Corinthians four A through 10. That reminds us when we are crushed, we are not destroyed. And defeat is a choice because of Christ's sacrifice they already made for us. So make sure you go over to the feed is optional podcast page on Instagram, which will be linked in the show notes and get your wristband before they're all gone. There's a very limited supply. Alright, back to our devotional. No one really prepares you for the chaos that comes with being a student athlete. So if you're feeling stretched thin, if you feel overwhelmed or like you're dropping the ball somewhere, yeah, I'd say that's pretty normal. But in all honesty, it's probably because you aren't managing your time well. So this is what helped me not just survive my four years of college, but thrive in my four years of college. Let's get into these six tips. tip number one is accept the chaos. The first thing I had to learn when I got to TCU is that this life is not going to be easy, but it can be managed. college and athletics together are very hard. If you're waiting for it to be chill and balanced and flowy I'm gonna tell you right now that you're gonna be disappointed, So the goal isn't to avoid the pressure. The goal is to develop a system that helps you carry that pressure better and handle it better, Because pressure creates diamonds and that's what you are, that's what we want to be. Step one is really just to accept the chaos, accept that there's gonna be pressure, accept that it's gonna be hard, That's gonna honestly make it a lot easier for you. You say, how can accepting that is going to be harder and accepting that there's gonna be chaos. Make it easier for you. I'm glad you asked. A lot of times in life we have expectations on how things are supposed to be, and typically those expectations look a lot more flowery than our actual expectations. We have these flowery expectations because of social media or because we've heard someone else's experience. So we think it's gonna be great. So then you might go in right to being a student athlete thinking that it's going to be a little bit easier than it actually is. So now there's a gap between what you feel like being a student athlete should be and what you're actually experiencing. And what that does is that gap creates anxiety, it creates overwhelm, and it creates stress. And all those things are gonna hinder your performance in sports, and they're gonna hinder your performance in the classroom. So the best thing you can do is accept that it's going to be chaotic. Because what that does is it shrinks the gap that you have of your expectations and what it actually is. And what that does is it gives you more peace amidst the juggling act, which you're about to start and you're about to commit.'cause you are a clown. I'm just kidding. So that's the first tip except the chaos. Tip number two is create a weekly game plan. When I was at TCU, there was a rule that every freshman coming in had to do 10 hours of study hall a week. we had a study hall that was dedicated to athletes. So we had a specific place that we can study When we went in there, we had to log in. So we had to literally type in a computer, our id, and it would basically log hours for us. And most schools have a dedicated space like that, so you may feel like that's a burden to get 10 hours of study hall a week or whatever it is for you. But it was the most useful and helpful thing for me when I was a student. And typically whenever you got better grades, you didn't have to go. But I would go every week anyway, And honestly, you should too. You gotta use the resources that university is giving you so every Sunday I would go into study hall and I would log up to six hours of my 10 for the week. So each Sunday I was in there. I'd look at my week like a coach looks at a playbook. So here is what you can do. when you're in study hall is organize your week. What I did was I got binders for every class or subject I was taking that semester, and that way everything was organized in one single place for every single class. So this is time where you can really get organized. tip two, I would look at the assignments that are due each week in every single class. So I go through every single class, I look at my syllabus, figure out what assignments are going to be due that week. Whether it was reading, whether it was a paper, whether it was a group project, whatever it was, I made sure I wrote that down. And then step three is you can decide which assignments will take the most time. And while you're in study hall, I would start on the hardest ones first. Start on the tasks that are gonna take the most time.'cause if you can knock those out earlier in the week then you're freed up during the week to focus your mind on training and less on homework. Just remember this, that time management isn't about being perfect. You're not gonna be perfect, immense, this chaos. It's about being intentional. That's tip number two. Use the resources, use study hall. Tip number three is lock in your top three priorities. Every week I'd ask myself, what are the three things that must get done? No matter what, like what do I have to get done this week? It could be passing a class. It could be hitting a certain training goal. It could be getting eight hours of sleep'cause you've got a big competition this week, What are your top