Calvin’s Story

Hey everyone,

@calvin.does.pl here, just sharing my experience over the last 2 years in regards to mental and physical relating to the sport we all love to hate… (or hate to love?) rugby.

I came into uni all about rugby, watching, playing, training and opening every conversation with the classic "I play rugby". It had been an integral part of my life for nearly 6 years, a sport that I quite literally built my body around. Unfortunately some of that leaked into my attitude as well. Don't get me wrong I loved rugby and I loved the guys and girls that I played with/against. There is something about putting your body on the line for your team mates, and having them do the same for you, that I feel builds a stronger bond than any other sport.

As some of you may know, I no longer have that love for the game and I've never been able to properly answer anyone's question as to why I stopped playing. Coming to uni I was very much out of my depth in terms of the social side, nights out became less about one or two pints with good friends and more about drinking until you chundered. In hindsight I shouldn't have caved to the peer pressure in the way I did, but I spent a couple of months drinking stupid amounts and struggling socially before it finally clicked that this wasn't for me. And yet that still wasn't enough to make me leave purely because I was afraid of being ridiculed for being too "wet" or a "pussy". It took until the start of second term before I'd finally had enough, my work at uni was suffering as was my relationship with my friends and girlfriend. I felt exhausted all the time from lack of sleep, my progress in building the body I wanted was suffering not to mention how drained and… depressed my mental state was.

And so I quit, it's an ugly word that many people mistakenly associate with giving up, I know I did. I thought that I'd pretty much thrown away years of work and training. But quitting isn't such a negative thing if you've decided to change, if you take what you've learnt and apply it to something new, take your skills in a different direction and build upon what you already have.

And so that's what I did. I found powerlifting, I took my "athletic" ability and a desire to learn more about the human body and applied it to picking things up and putting them down again. It's simple on the surface but truly a complex and immensely satisfying sport. This wasn't very elegantly put together, but the over arching story is don't be afraid to change what you're doing, quitting IS NOT a negative thing, TAKE CARE of yourself, especially mentally it is the ultimate tool to success in whatever you choose to pursue. ❤️❤️