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Jet Lag and Goal-Droughts: A Collegiate Athlete's Rollercoaster Weekend · The BIG LIFE

0:04
Hey everyone and welcome back to the
0:07
big life we are here back again with a very
0:09
sleepy jordan wickes who had an
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extremely interesting travel experience that
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i can't wait to get into and as always your
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co-host sam carrey jordan let's just
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dive right in how are you and how was the weekend yeah
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so this was not a great week for us
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um you know anyone who's been paying
0:33
attention we we unfortunately tied to
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oregon and then lost on what
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even is today we lost on sunday so we ended our
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undefeated undefeated streak uh with ncaa this week but it was a crazy travel
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experience for sure having to deal with that after having like such a large
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stint at home and then really not traveling that much for this whole season
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and then going and being away for a week, flying commercial,
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which is something we haven't done in two years roughly, maybe even more than
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that because we chartered pretty much every game last year.
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And then so, yeah, having to deal
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with all that, we ended up taking like a red-eye Sunday night back home,
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got back at like 9.30 Michigan time,
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which is really 6 30 Oregon Washington
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time I had to go to class because we were only excused from
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class until like basically we were
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excused from class until 8 30 even though we got back after that because of
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travel delays so I don't even know what our actual excuse letter was but ended
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up having to go to like three classes and I came home obviously I crashed and
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then I'm up at night because my body is not the whole thing so I'm still pretty
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jet lagged and like disoriented as we go through this.
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So apologies for any cognition that's sharp as it should be.
1:54
No, absolutely. I totally get that. Let's dive more into the weekend, though, Jay.
2:00
I mean, obviously you said it wasn't what you wanted. You tied Oregon and then
2:04
you unfortunately lost to Washington. What were those games like for you? out?
2:09
Yeah, I think we've talked a lot about the personal experience you have and
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the team experience you have.
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And in the best case scenario, you get to really live through and like enjoy
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or that is, you know, being a collegiate athlete and all the soccer that comes
2:23
with it is when those two things align when you're doing well personally and
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your team is doing well and you get to share in all of all that joy and all that experience.
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I think this weekend was something where I was able to find more minutes than I was used to.
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I got to start against Washington, which is something I haven't done in a long
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time, which on a personal level is super exciting.
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But at the end of the day, I didn't do my job. I didn't score.
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Our team didn't do well. So it's this weird balance of it where I got everything
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I kind of asked for on a personal level, yet I'm still coming home very disappointed
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in the weekend because our team wasn't able to achieve what we set out for,
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which was six points. We only came back with one.
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Oregon, I mean, that tie, I think, honestly may
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have hurt more than the loss to Washington it you know
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they're they're not a highly ranked
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team you know that really kind of shot our RPI I
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think it's something new this year that I'm dealing with where now I know more
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of what's going on than I have in previous years where I got to be more oblivious
3:21
and I think that's been a blessing and a curse with kind of this podcast and
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being able to really pay attention to all the ins and outs of how how it works
3:29
with the tournament and standings and all of those things.
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So I knew kind of just how much that tie meant to us and then to turn around and lose to Washington.
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It was tough. You know, we lost Justina Gaynor to an injury against Oregon and
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we just, we weren't able to bounce back the way we would like.
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I think our team's kind of at this point now where we have to decide what this
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means. We have nothing left to lose.
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You know, we were ranked one of the nation. We talked about that
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a couple weeks ago and how we kind of maybe played scared
4:01
like we had something to lose there the rankings are
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gone we're no longer you know fighting for
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that we don't have that to lose anymore we're out of the big we're not going
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to be conference champs at all that's not even close to in the running you know
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I think our shot at a one seat probably gone for the NCAA tournament like all
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these things that maybe we had and we're scared to lose are gone which could be a blessing.
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But our team, I think, has to come together now and decide what this means because
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we haven't had to deal with this yet.
4:31
At this point in the season, it was a tough week for sure.
4:36
No, absolutely. And I do have one more question about this weekend.
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I remember when I played, you know, like ages ago,
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the worst thing for me was five-day weekends or like when you had two away trips
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so you were gone the entire weekend, which obviously with adding the West Coast
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teams is going to happen more frequently.
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Teams like you did. And you even had a sixth day. You left on Tuesday and got
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back Monday morning to play two games.
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Those are not only long because you have two games and you're practicing,
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but they're very mentally and emotionally draining.
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Just like you kind of have nothing to do all day, but sit in a hotel room and
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then go to a field and you're always around your team and you never get that break.
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And there's just a lot like I remember by that Sunday,
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like my team would want to kill each other like we had had too much time on
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a bus on a hotel eating team dinners
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everything how I guess are you with
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these five-day travels and how was that experience this
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weekend even being so far removed from what your
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norm is yeah yeah I think it's the aftermath of these weekends like I just missed
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an entire week of school and you're trying to scramble and figure out how to
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get everything in that I was supposed to for the week I was missing.
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And then also like study and catch up and do all these things for exams this week.
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I know a lot of us, a lot of people had to go take exams on Monday after getting
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off that long travel trip.
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And, you know, I think the extent to the six day week lasts a lot longer than
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maybe people may realize.
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Like, it's more of like a two week recovery of the week you're missing.
