In The Huddle

EP#67: You can love the US college experience and still struggle within it - Victoria Datta from The Hidden Opponent on resources available as an international student athlete

• Study & Play USA

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We are thrilled to introduce a new partnership for our Study & Play USA families: The Hidden Opponent! Listen as we sit down with NCAA Division I runner Vicky Datta from The Hidden Opponent to unpack the hidden realities of college sport as an international and the power of a community that says 'it’s okay not to be okay'.

German athlete Vicky explains how The Hidden Opponent is breaking stigma with practical action: campus captains, mental health game days, and resources that make support easy to find. 

She shares candid stories about moving from Germany to the United States, adjusting to new training loads and gym work, and navigating the business side of American college athletics where results can impact coaching jobs. Her playbook is clear and compassionate: communicate early, ask for help, and keep your identity bigger than your performance.

Claire and Vicky cover:

  • American athletes generally come into college knowing what to expect vs internationals not always knowing
  • A lot of your American teammates may not know what you don't know 
  • Victoria's experience with being injured for 6 months and how she dealt with that mentally and physically
  • College can be an amazing experience but also hard at the same time - both things can coexist
  • Speaking up can be hard, but it is so important to speak up if you need help
  • The importance of familiarising yourself with the gym before heading over to college for the first time

Vicky's biggest takeaway lands with heart: sport is a business, but your self-worth is not. When injuries occur or homesickness hits, stay connected to your team, lean on counselling, and let team community carry you through the hard bits. The Hidden Opponent’s expanding international chapter proves that vulnerability travels; when others share openly, you don’t have to. If this conversation helps you or someone you love, subscribe, share it with a teammate or parent, and leave a review so more athletes can find the support they deserve.

Vicky Datta Instagram: @victoriadatta_

 The Hidden Opponent - The Founder's Ted Talk: 
youtube.com/watch/?vSdk7pLpblls

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of In the Huddle. I'm your host, Claire, and today we're very excited to welcome Vicki Data from The Hidden Opponent. She's an NCAA Division I track athlete who's currently enrolled in her master's degree at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Originally from Germany, Vicki moved to the U.S. in fall 2021 for her bachelor's degree of psychology at Louisiana Tech. Welcome to the show, Vicki. Hi, I'm so excited to be here. Thanks so much for joining us. We're very excited to chat with you today about all things hidden opponent, psychology, sports psychology, exercise science. We're very, very excited. So we're really excited to get you on the podcast because we have a very exciting announcement, which is we are partnering with the hidden opponent. I would love for you, Vicki, to talk about what the hidden opponent is, how you're involved with the hidden opponent, and how you felt the hidden opponent helped you in your journey so far.

SPEAKER_01:

So the hidden opponent is a nonprofit organization that um raises awareness for student athlete mental health and just like works on breaking the stigma around mental health and athletes in general. And um I got involved with the Hidden Opponent three years ago. So after my freshman year in college, um I applied to be a campus captain. I first heard of it um on Victoria Garrett Brown's podcast. She talked about it a lot. She's the founder of The Hidden Opponent, and um that's where I heard about it, and then I applied and I became a campus captain. And what campus captains do is they basically try to promote the same thing but on their campus. So you can host like mental health awareness events on campus, have like little meetings, you can create your own chapter, um, just little things like that. And then um when I transferred to do my master's, I actually became a head campus captain. So now I have my own group of campus captains that I mentor, and um, it's the international group, which I'm really excited about because I am international, and so it's really nice to have people that are not from the US um work on like mental health awareness.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. And for those people who are listening who have never heard of the hidden opponent, why was it started? Can you talk a little bit about the founder and why the hidden opponent was started?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So um Victoria started it because she was uh she was a volleyball player in college at USC and she was struggling with her mental health in college. And so she founded it basically to help other people who go through the same thing because it's a very common thing, um, especially around athletes. Like we face so much pressure in college, there's so many different things that go into it. Um, but somehow there's this like big stigma around it, and people don't really like to talk about it. So she founded the organization to help break that stigma and help people talk about it and create this community that is a safe space and support each other. Um, and like within the Hydnoponin, we get different workouts and resources so that we can be better peers to our teammates too, and be um better in helping them with their own mental health. Um so yeah, I think that's kind of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I watched her TED talk and I saw a lot about what she was talking about that you've just talked about now, about how there is a kind of a consensus that athletes should be able to perform and they should be able to manage everything. And especially college athletes, the stigma of like, oh, it's such an honor to be there playing for your university, that everything should be fine because you should just be very appreciative that you're there and you're able to have the opportunity to represent your college. And in her TED talk, she would I really liked the fact that she was saying, you know, it's okay not to be okay, it's okay to have bad days, and it's okay to not know where to go for help. But that's why she started The Hidden Opponent. I think that's really, really great that you're able to be uh campus captain and help lots of people on your team and other teams with their mental health awareness. So that's great. And one of the reasons that we wanted to partner with the hidden opponent is because we have a lot of international athletes who go over to the US college system and they might be the only person out of their friends, out of their family, out of their extended larger circle of athlete friends that have ever gone to the US before for college. So can you talk a little bit about how you felt when you moved over to America? And can you talk a bit about how you've experienced dealing with different people on your team and also not on your team who are international, who didn't maybe know anyone that had ever gone to college and what support was available for you and your teammates and other people and other teams when you arrived on campus?

