D1 Athlete Bryanna Phelan Talks Collegiate Sports and More, Eat by Color!

D1 Athlete Bryanna Phelan Talks Collegiate Sports and More, Eat by Color! So I sat down with one of our FitWorkz staff Bryanna Phelan. Bry runs our Sports Performance program for our athletes. Bry talks about life as an athlete, training, and more. Watch the video. 🙂

After the video Bry sent the following thoughts. Athletes and parents will find the information below useful. Please read and share.

“This is my experience. Not that all athletes go through the same thing. However, those that are competitive and want to play collegiately, may experience the same things.

Competitive travel organizations, or at least the one I was in, push for the athletes to start thinking about college at a young age. By 14U it becomes a serious conversation.
For us it was, what division do you want to play in? how far from home? big or small school?
Then player profiles are created so that you can start promoting yourself as an athlete to the potential schools that you may want to play for.
That means that 13 year olds are now planning and thinking about their life after they are 18. Essentially you are telling an 8th grader to know what career path they want to take when they are 18 and older.
The focus is on the school you want to play for. What coaching staff you want to play for. You become the mascot, i.e a “huskie” an “eagle.” You represent that school, and stand by what it believes in.
Then the focus on scholarship becomes an issue. Can you go where you want to go with the coaching staff you want to play for AND get money for it? Everyone knows grades are important, and my grades were never an issue, but preparing for a future beyond playing softball at NIU was never really enforced.
Once you get your scholarship, or make the decision to play somewhere the talk about choosing a major becomes more important. Sure I went in as a Nursing major, but I changed my major twice after that because I realized I no longer want to be a “nurse”
Don’t forget that while it is okay to change your major, you are also a student athlete. That means that you have certain percentages of your degree complete each semester so that you are eligible to play. That means time is not quite on your side if you are undecided.
For me, I chose to try out business. After 3 semesters, and a quickly declining GPA, I had to make another major decision. At this point, I was going into my sophomore season and had minimal time to consider where I saw myself after college. I chose Kinesiology because I knew that it was a field that interested me and I also had to have enough of the academics completed so that I was eligible to play.
Life is always laid out for you when you’re an athlete, everything is scheduled. Practices, games, meetings, lifting, everything. It’s all you really know. When that schedule is gone, the ‘real world’ is all that’s left. Something we never really had time to experience.
Being a collegiate athlete is an excellent decision, but there should be more focus on life after, and career fields. Granted, no one really knows what they want to do for the rest of their life, but finding a general interest can help immensely.
High school is a great time to feel out jobs/careers and shadow/research/talk to people who may be in the field you like

These are just some of the things that mull around in my mind months after graduating. only my opinions and life experiences. not to be taken as the end all be all every athlete experiences this sort of thing. ”

@fitworkzdekalb @eatbycolor #eatbycolor #iifym #fitmom #fitdad #fitkid #SSMF #antidiet #flexibledieting #ExerciseGalore

Ray Binkowski is the owner of FitWorkz a hybrid training gym in DeKalb, IL, author, and trainer. He has lost over 60 pounds and kept it off for over 15 years. Ray’s books Eat by Color, Get Fit and Live Healthy, and Exercise Galore can all be found on Amazon! He has worked with thousands including professional athletes, police/fire/military, physique competitors, even corporations like 3M, and most often people looking to make a long term change in health, wellness, and weightloss. Plus the Get Fit and Live Healthy podcast.

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