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And then you have that whole week where you're scrambling to get caught up from
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that in terms of your academics you're back in
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your you know schedule you're all of
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that stuff that you've lost by being away just readjusting to
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the time zones all of it so I
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think it's it's really hard in terms of that aspect in terms of like the team
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and the bonding and all that I think our team does a good job of managing team
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time and alone time and kind of being able to separate those two I love personally
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the long away trips for team bonding experiences,
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I think, especially when you have different roommates and things of that nature,
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you're able to have conversations you probably would never have in any other
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environment with them and get to know them kind of on a deeper level,
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which has always been one of the things about these trips.
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But yeah, I think everyone handles it a little bit differently.
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Everyone needs different things in terms of how much team time they can handle
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and how much away time they need.
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But yeah, I think the biggest thing right now is everyone just getting.
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Reoriented to their normal schedule and catching up academically because that
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is, it was a lot that you miss.
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Well, yeah. I mean, one thing to blatantly call out is you traveled three,
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three time zones. So all of a sudden there's a three hour time difference on your body clock.
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So like, I'm assuming you guys kicked off at 7 PM.
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That's an assumption on my part, but that's when typically you kick that's 10
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PM from what you're used to.
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So your sleep, the way you eat, the way your body's adjusted.
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I mean, there's so many factors that that's added to travel.
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I know a while back there was a statistic for football that when they traveled
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to time zones, I think it was like teams were like one in nine or something
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like that, like insane out of the Big Ten Conference.
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And I was trying to do the math for soccer, but it's just really hard with the
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four teams and being unbalanced and playing as much as you do compared to football.
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But overall, I mean, there has to be a clear impact like you're seeing right
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now with Jordan about how this travel will impact players. And I'm especially
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thinking about those poor girls on the West Coast that have to do this way more often.
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Yeah. Yeah. I think part of it's been really interesting too,
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though, is to look at the standings.
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You still have UCLA and USC, you know, in the top of the conference right now.
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So they've been able to manage it and do well.
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And I think it's one of those things where we acknowledge that it's hard and
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that it's harder, but you're just going to have to find a way to get used to
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it because unfortunately this is the new normal and we weren't able to get it done this week.
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You know, I think we definitely could pull out all the excuses in the book with,
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with the way the travel weekend was not being used to
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it losing justina gay and all the things we have all the excuses in
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the world for why this week turned out and played out the way
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it did but at the end of the day i don't we needed
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to get it done and i think it's something where it's like everyone's
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gonna handle it a little bit differently and it will be super interesting because
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we haven't been in this position yet part of me there's only three of us i believe
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left from my freshman year that are still on this team currently so the difference
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in mentality of it all is has been really interesting to kind of deal and especially as we go through,
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through all this because of just how much the program has changed and it's so
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incredibly insane that we were even in this position and then to go through
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your first loss and now have to have like.
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15 people I believe have never lost as a Spartan before it's been really like
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exciting to see how much how far we've come but also really just crazy to kind
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of process and get our head around it and just how different everyone's everyone's
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at how much of a different headspace everyone is at with the way things have gone this season.
9:42
Absolutely. And let's get into it. There was a couple other massive headlines
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coming out of the Big Ten that really hit and kind of speak to this point you're talking about.
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First of all, Jordan, you already mentioned, of course, you guys lost, but so did Iowa.
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And actually, so did Utah State, which I know isn't in the Big Ten,
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but those three were the schools last week left undefeated and
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all three got their first loss in the season this weekend so
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you fell but so did iowa so no
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one is undefeated any longer
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i was now third in the conference with as you mentioned
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ucla and usc ahead ahead of them they both
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being undefeated in big 10 conference play so i
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do know i've talked to some people at iowa they have
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the ucla usc games circled
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on their calendar assuming one of them you
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know loses you would think unless it ends up in a
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tie i was hoping of trying to trying to
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win their first ever big 10 women's regular
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season championship which is exciting for
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that program i'm not gonna lie obviously i love
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iowa but there's some asterisks when you don't play half the teams
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in the conference anymore about what that actually means but extremely happy
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for them on top of that wisconsin being the one to upset iowa then goes on the
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road and gets this big six point weekend for them which keeps them in that Big
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Ten tournament slot and fighting for that top 10. What are your thoughts on all this, Jordan?
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I think it's really interesting that everyone is now defeated this season because
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last year you had both Florida State and Stanford competing for a completely undefeated season.
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And at this point, we're not even, there were three games left of a normal conference season.
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You still have the tournament and then NCAA tournament to go where every single
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team in the NCAA has now lost, which is really different compared to last year
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but I think it just shows how competitive everything is and just anyone can win on any given day.
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But I think my favorite game from this weekend, which we'll get into now,
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is Maryland, the first Big Ten goals and win in two seasons against Nebraska.
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That is so this is insane to me. And I hadn't really like looked that much into Maryland.
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We kind of talked about on this pod that like we knew that they are towards
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the bottom of the Big Ten and every year that had been what had happened.
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But I did see that, I believe on Friday this week, they announced that they
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are going to change their leadership and change their coaching staff.
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So they've ended the contracts of their current coaching staff after 16 Big
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Ten games without scoring a goal.
