Discipline and “sending it” can Lead to the Olympics
Micky Strauss a 23-year-old BYU Dive athlete has dreams of becoming an Olympic diver in the 2024 Olympic games.
In June of the upcoming year Micky Strauss will enter the dive trails. During which time he will encounter all sorts of emotions with nervousness being the leader.
How does he overcome the nerves?
He recalls a time where he was at training camp in Florida his freshman year and was practicing a trick, he has done for years. However, this time he stated, “I came out a little too late and knocked myself out.”
Following that attempt he explained “that fear was just stuck there, and I was super nervous to get back up.”
Later that year the Cougar Dive team traveled to Mission Viejo for the conference championship and Strauss had to perform this dive. In warm up before his event Micky explained that he wasn’t landing the dive and stated, “this is not going to go well”.
When practice ended, he thought to himself “I’m just going to have to go for it in the meet”?
The time came and Strauss decided to do exactly what he said he would “just go for it”
Micky went for it and landed it, claiming “it ended up being the best one he had ever done.”
After that meet Micky went on to win four other MPSF championship for 1 meter, 3 meter and platform. The cougar athlete said that the key to his success is to“maintain a sense of discipline.”
Mickys’ days are filled to the brim with task. He said I got “practice, school, and all these other things I got to do” and unless you want to fail you have to “just get up and go do it.”
Having that discipline not only in dive but in his everyday life is what helped him to overcome challenges in the normal world. Micky suffered a ligament tear which cause him to get surgery in his wrist.
During this period, he couldn’t dive and train as had been, however Mickys’ father and him found ways to train that didn’t further injure him by doing “plyometric training”.
During the recovery training they picked each other’s brain but the one comment from his father that stuck out the most was “as of right now you don’t what’s up there so just trust the process, just send it, be relentless and just go for it.”
Micky knew that what his father told him was not only about diving but also life.
His success as a college diver and in life comes down to trusting himself, overcoming nervousness, and having discipline. With these tools he hopes to achieve his dream and dive for team USA at the Olympics.