three priorities? Everything else after your top three priorities is a bonus. Do three things with excellence. Don't try to do 10 things, okay? Tip number four, learn to say no without guilt. You can't be at every event. You can't be at every function. You won't always be the best friend, teammate, or student all at once. Saying No. Now is saying yes to what you actually want later Here is the most important question that I learned to ask myself. is this helping or hurting the version of me I'm trying to become? So whatever it is that you're about to decide on, is that hurting or helping? The version of me that I'm trying to become my coach in college, who's still my professional coach now, he always says this, and I'm pretty sure he still says this to his students now. He says, in college you have a triangle. And on each corner, there's one aspect of your life in college, right? You've got social life, you've got track life, and you've got academics. He said, you only get to choose two. And quite frankly, he's right. You only get to choose two. Every athlete I've seen is never good at doing all three of these. so let me fill you in on a secret. Academics has to be one of the ones that you choose because if you fail to do well in your academics, guess what? You're gonna be ineligible and then you won't be able to compete. So now you must decide, do I want to be really good at video games and play like a streamer and stay up all night and not get rest and not recover? or do I want to go to bed? At a decent time and practice. Well, Tomorrow it's your choice. So typically you really have two choices. Do you want to have a great social life or do you want to be a really good athlete? You gotta choose one. Okay? You gotta choose one. I. And everybody's capacity is different. Some people might be able to do more social things and still do well on the track, but everyone's capacity is different. You've gotta know what your capacity is. Capacity is everything. So choose which one you get. You got social life, you got academics, you got track. Choose two, and you have to choose academics first, so you only get one more. Be cognizant of that. You get to pick one. And tip number five is build a small circle you can trust. You don't need 20 friends, you need two or three solid ones, and they need to know your schedule. They need to respect your goals. So they need to know your goals, what it is that you're trying to accomplish here while you're at school. And they need to be able to keep you grounded when you wanna quit, because as a collegiate athlete, things do get hard, right? I would suggest making your roommates or your teammates, people that are in the fight with you that have some of the same goals, because that way you guys are always going to be on the same page. And lastly, tip number six is have fun. Sometimes what you need when you're stressed out is a little fun, Don't be so wound up. Don't be so overwhelmed because what it does is that bleeds into the classroom. It bleeds into your test taking, it bleeds into your practices, and then eventually it's gonna bleed into your games or your meets. So have fun, relax, do something different. Go get dinner with a friend. Attend a game on campus you normally don't go to, go to a social event on campus that they throw. Find ways to keep life fun because that is the key to staying loose and being yourself when it comes to competition. That's what I learned when I was in college. I found out when I was most overwhelmed. I didn't perform well when I just loosened up. I had some fun. I didn't care as much. Guess what? I performed better. I also found a lot of peace in prayer. When life got too chaotic for me to handle at times, this is the one place that I could always go to find peace is prayer, man, be still, be quiet. Pray, That's an extra bonus for tip number six. So here's the final takeaway is that balancing college and sports isn't about doing everything right, it's about doing the right things consistently. Okay? You gotta accept the chaos upfront. As a college athlete, you're gonna learn a lot of new skills, and managing stress is one of them, and you'll be better for it. Number two. Again, remember, plan your week. Use the resources the school gives you. Use your tutors. Use your study hall time. Get organized and front load your week to make everything less stressful and easier for you. If you front load your week, you can take your mind off of homework. You can focus more on your sport. And you can have more time to do a little bit of social stuff, okay? Prioritize the essentials. Remember, you're either gonna be the social king and the sports crash out, or vice versa, Say no with confidence. Keep people around you that will keep you accountable to your goals. And lastly, don't forget to enjoy the process. These years are going to go fast. Trust me. You're literally gonna blink and it'll be over. And I know you've heard that before, so take that time, enjoy it, and have fun. If this encourage you today, share it with another athlete who needs to hear this. And if you're still trying to figure out how to balance school and sports, I'm gonna let you know right now that you are not alone. Keep showing up. Keep trusting God. And remember, defeat is optional when your hope is in Christ. I'm Ronnie Baker and I'll see you in the next one.