Day 3

During the last day at the prestigious IMG academy, our group went through a session of mental training and two sport practices, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. During the mental training session, the group was led by coach Clark Kent who discussed the what, how, and why of athletic motivation and taught us these definitions through a fun interactive activity. Basically, it involved each member of the group juggling a ping pong ball for a certain time. Each member's record would then be noted a few times in such a manner: first trial time, second time to beat our first record with a set goal, third time competing against each member of the group, and final time competing against others with a partner.

The engaging activity effectively demonstrated the different types of motivation and showed which ones prove to be most practical. By definition, intrinsic motivation comes from within us when we want to be better (to have better strokes, shots, kicks) than we were last time. External motivation comes from the outside when we desire to be better than someone else and want to beat them/beat their record. It turns out that both motivation sources are important, but it is key to rely on intrinsic motivation as external motivation tends to wane when the opponent is much better or way worse, causing your performance to alter.

  

Following the mental training session, the Huskies split up to their sports and followed pretty much a similar routine with some exceptions: soccer player, Garett B., played a full match with the IMG academy varsity team and performed very well while scoring a goal; Will R. had a chance to go through the IMG golf course; and tennis players, Hiro T. and Tim N. attended an instructional session with Nick Bollettieri, the renown tennis coach and founder of the original tennis academy (further acquired by IMG), and played each other for the rest of the practice.

Overall, all members of the group greatly enjoyed the short experience at one of the best sport academies in the world. The Huskies learned some important and applicable information about leadership, vision, and mental training, despite the fact that there is much more to learn! Everyone is sad to leave the warm coast of Florida, but at the same time excited for the well deserved spring break.
-Tim N.