What Should I do If I’m New At Sports?

Written By Aruzhan Shabaeva

      It’s always hard to start doing something - especially sport. You might have been delaying it all those days (yeah, so did all of us), but now you’re reading this blog to get answers to the where, what, and how’s to start doing sports in the right way. These are maybe the most essential rules from champions all around the world. “These are rules learned from champions all over the world which you can apply to yourself!” 

     Here you can find tips that almost everyone wishes to know before making the first step into sports and champions golden rules that you are less likely to figure out at the beginning of playing sports.  

Championship or Self-Taught

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    At first, take a seat and ask yourself do you truly want to become a champion or do you just want to enjoy it? 

   Imagine you are playing tennis, but the only reason is that you just love it. And here is another situation, imagine you have a vitally important tennis Olympiad in one week. In both cases, you will train differently, eat differently, do things differently, see things differently, and feel differently. 

    However, you don’t have to recognize your purpose right now, not even after a month - one day you just realize it. Usually, we don’t know why we do some particular things, it requires some time to determine them.

Goals are essential

What purpose are you challenging yourself by playing sports? What do you expect from it? What is your goal? Find the answers in your heart, not from parents’ or friends’ suggestions. It is your life and your choice. Once you find the goal you will feel the fire as if something is burning inward, it is your dream impatiently yearning to become true.

All successful champions followed their goals, some of them had dreams, while some needed money. Only one thing connects them all. Because of a goal, they never gave up, they always reminded themselves about their goals because it kept them focused and disciplined on tough days. Having a goal is the beginning of every great achievement. 

     Personally, my everyday workouts for nearly two years weren’t for gold medals. Every time when I tried to find my goal I’ve never felt emptiness but rather, I knew that I was embracing the grind. Enjoyment was the main goal because the great feeling after an intense workout or long game brings happiness and satisfaction. Enjoyment might not be your goal, but people play sports for many different reasons. You can and will definitely find it if you haven’t already! 

Face the difficulties 

    Before doing sports, you must be aware of “those days,” which will hit you so hard that you may want to give up. Every time you face difficulties just take a few deep breaths and accept those rough goings as an important part of your journey. If you take a look at Champions' lives before they succeed you will see how many tough days they had, how hard they trained, and what they got through to become who they are right now. You will face difficulties, and on that day, I want you to remember this: Difficulties are given to us to solve them, to deal with them, to accept them, and to become stronger

    If you throw in the towel today, you will regret later for not trying and for not keeping it - not only regrets but also guilt will attack you as you see how others reached your goals. Don’t let anyone steal your dream from you. 

    In the photo, Serena Williams won the 22nd Grand Slam title at Wimbledon 2016. Serena used to face body shaming and even nowadays people still abuse her for her “male body.” From her sister’s death, health issues, racism, and long setbacks now she ranks second in the history of women’s tennis. Serena Williams is one of the best examples of champions who face difficulties. She didn’t give up, so why should you?

                 “You gotta go through a lot of nightmares before you finally accomplish your dreams.”

                                - Lebron James (an NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers)

No more diets

    You are what you eat every day. Many athletes make the mistake of following a strict diet, hoping that will help them lose weight in one day. Food is important for our body and mind because different meals give us completely different energy, moods, emotions. 

    Yes, you should eat vegetables, fruits, proteins and so on. However, you don’t need to perfectly consume 1500 calories every day. Instead, look after your body and watch over what it wants, what it likes to consume, which food makes your body feel good and healthy. The strict diets are not for everyone and obviously not for beginners as they will break you and after one strict diet, you want to get a burger. Why does that happen?  Because of many factors such as daily exercises, genetics, body type, weight, etc. But the main reason is that your body differs from someone’s, which makes it unique and not measurable for standard diets. 

        The best thing you can do before doing sports is to reveal your own diet plan, try new meals, search about metabolism, practice new breakfast routines. That way, you will be able to choose which meals to put into your life.

Sustainability

    Which one is better: Working out twice per day or seven days per week? Well, the answer is neither. Research shows that people who trained almost every day lowered early death by 35%. However, those who trained only 1-2 times per week lowered by 30-34%. This makes sense, doesn’t it? 

     In fact, you shouldn’t do highly intensive workouts every day because it’s likely that you will give up on the third day and your mental discipline will go down as well as your desire to consistently train. You can think of it as an energy bar that fluctuates.  

                                                                      “Sustainability is the key to reach any goals”

                                                                       - Emi Wong (one of the fitness gurus)

CHAMPIONS GOLDEN RULES

Use what you have

    There are many people who have never been to the gym and have never had any equipment, but instead of complaining, they turned on their creativity which you can do as well. Dumbbells can be replaced by bags with bottles of water, for example.  

Mental support

    Ask people for support from the people close to you and who are also going through the same hurdles, because they will understand your feelings and help in a great way. Mental support is significant because our mind is inclined to suffer from mental issues that were caused by our mood or an unlucky day. This makes us really vulnerable and dependent.

    Every champion faces many of the same difficulties and struggles with the same problems, which means that you are not alone in this boat. 

Professionals are your friends

     Do you know those bold people who once ask professionals to help them? Those people seek knowledge from real professionals and don’t shy away, because they are fully aware that by doing, they will gain something positively. Imagine if you could ask your idol to teach you sports. It would be an incredibly awesome chance for you.  People who are avid about sports love helping others with it like John Cena, Serena Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo, James Lebron, Eli Manning, and hundreds of athletes. 

   “Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have  the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new”

  • Barack Obama (Punahou’s basketball player and 44th President of United States)

   ENJOY IT

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In the end, I just want to remind you that sports are all about enjoying it and having fun. Don’t shame yourself for not succeeding every time you step on the field. As stated earlier, it's always hard to start doing something, but it doesn’t prove the impossibility of your success. Enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy!

Aruzhan Shabaeva
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