A few years ago I was in the Hale 24-hour study room using one of the computers when I came across this little fella. It was a document saved to the desktop as "DerekMarso.doc." I very obviously giggled, read it, and promptly forwarded it to my friends. Overall this might be a little boring to you, but it's worth wading through at least once to catch a few real gems. I especially love the affirmations part, particularly the last line. By the way, all spelling, grammatical, and stylistic errors have remained intact. It was originally double-spaced -- can't believe a football player got this right! -- but each section WAS all one paragraph. Enjoy.
Derek Marso
Imagery Script
EDCEP
After I wake up I wipe the sleep from my eyes and start to stretch out. My body feels refreshed because we haven’t hit in more than two days. I take a shower that is cold to wake me up and let me know that it is game time. The smell of the complex when I get there reminds me that it is not practice anymore because everything looks and smells clean. My suit fits tight and I get into my game day clothes. My mind is imagining what they are going to try and do to me; I know I am a better player. It is time to go up to meetings and my coach makes sure that I am ready to play. I get chills and my stomach starts to hurt. Not a bad hurt but a good hurt. I remind myself that I have prepared harder than they have and that my studies would not let me down. We walk back down stairs and now I know its time to get ready. I realize that it’s not time to mess around. I sit in my locker and listen to Jimmy Buffet and Jack Johnson. My mind is at ease. I go through different situations and make sure that I remember what I am supposed to do. I get all taped up and I am ready to go run on the field with my teammate Q. We understand how to get each other ready. The warm air with a slight breeze makes me feel good. I know this is going to be a good game. We go through situations one on one and test each other. We go back into the locker room and now it is time for us to go out with the whole team. My pads are extra tight and I am wide-eyed and ready to play. We walk down the ramp and the crowd gives me chills. We take our lap and I size up my competition. I know I am better. I know I am better. I keep telling myself that. Three minutes until kickoff. I have the anger in my body now as if I want to kill someone, the feeling over takes me and I cant stay still. Two minutes till kick off and I can’t sit down, I am ready. Now its time to take the field and my mind is on nothing but beating the person in front of me.
Derek Marso
EDCEP
Goal Setting
In this article that talked about how difficult goals being better than easy ones. For some reason while reading this article I focused my attention to the one. The reason I think that I did this is because I think I have always gave myself goals that are very hard. I have always told others to do the same because you never know how much you have inside your self until push yourself to the limit. Anyone can take the easy road, it’s easy, not to hard. But once you push yourself you start to understand more about yourself and you will feel way better. Another thing that I liked about this article was how it brought up how you can’t have a goal that isn’t specific. A general goal doesn’t work out as good as if you were to say something specific. An example, “I want to be a better football player”. That sucks, tell how you can do that like you want to work on staying lower when fighting blocks or you want to take a quicker first step. Also try to stay away from outcome orientated goals, it tends to bring you down if you don’t achieve them so try to make a goal that is directed towards your performance. Last but not least on this topic, is by reading this article I found out that goal setting is very useful and will be able to help you out in your performance if you give the effort .
Derek Marso
EDCEP
Communication
A very good article that tries to show you that communication is everything. It talks about how there are so many different ways to communicate. It doesn’t always have to be verbal. You can communicate by body language as well as many others. It tells us how there are principle of good communication. Reading through these I stopped at one that I felt was very fitting to me. The honesty one was the one that I felt best described me because I am always honest and I am not one to tell you something that I don’t belive is true. If it hurts your feelings or not, sorry don’t ask unless you want my true opinion. When reading about the part with the communication and the coach I look back to a lot of teams that I have been on and see how this is a problem. Sometimes as a player you feel that your coach doesn’t understand how it feels to be a play because he or she has been out of the game for so long. Feeling this way sucks but it is hard to communicate to your coach how you feel because you might think that he will punish you or just look down on you. So then you shut down and your performance goes down. This can all be fixed if you just communicate with your coach. He’s not going to punish you for saying how you are feeling. To sum it all up both coaches and players need to get educated of the field of communication to have a successful team and one that gets along on and off of the playing field.
Derek Marso
EDCEP
Affirmations
I’m stronger than the guys across from me.
I’ll work harder than the guy across from me.
I am willing to pay the price.
I am willing to work harder than I have ever before
My effort will be great.
I will become one of the elite at my position.
I am tougher than the guys across from me.
I am as ready as I will ever be.
I am willing to do whatever it takes to correct my mistakes
I am the best
