Guest Post: Lamar Hull from Direct4TV

Writing tips for student athletes: Applying athletic principles to your writing

Being a college student athlete is tough. You've got to spend long hours practicing and, most importantly, you've got to learn to balance your time between school work and your sport. You may be set on continuing your sports career after college, but we all know sometimes things don't work out as planned, and that's why your college classwork is especially important. For a college athlete, building good writing skills can be nearly as vital as crafting your athletic ability.

Fortunately, learning writing skills isn't as hard as you may think – you can even apply some of the same principles from sports to your writing experience. Whether you're just trying to do well in school or you want to start writing your own novel, these tips can help make you a better writer.

Plan

Just like you'd plan goals for training, you can plan goals for schoolwork. Perhaps you could set a goal for a GPA you want to earn, a grade on a research paper or a word count for your personal writing. If you play on a team at school, you probably have set training and practice times. It's good to also plan out set times to do work and write every day. If you set time to devote to writing, you'll get in the groove of sitting down with your computer to write, and it will become a daily habit. And with more planning comes plenty of practice!

Practice daily

You've probably heard it a million times, but practicing is crucial for improvement. You wouldn't go a week without training, so don't go a week without writing. Try to write daily to better yourself and your skill. The more you write, the better you'll get – just like how running through more basketball or football drills can help you become a better player. Do you play a couple different sports? Try different types of writing, too. Become a well-rounded writer and athlete with plenty of practice!

Accept criticism and improve on it

No one is perfect, and you don't need to try to be. Improvement is a continual process, and you can't expect to magically become a better writer or athlete. You have to learn to take your criticism gracefully. Don't let things get you down – whether you don't play as well as you'd like in a big game or you don't get the high grade you wanted. It's important to keep trying and to work hard to keep getting better.

Even if you're not a student athlete, you can use these tips to improve your own writing skills. With some hard work, you can become a great writer, too!

Author: Lamar Hull is a former Davidson College student-athlete who loves to provide advice to college students and college graduates. Lamar currently writes for Direct4tv. You can follow Lamar @lamarhull20 and his youth basketball blog.