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And that just shocked me. I had never, never really thought that it was really
12:25
like that far of a decline for Maryland.
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16 games without scoring. So that's a whole second half of your season without
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seeing the ball hit the back of the mat.
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So I can't imagine how disheartening that is for a program and how you kind
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of keep going and keep fighting with hope, knowing that that's the reality.
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But they got their first Big Ten win in a while, beating Nebraska 2-0.
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So we talked to Nebraska a ton early in this podcast about kind of how they
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came into the season number six in the country after their incredible season last year.
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And now they lost to Maryland 2-0, and I think it begs a lot of questions,
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not only about Maryland, but also about Nebraska.
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Yeah, I mean, Nebraska's whole identity was that they were going to outscore you.
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Like, Nebraska was never really a team that was fighting for a shutout.
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They were always just going to outscore you with Eleanor Dale and Sarah Weber
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up top. So I'm even more impressed that Maryland was able to do this and keep
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Nebraska out of the back of the net.
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But it goes to show, I think, just how much of an impact a coaching change can have.
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I think this really goes to show how unified a team can be under new coaching
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staff and new leadership.
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Obviously, being at Michigan State, we've seen it coming in.
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The last three years we've been able to have under him and just being able to
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experience really how excited a team can get when they've been frustrated for so long.
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I think any sort of change in leadership is something that can really go one of two ways.
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The team can be disappointed and I think in many
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cases because they've been scoreless for
14:01
the last two seasons I'm sure the girls were really excited about this
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and to be able to have something to kind of play for and unfortunately I do
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think it's too late for them to salvage anything this season I think they're
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definitely out of any sort of tournament or anything like that but to be able
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to kind of come together and figure out what this means for the future of their
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program But this is obviously a very, very good start off.
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And I will say I did see a video of them going up 1-0 against Nebraska,
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and that celebration was priceless.
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You could tell like the emotion and the pride and like, I'm going to guarantee
14:32
the work and belief that went into that program to get that final goal.
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So that was an extremely fun moment to watch.
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Cheer on, Marilyn. I have that moment for them. And speaking of,
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I think all eyes are looking at the Big Ten tournament now.
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Like we said, we have clarification that 10 teams will be making the Big Ten tournament.
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And right now, as it sits in the standings, the cutoff is in between Minnesota and Illinois.
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So Minnesota being that 10th team and Illinois being 11th. And right now,
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Minnesota has three losses on the season, but also, you know,
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some ties in there and Illinois has five losses.
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So with three games left, barring some crazy results, it almost sounds like
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the Big Ten tournament nearly is wrapped up about who's going to make it or who's not.
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There's obviously, you know, anything can happen officially,
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but unofficially, it looks like we have a top 10 in the Big Ten that will be,
15:24
you know, competing for the tournament. They're out. What are your thoughts
15:27
on this field of 10, Jordan?
15:28
In terms of the Big Ten tournament, USC, UCLA, Iowa.
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Ohio State, and Rutgers are all officially 100% into
15:35
the tournament so you have
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13 teams still remaining for those five spots I believe
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though like you said it is pretty barring any
15:44
super big upsets or anything clear on who will be making that
15:47
tournament I think you know point wise we have to tie
15:50
one of our next three games in order to be guaranteed a spot obviously
15:54
we're going for nine points like always you know you're going
15:57
out there to win but yeah I think
15:59
it's definitely very interesting going forward with
16:03
this season and this year with how different the tournament is with
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all those games being away there being a bye week for some
16:08
teams you know well those top
16:11
teams already have a spot in the tournament now you're fighting for a
16:14
four-game tournament versus a five-game tournament the bye week adding a whole
16:18
new kind of wrinkle into what we're used to so it's super interesting to see
16:23
how this will all play out because this is just a year firsts and I'm sure next
16:26
year will be the same as the NCAA continues to shift and the Big Ten Conference
16:30
continues to shift with it Yeah, absolutely.
16:33
I think for me, the biggest thing that caught my eye when you're looking at
16:36
the teams that will not be making the cut.
16:39
Obviously, we need this year with add wrinkles with adding four teams and you
16:43
only added two tournament spots.
16:44
This creates obviously just mathematically some questions, but I definitely
16:48
think we've hit the nail on the head.
16:50
We've we've talked about these programs a lot, but one program I didn't realize
16:53
was suffering as bad as they are as Northwestern has zero Big Ten wins.
16:57
And that was a team that two years ago was ranked in the top 15 in the country.
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I remember when they were at one point 13 in the country my senior year.
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And they've always been a very competitive program the last year.
17:08
Also not having a great season and this year really struggling with zero wins.
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So if you take this field of 10 that currently looks solid, Illinois right on
17:16
the bubble, Purdue, Oregon, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan, and Northwestern.
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So I think those last three teams are the teams that surprised me the most.
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Knowing that two of them were NCAA tournament teams last year in Nebraska and
17:30
Michigan, and the Northwestern also really struggling this year.
17:33
Yeah, yeah. And I think that just goes to show how volatile Big Ten women's
17:38
soccer is and just how anyone can really win a game on any given day and also
17:43
how any season can go and how much of a jump it adds.
17:46
I know Michigan, one of our most talked about teams, like they won.
17:51
They won the Big Ten my freshman year and they went on to go to like Sweet 16 or Elite 8.
