The transition back to early school mornings, set daily schedules, and late-night homework cramming bring along another season—one in which you may be infinitely more excited about: the fall sports season. From tryouts to practices to games, it’s time to fully immerse yourself in the sport of your choosing.

Still, as excited as you maybe about starting up your sport again, it’s natural for  your body and mind to keep you from reaching your greatest potential. As you navigate the fall sports season, keep these tips in mind to make the season successful.

5 Tips for the Fall Sports Season

Starting before sports fully get into swing and extending through the entire season, student athletes can take important steps to ensure a smooth and successful season.

1. Prepare

The key to a successful season lies in starting it on the right foot. Consider undergoing a sports physical before starting your season in order to have your vitals, flexibility, strength, and overall health checked. Not only is this physical crucial for preventing injury and ensuring you remain healthy and safe but, in most cases, it is also required to participate.

For those with specific health concerns or previous injuries, it may be best to attain this physical through an orthopedic or sports medicine specialist. At Orthopedic Associates, Frank Wydra, M.D., has years of experience working closely with athletes at Denver Public Schools, so he understands the physical toll required by student athletes.

In conjunction with the physical, understand before the season where your strengths and weaknesses lie so that you know what needs work this season and where you should avoid overexerting yourself at the risk of injury. While growth is encouraged, pushing your body beyond its limits only increases the risk of injury, which can send your season crashing to a halt.

2. Support Your Body

All season long, your body needs the proper support in order to perform its best. You can satiate its needs by getting enough rest each night, getting the appropriate amount of nutrients, and staying hydrated, especially during the hot months.

In addition to getting enough sleep each night, having rest days is also important to prevent overtraining and the increased risk of injury.

3. Focus Your Mind

The competitiveness of sports can come at great detriment to your well-being, especially if you feel that you do not perform as well as you would like. In these moments, it’s important to set realistic goals for yourself—highlight areas that you want to improve and discuss strategies with a coach, trainer, or sports medicine specialist. Maintain a positive mindset as you progress through each step of your plan, and remember that success is not defined by one instance but by your continued improvement day after day.

4. Adapt

The fall season brings along its fair share of surprises. Everything from inclement weather to changing strategy or challenging school workloads can be thrown at you this season, throwing you off your game. You must learn to adapt to what is thrown at you—failing to do so, especially on the sports field, may result in injury.

Along these lines, learn from your mistakes and adapt based on where you can improve. This can help you grow stronger and end the season in a better place than you started.

5. Have a plan for injuries

While your goal is to prevent them, injuries can happen, and having a plan in place for how to treat them can go a long way in easing uncertainty regarding the rest of your season.

Make Orthopedic Associates your destination should injuries occur. Whether you need to see John A. Wallington, M.D., for your spine or Ryan J. Caufield, M.D., for your knee, Orthopedic Associates has a specialist ready to help you.