It’s no secret that being an athlete is difficult. It is certainly physically taxing, with players pushing their bodies to the limits to get to the top of the leaderboards. But what is often overlooked is the psychological component of sports: the mindset of an athlete, knowing how and what to think before and after wins and losses. Two Fieldston athletes from two very different sports had a few things to say about the sports mentality: Dylan Porges (IV) in swimming, and Emma Holub (IV) in lacrosse.
While Emma does do a bit of swimming herself, and is certainly dedicated to Fieldston’s swim team, she admits that her true passion is in lacrosse, having played it since 5th grade.
“One problem with swimming is that it’s individual,” Emma says, explaining why she prefers one sport over the other. “The pressure, it’s all on you, and you usually feel as though there’s no reward. Sometimes you drop a second from your old time, and sometimes you don’t, and you just feel sad,” she says with a laugh.
The tighter team spirit is a very attractive part of lacrosse, and Emma has definitely shown her stripes in the sport. Emma was one of the few freshmen to make the Varsity team last year, and she set the record for most goals scored by an underclassman in a single season (50!).
It was around this time in the interview that Dylan came into the conversation, wanting to expand on Emma’s “dropping seconds” comment.
“When you get to a certain ‘elite’ level in really any sport,” he states, “it becomes very hard to improve. All of a sudden, you’re focusing on minutiae.”
And Dylan is very qualified to talk out being at an elite level, as he is considered by many to be one of the best swimmers on Fieldston’s team. Having swum since he was 7 years old, Dylan has broken eight school records in all four strokes, and consistently reaches first to second place in meets. To Dylan, you’re either fully in a sport, or you’re not in it at all.
For example, when talking about the enormous effort required for swim meets, Emma admitted, “I could never get tired at school swim meets because of my mindset that school was a ‘relaxed’ space.”
“It’s difficult for me not to try,” responded Dylan. “I’m either 100% or 0%. There’s no in-between.”
“I also have real trouble with psyching myself out, especially in lacrosse,” added Emma. She realizes that worrying too much about what one does in the game has the same effect as not caring about it at all: drastically decreasing performance.
By the end of our discussion, both Dylan and Emma’s final words had the same general message:
“No matter what sport you’re playing, you have to balance not caring and not psyching yourself out,” Emma ends.
And once you’re caring the right amount, “you have to treat every game, every meet as a competition,” Dylan states. “That’s the only way to be the best.”