17:57
Like they were an elite program an elite team
18:00
and then the very next year was kind of the start of their downfalls they've
18:04
been on this downward trajectory since so it's been
18:07
super interesting to kind of just watch it
18:10
throughout the years and you do have some teams that always remain in the running
18:14
and remain consistent with those top rankings Penn State obviously being one
18:18
of them I know Wisconsin's kind of always been in it for us Ohio State those
18:22
classic teams but it really is crazy how any season can go for any given school on any day.
18:29
Absolutely. And overall, I think this brings us directly into our main topic.
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Our main topic that we really want to talk about this week is losses.
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You know, I hate to rub some salt in the morning, Jordan, but we're going to
18:40
we're going to pick a little bit about your situation this weekend.
18:44
But when it comes to dealing with losses, I feel like like you said,
18:49
this can put your season because you've been undefeated for so long in two different
18:54
directions you kind of eliminated yourself from a lot of goals that maybe your
18:58
team had or unnamed things that you guys were chasing but,
19:02
also you have to move forward and you have to focus on the next three games and
19:05
I think for a lot of programs when it comes to dealing with
19:08
losses this is where situations of
19:11
snowballing can happen and when you lose one game and
19:14
then maybe you lose the other at what point how do you stop
19:17
a losing cycle and what does like dealing with
19:20
a loss actually look like so my
19:23
first question for you jordan is unfortunately you guys did
19:26
lose on sunday what was the message
19:29
in the team like what was the vibes as
19:33
you're traveling back yeah i
19:36
think just because of the way our travel went we
19:39
haven't really been able to come together as a team i
19:42
think everyone after the game just you know
19:45
you just kind of sit in it for a minute I do think you need to feel it
19:48
all to be able to realize exactly what we lost and then
19:52
you take a red eye coming home and you're getting back at you know the morning
19:57
which is the three-hour time change and everyone's on their own different schedules
20:00
with Monday being our off day so today we have training in a couple hours here
20:04
we'll come together and kind of figure it out but you know I think everyone
20:09
handles it a little bit differently Finally.
20:11
I think there's honestly, at this point for our team, there's two different
20:14
groups. There's the people who realize exactly what our potential was and what we lost.
20:19
And then there's the people who maybe I think are a little bit oblivious to what this all means.
20:24
And I used to be in the oblivious group. I don't know if I like being in the
20:28
knowledgeable group because I think it just it hurts so much more knowing what
20:32
we were capable of and how much we had that this weekend just kind of,
20:39
you know, took from us.
20:41
In terms of the RPI tying Oregon not
20:45
good obviously losing is never good but Washington
20:48
I think was even a stronger contender than you know
20:51
it hurts a little bit less knowing that and both their
20:54
goals were offset pieces that you can
20:57
argue either way like the ref I think made some
21:00
bad calls obviously you have to put the ball in the
21:02
back of the net for them the game can never be down to
21:05
the ref and that was not us for doing so but I
21:08
think for me like that Oregon tie just really really hurts yeah
21:12
like the number one seed for the ncaa tournament and
21:15
all that stuff i think the biggest thing for
21:18
us now is like you can't continue to mourn the loss
21:21
of what we had and what we could have been you have to deal with now who we
21:24
are and moving forward with what we still are able to accomplish you know we
21:30
may not be able to be conference champs this year but we can be the tournament
21:33
champs we may not be able to kind of get that number one seat anymore but we
21:38
can they'll fight for number two seed and host those games.
21:41
And I think that makes a huge difference still. And we have to be able to move
21:44
forward with that and still acknowledge what we are able to do because we have
21:48
such a talented team and such a talented program this year.
21:51
And it's really exciting the potential we have and what we are able to accomplish
21:56
if we come together and we play at our best.
21:59
I think if we play at our best, nobody can beat us. Obviously,
22:02
I'm biased, but I truly believe that this is one of the best teams I've ever
22:06
had the privilege of being a part of.
22:08
The talent is unreal and we just we have
22:11
to figure out a way to do it and do it consistently I'm
22:14
almost happy we lost in a way though too because now we get to deal with
22:17
it now instead of you know in previous
22:20
years we've lost in the tournament and then you have this weird off time where
22:24
you're playing for the NCAA tournament but you're not playing games I think
22:28
it's easier to stay locked in when you still have a consistent game schedule
22:31
so hopefully we'll go on a run here and win our tournament and not have to deal
22:36
with a loss at that point in this year and we can deal with it now.
22:40
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, I do have a very specific question
22:43
to ask you and that's because looking back on my college career,
22:46
one thing that literally I think still keeps me up at night is that bus ride
22:51
home or that travel home after a loss and like that feeling of like sitting
22:57
in that loss but also, you know,
22:59
at least at the Big Ten level, you know, take out flying out of the equation,
23:02
a lot of times you're driving or you're busting, you know, here or there.
23:05
How do you act on a bus after a loss? I remember as a player that,
23:10
you know, started, played 90 minutes, was very involved.
23:13
Like I take losses hard and I know that I hate it when I hear girls like smiling
23:21
or laughing on the bus ride.
