Pros and cons of being a multi-sport athlete

Oliver Lockwood-Powell, Sports Editor

An athlete’s life consists of school, practice, lifting, a job, homework, maintaining a social life and trying to keep up with your family. Many busy days linger and the workload just does not seem to get away. If you throw a second sport on that stack, you have yourself a rough ride ahead.

Many athletes have it implanted in their brains that they must stay busy. It has, in a way, been their genetic code; wake up and get busy. From breakfast all the way to bed, it seems as if they always need something to do even when it is down time. For multi-sport athletes, it does not get any better. You have to have a certain drive inside of you to invest that much time of your life towards something that devours your free time.

From baseball to dance, football to color-guard, many athletes grow up on these sports, or end up getting involved later on in their lives. Nowadays, it is hard to find someone who is not busy in their lives and have the ability to just chill.

The pros of this would be that it is, assuming, something you love, and you are very invested in it. Another thing would be that it does keep you busy, away from other distractions in this world that could take you down the wrong path. On the other hand, many people do not realize that it can be very stressful to be a multi-sport athlete. The cons of it all are the fact that the down time for yourself and others that you love can be very minimal.

Overall, anything you do in life can have both ups and downs. Many things can lead you one way or another, and yes being a multi-sport athlete can be a heavy workload, but if it is something that you love and enjoy doing, the minimal free time can be well worth it.