SPEAKER_01:

So I didn't really know anyone other than me that went to America before. I had one teammate actually on my German track team who had also gone to the US, but she went during COVID, so it was like a little bit different. So I didn't really know what to expect when I went over there, but I was super excited because I've always wanted to study abroad and I always wanted to like do track and all of that. So I was I felt like I was really open-minded and I honestly wasn't really scared at all when I went, um, which is why I was surprised of how hard my freshman year actually ended up being. Um, because it's just very, very different from home. Like you get there and you're kind of on your own for the first time, and you have to figure out so many different things. Um and everything is different from like the culture around you to the food to how people talk and training styles and just all of these expectations around you. But um at my school at Louisiana Tech, we actually had a lot of international students on the team. So that was really nice because it kind of created a community where you could always, you know, you could talk to all of your teammates, but you would know that the other internationals definitely kind of feel like you and they go through similar things, and you probably need help in the same um areas. So that was always good. Um, and then my school actually had something called a friendship family program. So um they were able to connect you with kind of like a host family, just that you don't live with them. And it was um to give you like the feeling that you had someone there because obviously you can always call your family, like they're probably just a phone call away. But if you need an adult right there and you're so far away from home, um, that was nice for us to have these people to talk to that could help us out. Um yeah, I don't know what else I wanted to say.

SPEAKER_00:

That's great. That's great that you guys were uh paired with uh family. Like that's amazing that you're able to do that. I didn't know that. That's really cool. I like that a lot. Yeah, and when you were on the track team with a lot of the other internationals, were there similar things that you guys were all going through that you could bond over about being in a different country for the first time?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, definitely. I think there's just certain things. Um, I mean, starting really small at things like we all don't have a car when we get there. And so it's always easier to ask others for help if you're together in a group, like, hey, can you give me and so and so a ride somewhere? Or um, I mean, we got there and none of us had any furniture or bed sheets or stuff like that, whereas everyone else from within America they come and they have like move-in day and they bring everything from home and they have their parents help them move in. And we didn't have that, but it was nice to have like our own group of internationals where we were like, okay, let's go shopping and let's go buy some decoration so we feel a little bit more at home.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's awesome. We actually have partnered with a company called Storage Scholars who help kids with move-in day and storage. And the founder said that they started because they witnessed a lot of the international students having nowhere to store their stuff over the breaks, and then also freshmen arriving on campus, just having no idea what to do. And yeah, so we're really excited to partner with them as well. We're just trying to make every element of being an international student easier on a college campus, and that's what we're really excited about. Um, just in general, to be partnering with all these different organizations, including the head and opponent. So very, very cool. I also wanted to talk to you about your experience with coming over from like a cultural standpoint. We have athletes that will say to us that in general, um, a lot of our athletes come from Australia. So a lot of our Australian athletes will say stuff like, Oh, a lot of people want to help us because they hear our accent and Australians are well received in America normally. So people want to talk to them, they want to help. And then there's also people that we work with who say, I'm the only international on my team. So people actually don't always want to chat with me because I'm literally the only one. So if someone is listening to this podcast and they're an international who's just arrived on campus, maybe they're the only international on their team, what advice would you have for them to have the best possible uh move in or the best possible like experience in that first year?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I think in general, you just have to be very, very open-minded and very extroverted, um, which can be hard at first. Like I'm usually more of a shy person at first, but you have to force yourself to be more extroverted because um I would say most of my experience has been really good with other people wanting to help me. But sometimes you still have to make the first step because especially if you're the only international person on the team, um, they don't know exactly what you need, what you might need help with or what's new for you. But I've learned that it's most Americans really think it's so interesting to get to know you and get to know everything about your culture and where you're from and what's different for you here. But sometimes you have to be the first person starting the conversation about that. Um, but usually everyone is really willing to help. And um, especially if you're on a team, like it always creates this team environment. You always have people around you. So you just have to be a bit more extroverted at first, maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