23:23
And I understand it's like a four hour bus ride. Like some people move on faster
23:26
than me, but that was one thing that got under my nerves so hard because it
23:29
felt to me like they didn't care.
23:31
Looking back, do I know that that's not true? Like, yes, I can understand that.
23:35
Like, yes, they care that they lost. They're just able to process it better.
23:38
And then you also have girls on the bus that maybe didn't play and frankly aren't
23:42
as personally affected by the loss.
23:44
And I don't want to say don't take it as seriously, but like,
23:47
it doesn't hurt them as deep because it wasn't them that maybe gave up the goal or did whatever.
23:52
How does your program handle those bus rides? Because that's just something
23:56
that like I, It's a very big unknown to me about the best way to handle them.
24:00
I think I've been in kind of every... Well, I guess I've never not played and lost on a bus ride.
24:09
I've not played and had losses, but they've always been at home this season.
24:14
Or I guess it was a tie. It felt like a loss to Arkansas or this year.
24:21
So I don't know. I think, like you said, everyone's in a different situation
24:25
with it. They process it a little bit differently.
24:28
I'm trying to recall back to kind of previous years, I think.
24:32
Oh, you guys just never lose. You're just like that, you know,
24:35
on it that, you know, it's going to take her a while to draw back and realize these moments.
24:40
Well, it's been because different forms of travel affect it.
24:43
Like when you're chartering, I think a lot different than if you're on like
24:46
a four hour bus ride back home like this, this loss, I think for us,
24:51
everyone, we went back to our hotel room and we had kind of three hours with
24:54
just your roommate as you shower,
24:56
pack, get ready you're decompressing doing
24:59
homework before you ever get together as a team and then
25:02
you're dealing with like everyone's asleep on our
25:04
travel like everyone you're doing a red eye through
25:07
the night like you're we didn't sleep essentially the entire
25:10
night in a bed like you're on a red eye going
25:13
home and then the bus ride from the airport to your
25:16
cars like everyone's just unconscious so there's really.
25:19
Nothing to deal with in terms of that and I
25:22
think you know when we were dealing with it like i said with chartering it's
25:25
a lot different because the bus
25:28
is a it's a different environment than a plane right
25:31
and when you're just with your team is much different than with your general
25:34
public on how you're dealing with things thinking back
25:37
to like again i keep talking the way the program has
25:40
changed i remember our first loss when jeff was
25:43
our coach everyone was like talking and
25:46
happy and we're going and we're rolling out and chattering and
25:49
he was so mad he was so mad that that's
25:52
how we handled it but we didn't know at that point that
25:56
the standard had changed because losing was
25:59
the normal for the program so it was just another Thursday right
26:02
and we played well and we had already won game so everyone
26:05
was kind of satisfied with it and happy with where we were at and
26:09
he was like no like losing hurts like this
26:12
is bad like I want you guys to feel this and I want you to feel it like at a
26:16
deep level so that you never want to do it again and I think from that point
26:20
it kind of changed the way we handled losses throughout the program you know
26:24
and I think every environment is different for the long bus rides luckily.
26:31
Honestly as you know you can make fun of me but like I don't think I've had
26:34
to deal with that many where we're losing on the road and having to bus back home,
26:39
Very lucky for me because I don't know how we should be handling that.
26:43
I think after a tie where it's questionable or things like that,
26:47
it's not necessarily a loss, but things didn't go the way we would have liked.
26:52
Everyone kind of goes, we decompress the first couple hours of it.
26:56
And at the end of the bus ride, usually people are chatty or you're talking
27:01
again and getting through it.
27:03
But it's essentially silent for the first little chunk of it.
27:07
Yeah, no, I would agree. and with my experience as a
27:10
pro i think whatever game it is really really
27:13
matters you know is it a bad loss is it in some
27:16
ways oh we played really well but like for right
27:19
now like we lost actually our game on saturday we also
27:21
played the number one team in the league who has a plus 83 goal differential
27:25
and have not lost a game they're incredibly good and we played them 1-0 and
27:31
they had expected 1.3 goals on the game and had three shots on goal and unfortunately
27:37
scored one of them we lost 1-0.
27:40
Frankly, yes, it sucks that we lost, but we also won more duels than them.
27:44
We defended top and we played well.
27:48
And if you limit three shots on goal to the number one team in the country with
27:52
a plus 83 goal differential, you take that as a win.
27:56
And so I think the type of loss really matters, but I can look back on my college career, trust me,
28:02
and think about many bus ride back where I
28:05
like I remember kind of stewing in the back because I'm mad
28:08
and I understand that I can't just sit in my madness but
28:12
I also like don't feel like other people take it as hard as me and it kind of
28:16
creates this weird social thing it's like do I care too much do they not care
28:19
you know like and like I said I can I can zoom out now and realize that that's
28:23
not really the situation but some people have personalities where it doesn't
28:27
hit them as deep or some people you know, need to move on faster.
28:31
And this really creates interesting dialogue about how you deal with a loss.
28:35
How long are we able to dwell on losing?
28:37
You know, I guess for me, it's a bit different right now. I only play one game
28:41
a week. So we lost this weekend.
28:45
Honestly, like I said, the loss kind of feels like a win, so it doesn't hit as deep.
28:49
But you go on, you do a recovery session the next day. And for us,
28:53
it's kind of when we do our film analysis.
