The life of an athlete is often times an uphill battle.
There is no shortage of challenges and adversities in their every day life, as they deal with the physical strains of pushing their body to be the best versions of themselves as they strive for greatness in their respective sports.
But people have started to realize that it is not always just the physical aspect of sport that tests an athlete’s resolve and mindset.
Equally impactful, if not more, are the mental challenges that each and every athlete has to deal with — whether it be from the highs and lows of their career, devastating injuries, and even criticism from their coach or community about their performance.
The realization of this comes with the rise of the field of sports psychology.
In the Philippines, elite athletes like 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz and world-class pole vaulter EJ Obiena have been vocal about how good practices on their mental health have helped them achieve their current status in their respective sports.
Diaz had sports psychologist Dr. Karen Trinidad as part of her Team HD.
It is no surprise then, that UAAP teams have started to see the merit in following suit.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles — their volleyball teams in particular — are among the first to recognize the value of sports psychology, with their current team having a sports psychologist and mental coach in their coaching staff for UAAP Season 87.
Something that might not be known to everyone though, is that these coaching staff members are actually high-level athletes in and of themselves.
Former national team fencer Juju Joseph and Filipinas member Camille Rodriguez are currently Ateneo’s sports psychologist and mental coach, respectively. They have made it their mission to give Ateneo’s student-athletes the mental support that the duo also needed in the peak of their careers.
In an exclusive interview with One Sports for International Women’s Month, Joseph and Rodriguez spoke about their roles and how their own struggles helped them realize their ambition to provide the support that they most sorely needed to the next generation of athletes.
[RELATED: Lyann De Guzman underscores mental toughness as injury-hit Ateneo wades through UAAP Season 87]
Joseph first tackled the importance of looking at mental wellness as a priority when it comes to achieving success in sports, with mental skills having much to do with an athlete’s performance as those in the physical aspect.
“Come game day, it's 90% mental, and 10% physical… Every single day you train your body. Your body knows what to do. It can do what you want it to do. But if that connection [with your mental side] is cut, misaligned, not there, then what you know in the body will not translate in performance,” said Joseph.
“There's so many times that people disregard the mental side of it. Thinking you just have to tiis lang, you just have to push yourself up. But the problem is. Those things are skills. People think it should come naturally. But these are actually skills… They're skills that can be learned.”
As part of that learning process, both Joseph and Rodriguez continuously work with the teams in group sessions and individual sessions, where they help the athletes process games from the results, to their feelings, and to things even outside of the sport entirely.
Understanding that it is not just about them in the taraflex, Rodriguez underscored that people also realize that before they are elite-level athletes, they are also humans first, and should be regarded as such.
“It’s absolutely essential to have psychological and emotional support especially in an environment like this where volleyball has a lot of eyes, has a lot of support and following. So we place importance on the humans behind the athletes,” Rodriguez said.
“Of course, a lot of people see them as scoring machines, defenders, positions, liberos. Pero 'yung totoo, tao din sila. And even before that, estudyante din sila. They're still learning,” she added.
With the rest of the Ateneo coaching staff focused on high-level physical performance, Joseph and Rodriguez are tasked with a more holistic aspect of their athletes’ development.
“I think one of our guiding philosophies also is… athletes feel [good] when they perform good. So it's not just about performance. We always take a look at the people behind, the performance behind the sport,” said Joseph.
“We want to highlight a holistic development that if we can help them process outside experiences so that it puts less load on their mental psychological side to perform, then let's do that. Because then we can train skills for performance,” she added.
But more than opening the door for better athletic performance, Rodriguez believes that their biggest goal in their roles is to make their athletes have confidence in their own capacities.
That is, even after their journey in the UAAP and with Joseph and Rodriguez are over, they will be able to practice all the skills that they were able to learn from the sidelines.
“For me, [what I want to do is] to let my athletes know and feel that they're capable. I think if anything, it really is down to that,” said Rodriguez.
“Because a lot of the times, belief is what drives athletes to perform. Belief is what drives humans to keep trying. And when athletes know na kaya nila, especially at this point in their development, as people, as athletes. It sets a good foundation of how much more they can go pa. So it's so important to us. That we really make our athletes feel na kaya nila. We remind them that they're capable,” she added.