We've definitely seen athletes come back from even their first semester at college who are a bit more shy and then come back to visit and we see them. And I'm like, oh yep, you've definitely gotten more extroverted.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's exactly what happened to me.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like we as Americans can be quite loud, but um, yeah, sometimes that rubs people the wrong way. But so I wanted to actually talk about what you mentioned about people on the teams that are American don't always know what internationals need. I think that that's a really important sentence to dissect a bit. So when Americans are growing up in high school, for those people listening, a lot of a lot of Americans that are athletes know generally like this is generally how college works. This is generally how the recruiting process works, this is generally where my friends have been going. This is generally where the advice to from my like my club coaches and high school coaches and like high school captains and stuff, generally you have like a general idea about what college life is like. Um, you might have gone to camps growing up at the colleges nearby for summer camps. You might go to recruitment camps. So, did you notice a difference between like just general adjustment between American kids and non-American kids, like starting their college athletic careers?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I do think there's a huge difference. Um, because like you just mentioned, Americans usually kind of know what they're getting themselves into. Like they already know people in college that are maybe student athletes too, and they just grew up with that. So it's normal for them. But um, at least for me coming there, I really didn't know much at all other than what I had seen on social media. So there's just so many things you don't know about. Um you don't know how certain things work, and um, it really starts small. It like I didn't know how to schedule classes, or um what to look at when buying certain things for the apartment, or I didn't know you could choose which professor you wanted to have for your class and look up the ratings of the professor usually online to see what it is, or um I had never been to like a training room facility before where you get all the treatment. So I was really scared of going in there and they would ask me, okay, what treatment do you want? And I'd be like, I I don't know, what what do I need? So it's really just like usually you can see a difference where they already know what they need or what is happening, and internationals don't. Um, but then that just really comes back to the point again of like you have to be open, you have to be like, hey, so actually I don't really know how to schedule my classes. Can you help me with that? I mean, there are academic advisors for athletes, anyways, but like sometimes they might think you know more than you do, um, which is not something to be ashamed of. You just have to tell them, I don't know anything about this, or can you help me with this? Um, but there's just like this big difference where Americans sometimes don't know that you don't know the same things, basically.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for sure, for sure. We even noticed that with the internationals that we help for our company versus American families that we help with our company, that just the difference and and what they come into the experience knowing. Yeah, your your description just there was really great of the all the differences. And even for the like timings of when seasons are is something that not all internationals come in knowing. Like if your sport is a fall sport, a winter sport, a spring sport, what you do in off-season, preseason, all that kind of stuff. Some Americans come into college knowing that as well as athletes. Did you know that you would get as much support as you did being an international, or did you think that maybe people would wouldn't help you as much as they did?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I think I didn't really think about that aspect as much as I maybe should have. Like I was just so excited to go and I was like, okay, everything is gonna work out. Like it just, it's just gonna work out. Um, and so I guess it was a positive surprise to see that I was getting so much support um for being international. Um, it just took a while to figure things out. I mean, like, there's so many different spots where you can get help. Like, I think every campus has an international student office. They can help you with certain things. Um, usually your coaches are very open and willing to help because they've probably recruited other international athletes before. Um academic advisors, trainers, athletic trainers know a lot. I mean, in my experience, they've been the most help out of all the people and staff. So um it it was it was a very good experience to see that they're helping out this much. It just sometimes maybe gets a little bit confusing when you don't know exactly who to ask for help because you might ask one person for help and they don't know anything about that specific topic. So they send you to another person, and so you just have to figure it out a little bit. But there is help all around.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh I definitely know that the people on campuses want to help more than a lot of even regular students realize that all the academic advisors, international admissions people, yeah, career counselors at high schools that want to help the internationals as well, even get to that college level. Um, and you're exactly right that not everyone knows the answer to everything, but that doesn't mean that an athlete should stop trying if one person that they've asked doesn't know. Um, I always say as well that sometimes it's like being a unicorn where if you're the only international on a team, everyone wants to hang out with you and take you for home for Thanksgiving and things like that. So I would say that the biggest topic that comes up when we all come back in the summer breaks, like our company does what we call family catch-ups in the summer breaks, and we have returning athletes that come back. We do a panel, a QA, we have people that come together, food and drink and stuff. We do that every year. And one of the things that came up last time we did this was last year, and that was an athlete who said, I got injured and I wasn't really sure what to do, and I felt like I wasn't really being helped. And then another athlete from a different college in a different sport who was on the panel as well, looked at him and said, Well, who did you ask? Like, did you go and ask people on your campus for help? Did you go to your coach? Did you go to the assistant coach? Did you go to the trainers? Did you go to the international admissions? And he didn't really go to anyone. He just got injured and kind of didn't really do much about it. So even that just experience, that interaction on that panel that we had was really good for the people who are getting ready to go to college to see that, to know, hey, speak up, like if you need help or you're not really sure what's going on, talk to someone because that's a segue of a lot of families that we work with don't realize that getting hurt doesn't mean that your scholarship gets taken away. That's a question that we get so much. And I think a lot of athletes are scared to tell their coaches when they get hurt. So, can you talk a little bit about your experience with that or your teammates' experiences with that?

SPEAKER_01:

I definitely understand being scared of getting injured in college because it's, I mean, basically the whole thing of you being a student athlete is you go there and you want to play your sport, and that's like where the main focus is at, and everything you're doing is to get better at your sport. Um, and so when you get injured, suddenly a huge part of that falls away, probably like 90% of what you're doing in a day just falls away. Um, and there's so much pressure to perform and get better, um, and like you feel easily replaceable and all these things. So I very much understand that it's scary to admit when you're injured, but um to be honest, it's always better to talk about you being injured because coaches see it as something better when you communicate it with them, when you tell them, hey, I'm injured and I I think I need help with this. And so you can start a rehab program or I don't know, different things because in the end, if you're injured and you keep running through your injury or playing through your injury and it just gets worse, um it's just gonna make everything worse. And in the end, that might actually be something negative on you because the coach is gonna feel like they can't trust you because you weren't being open with them. Like obviously they want you to perform at your best and they know you cannot perform at your best if you're injured. Um, so that's definitely one big thing, like communication with your coaches and your athletic trainers. Like you have to be open about what's going on. And then also, um, if you're injured really bad, and like so I was injured for a long time, my third year, I think. Um, I was basically out for almost six months. And it was a really, really hard time because you like I said, 90% of your day just falls away. Like usually we have practice in the morning and in the evening, and you go to the training room and this and that, and suddenly you don't do that anymore, and you don't see your teammates unless you just go to practice to watch them do everything, and that can be a very scary time because you just suddenly feel so alone and like you you lost your purpose of why you're even in America. Um, but this is where it's really important to speak up and find help. Like there are so many different things you can do. Um, like something for me was I would just I would still go to every single practice and just watch them run or help out my coach this so I could feel like I was still a part of the team and I wasn't just home alone. Um, and then if you're like still really struggling with it, there's so much other help you can get. I think every campus has school counselors on campus where you can talk to them. Um, usually your athletic trainers are really willing to work with you through certain things. So an injury is it's always a bad thing. I mean, no one likes to be injured. Um, but it's definitely something that you can deal with because it happens so much in college. I mean, so many athletes get injured in college, and there are so many people here that are prepared for that and they're prepared to help you through your injury so you can come back better.

SPEAKER_00:

And mentally as well, helping you come back stronger mentally as well, for sure. Yes. Yeah. And that's what I think why the hidden opponent is so great, because I feel like injuries aren't always discussed about how tough they can be mentally as well as physically. And then also just that you're saying like 90% of your day goes away if you get injured. But it's really good that you were able to stay in contact with your team and your coach and be there and be present and be around to try and feel like you were still a part of the team. So that's really good. And that's a good piece of advice for anyone listening who is out of college, currently injured, or is worried about getting injured and what that might look like at college. That's a really good tip for everyone listening. Is there a piece of information or a couple tips or anything that you wish someone had told you before you arrived in America that you would definitely be telling friends or other Germans looking to come over?