28:55
So today we went to the facility. We did our film analysis breakdown.
28:58
We watched clips. We watched positives. We watched negatives. We talked about it.
29:02
But we have another game this weekend that it's now time to flip the script.
29:05
And we put Rosengord away.
29:07
And now we have Audubrew coming up. and so
29:10
for you or I guess in your opinion like how long
29:14
do you dwell on a loss before you
29:16
move on and how long does it sit with you I think
29:19
quick before I answer that my question to you Sam
29:22
is there's two different types of personalities I think when one loses
29:25
there's the people that need to talk it out and there's
29:28
the people that need to sit there in silence I do think
29:31
there's a disconnect between the people who play and the people who don't play but
29:34
usually the people who don't play are you know they they're
29:38
sitting there in silence with it you know they can kind of
29:40
feel the loss of the team but you're not chiming in
29:43
with different tactics or playing styles or any
29:46
of that sort of thing i have my
29:49
prediction but are you someone that needs to talk it out and like
29:52
you know relive the game after that loss or
29:55
are you someone that just likes to sit there and kind of like you
29:58
know feel it and then do it on your own i
30:02
will talk it out and rethink every single
30:05
detail of the game it's funny i think who i
30:08
talk it out to really depends a lot of times in
30:11
college i would i you can't be on the bus talking it
30:14
out you know because then you're frankly like other
30:17
people's names might come up or you're talking about this and this and not
30:19
necessarily in a bad way but if i'm on the back of the bus and all of a sudden i hear sam
30:22
carey you know my eyes are turning and i'm trying to figure out
30:25
what's happening and what they're talking about so like for me
30:28
it often my mom watched all my college games so i'm texting my
30:31
mom like I should have done this this moment we should have done this and.
30:34
Like I'm giving a full breakdown and like trying to talk it out and decompress.
30:38
It with her and so I think it's totally fair that everyone on the team needs
30:41
someone to talk it out to everyone needs that soundboard to like get your get
30:45
your feelings out with I know I definitely have that here after every game pretty
30:49
much me and one of my best friends sit down and we watch the game together and talk it out but.
30:54
I think it is interesting because it kind of leads to how people like think
30:59
about losses in the sense of like immediately is that, oh, my God,
31:03
I'm so mad we lost. Or is it what tactical things could we kind of done differently?
31:08
And I think that flip of the switch of I'm mad we're lost. How can we grow?
31:13
And when that comes in is critical for teams moving forward and being able to go forward.
31:20
Going into my first question that I asked you when it
31:23
comes to it you know how long do you think about
31:26
a loss before you move on to that next game or like what is that
31:29
transition like before you flip the script another
31:33
thing like everyone's going to be a little bit different but as
31:36
it seemed I think everyone has to be over it by our
31:39
Tuesday training session if you lose on a Sunday and by
31:42
that Saturday session if you lose on
31:45
a Thursday so basically you have
31:48
the game day to think about it you know you go home at
31:50
night you can think about it and live in it
31:53
the next day and then by that next training session I
31:56
think it you have to have it out of your mind because you're already on
31:59
the next game like you play Thursday Sunday you don't
32:02
have that much time to really sit in it and feel it or else
32:06
I think you're hindering your performance for the next game but
32:08
not being ready and not being cognizant and
32:11
thinking about it and being fully involved in
32:15
our scout or our training session or whatever it may be if you're
32:17
still thinking about that loss and feeling it I think you
32:21
can have it motivate you like you can have this disappointment
32:24
and you can use it to motivate you for the next game it can
32:27
be something where now we have something to prove or you're fighting the chip
32:31
on your shoulder or you know underdogs or whatever it may be you can definitely
32:35
use it to fuel you in that way but when you're talking about the emotional sadness
32:40
or the all-consuming thinking about every mistake you made or touch you made.
32:45
I think that kind of stuff has to be out of your mind by two days removed from the game.
32:50
So the game, the next day you can think about it, and then that next training
32:54
session, I think it has to be out of your mind in order for you to be successful
32:57
as a team moving forward.
32:59
Yeah, I completely agree with you. We actually used to say at Iowa,
33:02
our recovery session was built to get the loss or whatever out of our bones.
33:07
And frankly, it wouldn't either. You know, you can't live in the high of a big
33:10
win or anything that long either because you have another game coming up.
33:13
So you lose on Thursday night, you break off, you go to bed.
33:17
Friday morning was our recovery session. So frankly, like most people aren't
33:21
going to be like, oh, yeah, OK, I'm ready.
33:23
I've moved on by that. It's less than 24 hours since the loss.
33:27
But that recovery session is meant to get the loss out, get the shake everything out of the bones.
33:33
The loss ends at the end of that recovery session. And then you start looking
33:37
forward and you spend the rest of your Friday afternoon kind of doing what you
33:40
need to do to reset because Sunday or Saturday morning is going to be a scout
33:45
is going to be focusing on the next game.
33:48
So I think you have to be very cognizant when it comes to all this,
33:52
because listen, if I make up mess up, if I make a big mistake and I'm at Thursday's
33:58
recovery session, I can't seem to shake it.
