Fall. The season of many changes. That time of year where the leaves begin to change and the pace of life picks up with the start of a new school year. Fall means tailgating for football games and switching out those cute summer tank tops for some warm and fuzzy sweaters. But if you're a volleyball player like me, the fall means one thing; it's volleyball school season. Before you even have time to pack away your swim suits, you're back in the gym for two a days. And while everyone else is buying new school supplies, you're barely finding the strength to even drag yourself to the grocery store. And the only real reason you're even motivated to shop for food is because you literally only have cereal and maybe a few boxes of Ramen Noodles in your pantry.
I am going into my sophomore season of playing collegiate volleyball and I have experienced all of these, and many more. Although these times may seem completely and utterly miserable, and sometimes they are, one of the few reasons I manage to make it through is because of my teammates. Unless you play an individual sport, then just about all athletes know what it's like to both be a teammate and to have a teammate. But even though so many of us experience being a teammate ourselves, not everyone knows what makes someone a good teammate.
One of the greatest things a teammate can be is a both a motivator and a supporter. When you're practicing for three hours straight and your legs start to feel heavier than bricks, you need someone beside you that can remind you they're feeling the same way, but that you're both going to get through it together. Sometimes players just need someone to push them to the finish. When you're physically exhausted, it is so easy to break down mentally. Mental toughness is one of the hardest, but if attained, most beneficial skill an athlete can have. When your body says you can't, you're mind has to tell you that you not only can, but that you will. Even though I would consider myself a mentally tough person, there have been multiple times where I have been pushed to my limits and had doubts about my ability to finish whatever drill or test I was trying to beat. But that is exactly the time that a good teammate steps in. A good teammate sees that doubt that you have in yourself and completely erases it by reminding you of the confidence that they have in you. I know that when I'm having a hard practice or a bad game that I can count on my teammates to lift me back up and help me push through. A good teammate believes in you even when you may not believe in yourself.
Another huge part of being a good teammate is being a good communicator. Like I said previously, emotions can run high once you get into the start of season. You're in the gym with the same people more then half the day everyday of the week and believe it or not, you are not going to agree on everything. There will be attitudes, sass, and depending on how far into two a days you are, maybe even some confrontation. But that is just a part of being on a team just as much as it is a part of life. A good teammate can take that time to count to ten, take a deep breath, and communicate clearly whatever is going on. That doesn't mean they don't mess up sometimes. There has been more than one occasion where I might have gotten a little too fired up in a drill and came down on someone harder than I meant to. But part of being a good teammate is owning up to those times and admitting that you may have lost it a bit more than you intended to. And you can be an even better teammate if you were that person they might have lost it on by accepting their apology and understanding that when it comes to sports, we all go a little crazy at some point. Being a good teammate means you can not only talk to your teammates freely, but you know that they trust and respect you enough to talk to you freely as well.
Finally, the most simple and basic way to be a good teammate is to just be a good friend. The people on your team are the people you spend a majority of your life with. By the end of the season, you will probably have spent more time with them then you will your family. But that's okay because the truth is that your teammates are your family. They will be at events like your graduation, your wedding, when you have kids, or whenever you get that job you've always been dreaming of. And when you decide to move away, they will probably be the ones helping you pack your stuff up. The point is, your teammates will be there for you even when they don't have to be. So being a good teammate is essentially the same thing as being a good friend. If being a good friend means treating someone the way you would want to be treated, then that same rule applies to being a good teammate. You may have millions of friends out there, but your teammates are the only ones who can truly understand exactly what you're going through. They understand that even though you go through all those injuries, sore muscles, long days, and sleepless nights, you decide to keep playing because your love for the game is stronger than all those things put together. They understand because they feel the same way. And a bond like that is something stronger than any other friendship you could ever find.