SPEAKER_01:

Um I think honestly, I wish someone would have told me that it's gonna get really hard at one point. Um, because I was just really excited for this super happy, bubbly experience, which still was part of it. But I wish someone would have told me like it's gonna get hard at one point, and you it's okay. It's okay that it's going to be hard. Like it's not your fault if you have a rough year or a rough couple of months. Like that's just what happens. You're so far away from home. It's okay to be homesick, it's okay to feel alone, it's okay to struggle when you're injured and all of these things. Um, I just wish I would have known that that was a normal part of the experience because I felt so alone in that, and that made me scared of speaking up because I thought I was the only one going through that. Like everyone else was having a great year and wasn't having any problems. And so I felt like I had to keep up this perfect picture of telling everyone back home, like, yeah, like I'm living my study abroad life, like everything is great, everything is perfect. Um, and I didn't want that bubble to burst. Like I wanted to keep up that picture, but I wish someone would have told me like it's okay to speak up. It like it's not your fault, you didn't do anything wrong. Um, it's just it is a hard experience going so far away from home. And it is a hard experience doing your sport and having all that pressure around you to perform, but that doesn't mean that um that doesn't mean that it's bad. It just means that that's normal and you need to figure out how to deal with certain things.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure. Yeah. And I think that the social media makes it look like college is, like you were saying, amazing, bubbly all the time. And as we all know, social media is a highlight reel, not everything, all the total parts of what it's like being a college athlete. But I think more people are now talking about it, which is great. And I definitely think that homesickness is not talked about as much as it should be. I think what you said as well of like stuff will get hard, whether that's school will get hard, whether that's your track will get hard, whether that's an injury will get hard, friendships, maybe professors, um, like all kinds of stuff can get hard at college, but you're exactly right. You have to figure out how you're gonna work through that to get to the other side. And I feel like for some people, especially internationals, maybe they're not used to the rigor of how hard you're expected to train and perform. And I also think internationals don't always know the gravity of what their coaches are going through. So when I say to people, well, some of these coaches and some of these divisions, your performance directly affects if they will have a job next year. And I think a lot of people don't realize how tied their team's performance is sometimes to the coach's job. So can you talk a little bit about how maybe other people that were on your team or other sports or other internationals didn't fully understand like how much is on the line for some of the coaches that they're being coached by?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, I think especially for internationals, like I don't know how it is in Australia, but in Germany, most of the coaches are just coaching in their free time. It's not their main job. Um, usually they have a a different main job, and then they're coaching in the afternoons because they just love what they're doing and they love coaching that sport. And so it's like if you perform bad, obviously they're gonna be sad for you, but it they're not gonna lose anything from that. And um, I think like one of the biggest differences coming to America is seeing that your sport really is a business. I mean, it is their main job of what they're doing, and if you perform bad, that reflects bad on them. And um that can sometimes create a lot of tension, and it's good to keep that in mind that your performance affects your coach's job, basically. But also, um my freshman year actually, we had a coach that was telling us that a lot, like every day at practice. He'd be like, if you don't do well, I can lose my job. And I think in that moment it's important to remind yourself that yes, your performance affects your coach's job, but also what your coach is doing is affecting your performance. So not everything is just on you, like as long as you do your best and do what you're supposed to do, go to practice, train, do your rehab and everything, that's good. You don't have to tie your self-worth to how your coach is feeling in that moment, because that can just create a lot of other tension too. Um, but yeah, it's just a whole different system. And I think that's something that you have to keep in mind when you go to America. It's not, it's not like a free time sport, like a club sport, like it was back home. It is a whole business, and so there's a lot more connected to it and a lot more pressure, which is good to keep in mind, but also you shouldn't um you shouldn't focus too much on that. Like I still think people do better when they maybe even almost forget about the part where it's a business and just remind themselves of why they're doing their sport. I'm I'm running because I love to run and not because I have to keep the scholarship, just like things like that. And that's also um, I think where the hidden opponent helped me personally a lot because when I had applied to be a part of my freshman year, it was um still something that wasn't really talked about a lot, not really within my team or anything else. And like it was again the same thing where on social media you were seeing everyone being so happy and everyone performing well in college and all these things. And then um I joined the hidden opponent, and suddenly I was part of this big community where people were actually speaking their truth and were talking about different experiences and saying how they were feeling and how they had, I don't know, performance anxiety before competitions, or um how they were scared of going to practice because they didn't want to mess up, or how it was affecting them that the sport was kind of more of a business. And so it was really it was really good for me to find this organization that helped me put things into a different perspective, maybe, and learn how to deal with these things, even with like injuries too. Like we had an injury panel last year, for example, where um different people talked about their injuries in college and how they dealt with it and how they found help and um just certain things. So I think that's like the biggest thing to find. To find a community to help you deal with these certain things and these differences that you're not used to.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure. That was really well said. And I think that the people that are working with us that we help throughout the recruitment process and their time at college, they know that they always have us to chat to about anything. For those people listening that have done the pathway on their own, there's resources available all over college campuses, all across the United States. And that's what Vicky was talking about with all the different places that you can go, including the hidden opponent, to talk about things that maybe even are not talked as much about on your current team, but other teams, other internationals are going through similar things as well. And I also wanted to mention that something that we knew as Americans in high school was that a lot of the college campuses, majority of them have free counseling, even for regular students. It's part of your tuition. And I think a lot of internationals probably don't realize that a lot of the university campuses have free tuition or heavily subsidized, sorry, not free tuition, heavily subsidized or free counseling that you can do and therapy that you can do. So can you talk a little bit about the differences between like Americans coming in and going, yep, I know I can use all these resources and internationals coming in and even not knowing that as an example that tuition, um, sorry, I keep saying tuition, counseling is available for students and student athletes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, definitely. Um I didn't know about that at all when I first came to America because I feel like that's just not a big thing back home. Um and it's also again something that's not talked about back home. I mean, especially when I was still going to school in Germany, like you wouldn't really hear someone say, like, hey, I think I need to go and see a counselor. That's just not something that people would say, even though there were probably a lot of people that were thinking about that and that would need that help, but it wasn't like normalized like that. And so um when I came to college in America, I think the first time at first I didn't even know about it at all about the free counseling that was there. And then um the first time I heard a teammates say, like, yeah, I'm going to see the counselor today, just like talk to them. I was like, what? You can just you can just go and talk to them. And he was like, Yeah, you can literally just make an appointment online and go and talk to them. And that's kind of how I found out about it. And then um later on throughout the years, there were also uh lots of athletic trainers that um paid attention to that too and put up posters and said, Hey, if you need counseling like this, is where you go. Um, just trying to help people find out about that because the resources are all over there, like you have resources all around you. But as an international person, usually you just don't know about it, and it's probably not the first thing you ask someone about. Um, but it is a very, very helpful resource. You always have free counselors on campus, and then a lot of phylletic programs actually have their own counselors too that they work with if you need someone uh to help you specifically maybe with something that has to do with your sport.

