Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve and I am sure many of you got the Happy New Year texts, the Happy New Year tweets, or even the Happy New Year phone calls. It got me to think about twitter and the way we share information socially. Sure we all have those moments where everything went the way we wanted it to. They are easy to share, but you rarely see those tweets about the bad races. The times you had to face reality and realize that things didn't go right.

We are coming off of the Holiday break and ready to get back into the thick of things. The season at this point will seem to go by way too quickly.

What do you need to do as an student athlete to be successful?

1. Be available - The next up mentality is one that has gotten the eagles to a super bowl championship and once again back into the playoffs. It is that being ready mentality that will allow you to step up to the plate when called upon.

2. Be proactive and not reactive - We as coaches see this too often. When injuries, nagging pain and just the normal aches of training come up, it is what you do ahead of time that will dictate the severity. Communicate with your coaches. Doing all the little things here will prevent being sidelined down the road. These can be as simple as sleep, diet, stretching and icing. Basically taking care of your body

3. Be willing to unplug - The last one was taking care of the more physical things associated with your body, but too often we neglect the mental side of our health. With the non stop 24/7 lifestyle that many of us live in needs to simply get unplugged. Take some time to put your phone away and just relax. Make it a habit that once you get home, the phone goes in the charger and out of sight. You can use this time to mentally recharge your brain.

4. Be a thermostat and not a thermometer. Simply saying. Be the one that is setting the temperature, not simply reading it. You have the ability to set the tone for how practice is going to run. You can be the one setting the tone for how practice is going to run.