33:59
I need to know what I need to
34:02
do to get this loss out of my system and this is where everyone's different
34:05
some people need to watch film with the
34:08
game and like relive it and rethink it through and process
34:11
it other people need to leave the game
34:14
at the door and go get a starbucks and
34:17
walk up and down every single aisle of tj maxx and
34:20
target I can tell you right now that is exactly what I did last
34:22
year when we had a bad loss when I had a bad game I
34:26
got me my pumpkin cream cold brew I went to TJ Maxx and
34:29
I just I just kind of walked around and just did something to
34:32
make me think about something that wasn't soccer entirely some
34:35
people need to isolate other people need to be around friends so
34:38
I think that when it comes to emotionally processing
34:41
a loss it is very trial and error of how
34:44
do you actually move on so for you Jordan how
34:47
is it for you yeah I think it varies
34:51
depending on of like a personal performance
34:54
as well quite frankly I should have scored against Washington I got the ball
35:00
you know I was able I did a scissors faked it to my left balls on my left foot
35:05
and I it needed to go on the back of the net I probably replayed that clip in that moment.
35:12
No less than 30 times just re-watching it in the exact way I can almost feel
35:18
it still on my foot and the way I came off and just reliving that moment.
35:24
I don't know if that's the healthiest thing. Probably not. Especially for someone
35:28
who previously had said that when I'm feeling good or good about a performance,
35:33
I don't watch the film in a real way.
35:35
So I don't ruin it. I don't overthink it. So I'm the opposite end when things don't go well.
35:40
Apparently, I just rewatch the film a hundred times over.
35:45
But yeah, I don't know. I think for me, It's different every game with how I've
35:51
been able to deal with it. I don't think I've found what's right for me yet.
35:54
I don't think I've been able to really figure out the perfect balance of things.
35:59
Every game's been a little bit different. Every year has been different depending
36:03
on just the situation, circumstances surrounding it.
36:05
I don't know if I have a good routine down at this point.
36:11
Yeah, I think for me right now, my plan is to fully feel it,
36:16
fully live in it, you know, for the next couple of hours until practice starts
36:21
and then put it behind me and focus on Wisconsin and we have coming up.
36:26
But I've definitely been obsessing over it over the last couple of days here,
36:30
you know, and I think knowing what it meant as a team of what we lost definitely
36:35
plays a factor into that.
36:37
And on a personal level, I got everything I asked for. I started that game.
36:40
I was getting more minutes I put myself
36:43
in a good position to go and put the ball in the back
36:46
of the net and I didn't do my job and I think
36:49
that that definitely plays a role in the way
36:52
I'm handling it as well because for me it almost feels
36:55
like that was my shot you know like I got everything
36:58
I asked for I did everything right up to the moment
37:00
as the ball was my foot shoot it at the keeper which
37:04
you know is is no
37:07
bueno so I think the circumstances of
37:10
around a loss have definitely been different for me I can still feel
37:13
there's one other moment I felt like this before in my
37:15
collegiate career and it was my freshman year against bowling
37:18
green I had probably the
37:21
best one-v-one move of my entire life and I end up cutting the ball and I fake
37:28
a shot it goes to my right I cut it the girls on the ground one v one with the
37:32
keeper I'm like right out right inside the box and I end up hitting like the top post.
37:40
And I can still feel that like moment so clear and how much like that would
37:45
have meant for that game.
37:46
I think we ended up tying it for my season and the turnaround it would have had.
37:51
This was very similar to that. You know, I'm considering that happened three
37:55
years ago now and I can still think about it and feel it so clearly.
37:59
I think this is a similar game and a similar moment for me.
38:03
But yeah, I don't know. I think everyone's different. Everyone's different in
38:06
the way they need to talk it out.
38:07
Every game is different with the way people handle it. I think I'm taking this
38:11
one a lot harder than I have previous losses or previous in previous years.
38:16
No, I think it brings up a great question. And frankly, I appreciate the honesty
38:20
that you don't really have it, you know, figured out of what your like post loss structure is.
38:25
And at the end of the day, one thing that it really reminds me of is I think every player,
38:31
you know, any young player listening to this, any parent listening to this,
38:33
one thing to really start thinking about is what that day after or what that
38:38
post-game routine really looks like for a player.
38:41
And, you know, in college, we're busy. You know, you have homework,
38:44
you have other things going on, all these things you have to do that I don't
38:47
really know that I've really gotten
38:48
to sit down and think about this cognitively until this year for me.
38:52
And it's been a lot of trial and error of what works best for me and what doesn't.
38:56
And I'm sure it'll change over the course of a season, over the course of time.
38:59
But for me, frankly, like if we have a night game, I shower,
39:03
I probably rent to try a little bit, and then I go to bed.
39:06
At least I try to. I tend to not be able to sleep after night games.
39:09
But what really kicks in is my post-game routine the next day.
39:14
In the morning, I will wake up and watch film. I always do.
39:19
But one thing I picked up at Iowa that I really, really recommend when people
39:24
watch film is, I know especially for people like me, it's really easy to watch film.
39:29
And I think everyone mostly watches themselves and mostly takes notice of the bad stuff.
39:35
We feel that we probably like Jordan said, you hit replay about 30 times.
39:39
You rewatch that bad passing. What was I doing? All these different things.