SPEAKER_00:

I think a good analogy would be like to go into a gym for the first time and say, hey, can someone show me how to do like five reps on every single machine in the gym so I can get a sense of the gym and then I can go and learn how to do the form a bit better in each machine? I feel like that's a good analogy for college campuses for an international to go, okay, hey, I've arrived on campus. What do I need to know? Like what kind of stuff is available to me if a lot of international people on campus that are working as staff and international admissions can help with that as well. Like here's a crash course on what you need to know for this university. And I feel like that's a thing that a lot of internationals should do is really take it upon themselves to go, okay, hey, I'm I'm new here, I'm new to this country, I'm new to this state, I'm new to this town. Like, what do I need to know? Um, and I feel like that is something that not everyone is comfortable to do. But if you're listening to this and you're American or you are listening to this as someone who's lived in America, you know that you probably will eventually be pushed by other Americans to speak up and be like, I don't know what's going on. I need help.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah. And it's really, yeah, I know it's so hard to speak up for help sometimes, like in general, really, but just about something small and unnecessary because you're thinking, oh, it's something small and unnecessary. But honestly, most people are so willing to help you, you just have to push yourself and ask. And it's um sometimes it's easier to maybe find another international on campus first and ask them. But if you don't have that opportunity, ask any of your teammates. Like they all of my teammates have been so willing to help. And sometimes people feel more distant to you, and then you start talking to them and you realize, oh, actually they're so nice and they're willing to help me with everything, but you have to be the person to make the first step.

SPEAKER_00:

And what would you say to someone who's a bit more shy, who's nervous about taking that first step? Do you have any tips for them of how they can go from being a little bit more shy to going, okay, I really need to ask for help? Like what, in your opinion, like what do you think is a good first step to take?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, maybe try to find at least one person that you feel a little bit closer to on the team, like if that's a teammate or if you if you feel like you can trust your coach a lot or your trainer. Um, I'm guessing usually it's like a teammate because you spend most time with them, but just find one person. It's enough to find one person at first and um have like that one point of contact where you're like, hey, I think I need help with this. And then either they're gonna help you or they're gonna help you find someone else. But at that point, you're not alone anymore. So you have someone else helping you through that. And um and it's I think it's really good to remind yourself that it is worth it. Like it might feel uncomfortable, especially if you're very shy at first, but um, it's worth it to to push yourself through that so you can have a better experience.

SPEAKER_00:

And grow as a person as well. Like the growth happens when you're an uncomfortable and yeah, believer in that. And I'd also like to talk about what you're saying about trusting your coach, because I think the coach stuff comes up a lot with athletes that were helping as well as athletes that were not helping. I feel like there's a comparison that I've noticed between, especially like the high school or club level coaches, are like you said, sometimes volunteers, or it's like something they do on the side, or they have like a couple different things that they do, and coaching is just one of the things that they do. And so there's not as much pressure. But I've noticed that with the way that um people view coaches, whether these are parents that are viewing coaches this way, or international students or athletes viewing coaches this way, that there seems to be a lot of pressure on the coach to be every single thing that an athlete needs them to be. And a comparison that I make is like almost like dating, if you expect your partner to be every single thing that you've ever wanted, like a best friend, an advisor, a confidant, someone to watch reality TV with, someone to watch horror movies with, someone to go on long walks with, do all kinds of things. To expect one person to be all of that in a partner, just like you would expect one person to be all of that in a coach, can be quite hard for that coach to live up to that in your mind. So something that I think is really, really valuable for us to talk about today is like how to navigate different things with coaches. And maybe any tips you have for someone who's like, okay, I've never had a coach like this before, or an assistant coach like this before, for whatever reason, like how do I navigate working with them a bit better?

