As senior track athlete Alli Katila-Miikkulainen leaves a long day of practice, she heads straight to band and robotics. For Katila-Miikkulainen, juggling multiple interests allows her to create balance — and ultimately helps her perform better in everything she does, in and outside of her sport.

“Running is a way to take a break from everything else,” Katila-Miikkulainen said. “During the school day, I can look forward to running and taking a break, I’ll talk to my friends, especially on long runs, and once I’m done with that, I can go focus on whatever other extracurricular or school stuff I have.” 

Although a combination of sports and other commitments can be relaxing for people like  Katila-Miikkulainen, junior and former badminton and tennis player Tessa Berney said playing a sport adds to her daily stress.

“Even though I love both sports, what I didn’t like was having to compromise a test for a tennis game or go to two-hour practices knowing I still had a Physics problem set due,” Berney said. “I wasn’t enjoying my sport as much when I had all these extra stressors on top of me.”

Both these opinions are common, as AP Psychology teacher Christopher Farina said having many interests outside of a sport can either help or harm an athlete, depending on the situation.

“My hunch would be that doing other things could, in a positive way, give them some degree of resetting their brain, and a little time away from the sport could be helpful,” Farina said. “But I could also see it the other way, where if you spend a lot of time in your sport, especially in a competitive format, then you get more used to those high-pressure situations, and they become more normalized and less scary to you.”

For senior cross country athlete William Xue, having other hobbies outside of his sport improves his overall well-being.

“Being able to choose what I do with my time, instead of having my life dictated by practice schedules, has really helped my mental health,” Xue said. “… I don’t have to wake up for Saturday morning practice, and sometimes all you need to reset your week is a long sleep.”

Xue said athletes who participate in sports less competitively may benefit from saving some of their energy for other interests.

“I understand that some athletes want to continue their sport in college, and for them, being at practice every day is part of their identity,” Xue said. “But for people like me, who play a sport in their free time, I don’t think you need to give 100% at every single practice.”

On the contrary, Berney said she doesn’t want to play a sport if she can’t give it all of her energy. 

“I didn’t want to do the sport part-time; if I’m going to do it, I want to give it my all,” Berney said. “I know that going to half practices isn’t enough if I want to keep up with the rigor and strength of the team, and I didn’t want to be the weak link.”

However, Farina said consistently giving maximum effort without balance can have long-term consequences.

“If an athlete is really, really focused on their sport, that can be really demanding and there’s a risk for individuals to burn out if they’re always trying to compete and feel like there are always high stakes,” Farina said.

Farina also said the number of athletes playing sports professionally is extremely small, meaning most should not center everything around a single sport.

“Your sport should be something fun because the number of people who are doing it for long-term financial income is incredibly minuscule,” Farina said.

Similarly, Xue said his mindset about his sport shifted over the course of high school. 

“As a freshman and sophomore, I felt guilty missing practice because my coach emphasized the idea that if you miss one day, you’re one day behind your teammates, and you’re setting the team back,” Xue said.

By junior and senior year, however, Xue said he began prioritizing other commitments, since he was not a scoring member of the cross country team.

“I had so many other responsibilities that I felt I should be spending my time elsewhere, especially since I wasn’t going to continue the sport after high school,” Xue said. “I started feeling less bad about missing practice because I had other commitments (such as) working and became an EIC for (my) publication.”

Farina said even athletes without strong hobbies should intentionally build in time to relax after practice. 

“Being able to have some activities that provide a sense of relative ease can be really helpful,” Farina says. “It gives them a sense of balance and a chance to unwind and decompress a little bit.”

Due to the busy schedules of Paly students, Berney said there needs to be a change in the way teammates and coaches alike react to decisions made by athletes. 

“I think there could be a mentality shift where we acknowledge that students here are high-achieving and want to do many different things,” Berney said. “Sometimes that means compromise, but we shouldn’t guilt people for trying to pursue multiple passions.”

Ultimately, Katila-Miikkulainen said she encourages younger athletes not to succumb to the pressure of focusing only on a  sport.

“It’s good to have balance because if you only focus on one thing and something happens, you don’t have anything else,” Katila-Miikkulainen said. “But if you have other interests, you can always shift your focus.”