39:43
I'm so, so guilty of this. And one thing I really started trying to cognitively
39:48
do at Iowa was create two pockets, you know, in Speedio, which is what we use, you can tag.
39:53
If not, you write down timestamps or whatever it is of not only your growing
39:58
moments, your grows, but your glows.
40:01
Because as much as we need these, you know, we have these negative things that
40:04
show us where we can get better and sometimes live in our head like a nightmare.
40:09
We also have these brilliant 1v1 moments or this fantastic long ball that I
40:14
hit or whatever it is that we can use these two things to counterbalance each other.
40:20
So for me on Speedio, I'll tag along the whole game and I'll tag my glow versus my grows.
40:24
And at the end, I can kind of look at my number. And in my gut, I know how I play.
40:29
But if I look at my ratio of grows to glows, that also tells me how I play.
40:34
And now I have some more data.
40:36
And I think for someone like me, this is very important because I'm a very emotional
40:39
person. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
40:42
So we can win eight to one. But if I'm the reason for that one, I'm mad.
40:46
And so when I have numbers to back up my pros versus my cons,
40:51
literally, this helps me kind of process and walk through a game.
40:55
But after I clip that film with both my good and my bad moments, I'm done.
41:00
That game goes away for me. And that's when I go to downtown and I get my pumpkin
41:05
spice latte and I walk around the mall by myself with a podcast in my ears or
41:10
I do something that's not soccer related.
41:12
I try to stay off social media the day after a game. Not because people are
41:15
over here tweeting about how I play.
41:17
There is some of that. I'm not going to lie. I have seen my name in tweets after.
41:21
Normally I have to hit the translate button and stuff like that.
41:23
The newspaper here ranks us after games.
41:26
So you'll go online and Twitter and you'll see like Sam Carey got a seven out of 10 today.
41:31
And so that's I ignore that stuff as much as I possibly can.
41:34
But also, like, I don't really need to see what's going on in college soccer
41:38
the day after my games. I don't need to go see what's going on in the NWSL or the USL or whatever.
41:43
Like, those are days to be non-soccer days. And I have to very cognizantly think
41:49
about making them a non-soccer day.
41:51
Because for me, that way, the next day when I go into the facility again,
41:55
I'm recharged. I'm ready to go.
41:57
I'm energetic again. So I think people need to figure out what works for them.
42:01
How do you deal with a loss? How do you feel it? How long can you feel it?
42:06
How long do you need to feel it to be sad?
42:09
How do you move on? And these are all questions that, yes, Jordan,
42:12
I can answer, but it's something that every individual kind of just needs to
42:16
figure out what works for them.
42:17
Yeah absolutely I think it's great
42:20
advice and and you mentioned it before I think it's a
42:22
privilege of something that you have both maybe when you're
42:25
younger and then on the professional level to like if
42:28
you can figure out before you get to college because it is so busy and
42:31
every day is so different like especially after an away trip with
42:34
the schoolwork or the homework and it depends on your major and
42:37
all those things that I think it will be a lot easier of
42:39
a transition going into college if you already have
42:42
that so great advice there and you know
42:45
like i said i'm still figuring it out so any advice
42:48
anyone has wants to send me my way of maybe different methods
42:51
i should try hopefully we don't lose anymore but just in
42:54
case you know try them out and maybe i'll figure it out for my senior year absolutely
43:01
and speaking of the last three big 10 games you know three more on the calendar
43:05
which is absolutely crazy to me not only that there's only three big 10 games
43:09
left but I don't know where October has gone and how it is, you know,
43:12
only two weeks left in October.
43:14
Absolutely unreal. But our three Big Ten games back on the calendar and the
43:18
ones I definitely have circled on my calendar are when Ohio State and Penn State head out to L.A.
43:24
So both those teams will fly, do the three time zone jump, fly to L.A. and play UCLA and USC.
43:32
And I think both those games on both days, so Thursday and Sunday,
43:36
because they're going to flip-flop each other, that has potential to be really special games.
43:40
So if you have an opportunity to tune into college soccer, those are 100% the games I would turn on.
43:45
Yeah absolutely I think I'm definitely rooting
43:48
for Ohio State and Penn State here just like you can't
43:51
just join the Big Ten and go undefeated the way they have
43:54
like they gotta have some sort of you know awakening to
43:57
what this is a little bit here it can't be that
44:00
smooth for them you know like I know I know every Iowa fan in the world right
44:04
now who's sitting one loss behind the 7-0-1 Ohio State or the 7-0-1 UCLA and
44:11
USC are also sitting there with their fingers crossed hoping for something to
44:15
happen for Penn State and Ohio State. So going to be very, very interesting.
44:20
Absolutely. Jordan, what does your weekend look like? Yeah, so we have Wisconsin
44:25
and then Northwestern for two of our last games here and then Purdue to finish it out after that.
44:32
But it should be an exciting last three games here at home. It'll be nice to
44:36
stay at home after this for sure.
44:38
And hopefully we come back here next week with six points on it and we turn
44:42
this around a little bit for us after an unfortunate week, like we mentioned.
44:45
Absolutely well we are excited to follow along as everyone thank you so much
44:50
for tuning into the pod for listening to the big life for following girls soccer
44:53
network and as always soccer on.