SPEAKER_01:

Um I think, yeah, that's definitely a little at heart because you can no one is perfect. You're never gonna find your perfect person or your perfect coach or something like that. So um you do have to be okay with things not being exactly 100% like you want them to be. Um, but I think like one of the biggest points really is communication with that too. Like um, I think it's really important, even like during the recruitment process, to make sure that you find a coach that is good for you and like the main aspects at least. Like make sure you find someone that has a similar training philosophy to how you want to work, someone that maybe feels like he communicates the way that you want to communicate with a coach, like focus on a few main aspects that you think are really important to have in a coach. Um, and then even later on when you are training with them and when you do feel like something is different or you're not really sure how to navigate that. Um, if you are comfortable enough, I would always say communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate. Go to your coach's office and talk to him and be like, um, hey, why are we doing this in practice and not that? Can you just explain it to me so I so I understand why we're doing this? Or um I'm feeling like this right now. Can you help me out with that? If you're comfortable with that, I would definitely always advise to do that because a lot of times um coaches in college are going to be a lot different than what you had in high school, but that's not always a bad thing. It just takes time to get used to it, to adapt to their training, and it often helps knowing and hearing it from their perspective why they're actually doing it the way that they are doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure. For sure, yeah. That's a really good piece of advice. And I also think for some people listening to this, they may have never had more than one coach. And that was something that I didn't actually fully comprehend until I was assisting one of my current track athletes, actually. And I was checking in on her, like we always do, and I said, Hey, how's everything going? And she was saying that she was struggling a bit with her coach, her head coach. And I asked her, like, what she was struggling with with the coach, like what exactly was it? And I found out that she had only had one coach her whole life, one person from the whole time she had been in her sport. And this was the first time that she'd ever had a new coach in her entire life. So this was coach number two out of two for her her track career. And she didn't really know how to like adjust to a new person. I ended up speaking with her dad as well, and he gave me a bit more context as to why he thought she was having some issues. And that was really, really interesting for me to be here on this side of things, going, oh my gosh, it's a good reminder for me as well to be like, oh, there's people out there who going to college could potentially be their second ever coach in their sport, not their eighth, their 10th, their 12th, like literally their second ever coach. So it's not just like adjusting to a new culture and a new way of speaking and state and town. It's also like, oh, I've just never had another coach before. So I feel like a lot of people listening, give yourself grace to adjust, give yourself grace, especially if you've never had a new coach before. That's even more of a reason to give yourself grace to be like, okay, this will take some getting used to. And yeah, I just thought that was worth sharing on this podcast because I I really like fully had forgotten that for some people, like everything is brand new about going to college, including having your second ever coach.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I think what also um probably goes hand in hand with that is that, or at least it was like that for me. Usually back home, you're probably part of a really small team. Like you have one coach and you have a few teammates, I don't know, 10 teammates maybe, and then you go to college and suddenly your team has like a hundred people, maybe, and you have three, four coaches. And it is a huge difference because you just you suddenly feel so small, and there's so many people around you, and so many more coaches having expectations for you, and maybe feeling like there's much more pressure on you, but it's basically what you said like give yourself some grace. Like it it's gonna take some time to get used to, but just remember that there's so many more athletes feeling exactly like you do in that moment, and um it's it's okay, like it's it's gonna work out, it's just gonna be uncomfortable in the beginning, maybe because you're not used to that.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's okay to know that there's other people in the same boat as you, and it's also okay to feel maybe weird telling friends or family that you're not okay when you feel like you should be okay because maybe your family has sacrificed a lot for you to be there. And maybe you feel like as an athlete, you should be saying everything's great, everything's fine. And I think another reason we're doing this podcast is just to remind people that it's okay to not be okay, it's okay to struggle, it's okay to not know how to ask for help. But you have so many people around you that want you to win, want you to succeed, and just love what you're doing. And I think that's yeah, the message that I want everyone to get from this podcast. And that's why I'm so pumped that the hidden opponent and study and play are partnering because just the resources that you guys have available, everything that you do for every part of mental health and supporting athletes is just amazing. I wish we had more of a hidden opponent present in in Australia as well. But hopefully one day that that that happens. I think, yeah, the just the message is give yourself grace, give yourself time to adjust, know that you'll find your people wherever you go, and they'll be a friendship group for you. And to actually to segue to that, a lot of advice that we have coaches and current athletes say to our athletes is try and find friends and connections outside of your sport. So could you talk a little bit about that as well?

SPEAKER_01:

Um that might be a little bit harder for me to talk about because I do have to say that most of my friends have been my teammates. Or um actually, uh okay, maybe if that works with that too. I had a lot of friends that were not on the track team, but on other sports teams. So it was like outside of my sport, but it was still athletes. So I think that's why we just connected so well. Like a lot of them were internationals too, and some weren't, but most of them were athletes, and it's just easier to connect with them because you see each other at all of these student athlete events and you have a similar schedule. But it was definitely nice to have friends outside of your own sport too, because you spend so much time with your your own teammates every day that sometimes it's nice to have someone outside of that. But it was also nice to just connect with other athletes and hear about their stories and how their sport is going. Um and just creating this supportive community, like we would go to each other's games and meets and support each other. Um, or even later on when I was doing my campus captain advance on um campus. So I I kind of did that through SAC, like student athlete advisory committee. And I was the mental health chair on my campus. And so PSAC is all student athletes too. So that's where I met a lot of other student athletes from different sports. But it was nice to build this community because I would tell them, hey, I want to um, like the next football game is going to be a mental health awareness game. Can you help me set up a table? And that's so many different athletes come and help me out. And we would set up this whole table and we would have a poster and we would have green cupcakes to give out because green is like the mental health color and just like small things like that. But it is nice to build a community outside of your own sport too.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. Yeah, I absolutely love that. Can you talk a little bit about what you're just saying about the games where you would set up a table? Like what kind of stuff would you guys do on your campus to promote mental health awareness?

SPEAKER_01:

So um we would basically we would organize a mental health awareness game for every sport. So I think the first sport in the year that we started with was soccer, and we would always set up a table and we would have um a few posters. There was a poster about the hidden opponent, talking about what the hidden opponent is. We would have a poster with resources um from our campus, like free counseling, and then resources all around the campus, too. And then um usually we had like a topic for each game. So it would be a question on the poster, something like um, what's your why? Like what keeps you going, or what made you smile today? What are you proud of yourself for? Like we had different questions for each game, and we have people come and they would sign the poster and um talk to us about like the other posters we had there, like that would ask us about the hidden opponent. And so we were able to, you know, share that information with them and tell them about it, what the hidden opponent does. Um, we always had like green wristbands that set the hidden opponent on them. Um, and then we would have usually you can you can get everyone to come to your table if you have some type of food, like if you have some candy to give out or anything like that. So people would come and see the cupcakes first and take a cupcake, and then they would sign the poster and have a conversation with you about it. But yeah, we had a mental health awareness game for every single sport, like football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, um, cross country and track are a little bit harder to do because um you just work the game longer. I mean, a track meet is like all day, but still we did that for every single sport. And it was so nice to talk to people because you would have um a lot of non-athletes come up to you too, because I mean that's just people coming to watch the game. And um, there's so many people that actually start opening up to you when you when you're standing at the table and are telling you, oh, I I love what you're doing because I feel like I need some resources, or I would have needed those resources last year. And it's just so nice to suddenly have so many people talk to you about things that you thought you were the only person going through, and um just building that big community around that.

SPEAKER_00:

And the the thing I keep hearing through all of the examples that you're giving is communication, people opening up, communicating with your coach, communicating about the hidden opponent, communicating about mental health, communicating that you need help when you're injured, communicating that you don't know how to register for classes, just communication seems to be the big, the big thread here. So I think that's yeah, really good to highlight. And um, out of all of your mental health training, your psychology degree, what do you think, if someone was to say to you, what do you think is the most important tip or one of the most important tips that you could give a collegiate athlete in any sport, any division, what would you say is one of the most important things to a piece of advice to give to a collegiate athlete?

SPEAKER_01:

That's a good question. I think I would probably try to tell them like really try to not lose yourself. Do not tie your identity to the sport that you're doing. Um it is it is a great thing that you're doing, and it's a really huge thing to be a student athlete in the US and to be doing all these things, and it is really important, and your performance does matter, but do not do not tie all of your self-worth and identity to that um because you can lose yourself throughout that process. And then if you lose yourself, you really lose everything, and that's not what you want. Like, remind yourself why you're doing the sport, you're doing it because you love it, you have fun doing it. Um, remind yourself like your little you that used to do the sport and that didn't have all of the expectations around you and all the pressure around it, and just like really focus on not losing yourself. And if you do feel like you're losing yourself, I know everyone always says that, but just speak up. Like communication is one of the hardest things to do, and I really understand that because it is really hard for me too, but it is the one thing that is going to save you because there are so many resources around you and there's so much help that you can get, but you have to speak up. And it's okay to speak up, and it's okay that it's hard to speak up, but you have to push yourself to speak up if you are struggling with certain things. Like it is it is a difficult experience, and it is a great experience too. It's it's really awesome, but you don't have to um you don't have to fake anything. It's I always felt like if I would tell someone that I was struggling with something, then it would mean that all of my experience is bad. And so I would just tell everyone only the good things, and you post all of the good stuff on social media, and it's like you're running a PR, you're winning this race, or you're having like all these cool trips with your teammates. Um, and it's looking great, but it's okay that two like two things can exist at the same time. I think that's what I'm trying to say. You can have a great experience and an awesome experience and be having fun and doing your sport, but you can also be struggling at the same time. It doesn't mean that one or the other can't exist at the same time, and you can still speak up and get help.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautifully said. That was great. And I also think that the American kids can go into college sport knowing how intense it can be, and just knowing that it's gonna be really hard and probably will be quite hard. And I feel like we actually had someone on the podcast a couple of weeks ago who said, I didn't know what I was getting myself into as an international, joining the world of American college sports and just how intense everything is. And when we were in high school as athletes, we were always get told about like the triangle. You can't have all three, you can't have a social life and do well at school and do well at your sport. So that triangle kept coming up a lot, even in high school. Like you just got to choose two. And of course, your parents want you to do well in school and usually your sport as well. And social life is like third. And that comes up in social media a lot as well of college athletes when everyone's trying to go and do social things and they're in the library or going to bed at 9 p.m. because they have an early wake-up the next day. So I feel like it's yeah, it's okay to be struggling, but also know that you're doing this pretty cool thing. So something else I'd love to chat with you about is advice that you have for internationals who are getting ready to go over to America, whether they've graduated when the Americans graduate or when internationals graduate. So towards the end of the calendar year for some of the internationals. So, what advice would you have for these people listening, as well as parents of athletes that are getting ready to head over? What kind of stuff should these international athletes be thinking of to prepare mentally and physically and also just like life admin before you head over for college?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I think a really good thing to do is get in contact with your teammates, like your new teammates that you're going to have over there, like preferably someone that's already there, maybe someone that's going to be a senior or um a junior in college. And even just asking them the question, hey, what do you think I can do to be prepared to come over there? Because they might have ideas or know certain things that you're not aware of that they can tell you, like how does training work, or um maybe bring this or that because you're going to need that. So that's always a good thing to get in contact with your teammates and also honestly start building a relationship already, because that way you're not going to feel alone when you come there. You're going to feel like you already know someone. And then also talking to your coach about like a training plan and things like that, because usually you're probably going to be doing um a bit of a different training than what you're used to doing at home. So especially if you have time to prepare before you go over, it's so good to ask your coach, hey, can you give me, can you show me what type of training you're doing right now so I can start getting used to it? And you can, if there's like new exercises or new drills they want you to do, you can start learning them without having the pressure of your new coach watching you already. You're like safely at home and you can make mistakes and just learn it until you're good at it. Um, but just to make sure that you're like physically prepared to when you go over there, um, that you're used to the workouts that they're doing. Like one thing for me, for example, was I never lifted weights before I went to America. Like we did bodyweight workouts, but we were never in the gym lifting weights. And so when I first went there, I was um, I think I was the only person that didn't know how to do a clean in the gym. And everyone was so surprised. And I was like, I really don't know what to do. So they had to teach me with a stick how to do a clean because I didn't know how to do that. And um, while I had really nice people around me, like really nice teammates and coaches that were helping me to learn that drill, and you probably will have that too, it would have been easier or more comfortable learning it at home alone before and just getting used to different weight exercises. Um, also so that suddenly lifting weights and running and working out so much is not that big of a shock to your body because you're slowly adapting your body to it, um, or something that's probably more specific for track athletes, but a lot of athletes um will suddenly have a huge increase in their mileage when they get to college because they're running a lot less miles in high school and then they have to run a lot more miles in college. And um, that's also something that if you know about that before, you can start increasing your mileage very slowly before you get there, just so your body adapts to it and you're not getting to college and suddenly jumping up your mileage by 30 more miles and getting injured and all of that. So um it honestly all goes back to communication again, like communicate with your new teammates and your coach uh so you know that you're prepared in every aspect.

SPEAKER_00:

Perfect. That's exactly what we want to hear, and exactly what we want our audience to hear for sure. Definitely, definitely prepare before heading off to college. Great, great advice. And what advice would you have for parents of the international student athletes who are getting ready to head over?

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe just like support your kid throughout the whole process. Like I was very fortunate to have parents that supported me through the whole process. That when I was talking to an agency, they were there with me, um, talking and trying to understand. Um, and they were just, I mean, there were lots of things they couldn't help me with because I guess it's different with Australia because y'all speak English, but my parents don't really speak as much English. So there was a lot I had to do on my own, but I still knew that they were always there ready to support me. Um and it was just good to know that I have parents like that are supporting me no matter what happens. Um, and maybe when you are able to be on the calls with the coaches too, you could probably as a parent try to see if there's anything else you want to ask the coach about, like anything you think would be important for your kid to have in college, um, something that your kid might forget to ask in the recruiting process. Um, but other than that, really just be there as a support. Um, my parents always watched the live streams with me racing, and um, it just always made me feel like they were still there supporting me. And I think that is a big difference too. Like back home, they used to come to all of my races and watch me race and I always had my parents there. And then you go to college and suddenly um you don't have your parents there, but everyone else has their parents there because most the Americans, their parents come to watch the races or to watch the games. And if it can make you feel a little bit alone there. Um, but it always made me feel better knowing my parents were at home waiting for a message from me to see how did my meat go? How did I race? Um and so I guess just like as a device to parents, just support your kid through all of the process and just make it as if you were still over there with them basically.

SPEAKER_00:

Well said. And can you also talk a little bit about the international chapter of the hidden opponent? I think you were saying that it's a newer thing that you guys are starting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So when I um first became a part of the hidden opponent I was a campus captain. So I was a part of a group um I think it was called D One East. Usually you're you're in a group with other campus captains from other schools that are probably in your conference or in your region somewhere. And that was back when I was doing like my own mental health awareness games and events on campus. And then last year I became a head campus captain and um I became my like I got my own group of campus captains to mentor. And most of these campus captains are either in Canada or now this year we actually have some more campus captains that are located in Germany. We have one that's located in Nigeria. We have one that's in Singapore so we're starting to um you know spread the hidden opponent more across the world which I think is really really cool because um mental health is just a topic that's not talked about a lot. And I'm glad to see that it's becoming so much more of a topic in America and there's so much more awareness around it. But I want that same awareness to be spread in other countries across the world too especially because um I can see within my own group like when I talk to my international campus captains there's so many little things that they deal with that other campus captains that are in America and from America don't deal with and so I'm glad to have like this group where people can share something and they see oh they're actually dealing with the same thing like they're having the same problems or differences and things. So yeah I'm just really excited to be spreading that internationally and maybe we'll have someone in Australia too. Like that would be really cool. But it's it's just the start of like spreading awareness more internationally and having that topic become something that's talked about everywhere. Because I mean it's literally part of the name the hidden opponent like Victor she named that because it is hidden. You cannot see someone's mental health um which is why it's so important to talk about it. And I'm glad that we're that we're bringing that awareness to other places too now.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely reach out to us in Australia. We'd love to get the hidden opponent in Australia to all the different campuses that would be awesome awesome awesome well thank you very much Vicky for joining us today. We really really appreciate it and we're like I said at the beginning we're so excited to partner with the hidden opponent. And I want to wish you all the best for your rest of your degree and I think whatever you decide to do with your career after your sport will be amazing. And I think everyone listening can see how wise you are beyond your years. For those people listening yes Vicky is still in college and she is giving us all these gems of information. So who knows what will happen in the future and I'm yeah very excited to see what happens with your career and thanks again for everything that you do with the hidden opponent and thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to to chat with us today.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you and I'm really glad I was able to be on this podcast and I just want to say like if anyone is listening to this and needs someone to talk to and needs someone to talk to that might have gone through like similar things please you can always reach out to me um like my social media is public like you can always send me a text or anything at all like if you feel like there's no one you can talk to you can always talk to me. I know I'm a stranger to you but um if you're an international that's going to college or even if you're an American that's in college and being a student athlete there's probably a lot of things that we've gone through that are similar. So I just want to make sure that everyone that's listening to this knows that um they can always reach out to me for anything any questions any any topics at all I'm always there.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll pop your information in the show notes of the episode so people can get in contact with you and we'll also pop in more information about how you can find the hidden opponent through blogs and podcasts and webinars and and more resources. So thanks again Vicky. Thank you