People have different perceptions about weed and its place in society, but what about its place in sports?

In your youth, you may have been taught by your parents or in school that doing any drug, including weed, was not good for you. However, when people get old enough to make their own decisions, many decide to give it a try.

In college, the majority of students involve themselves with weed mainly because it is a way to socialize with friends. Weed can be a springboard for people to start conversations and even build relationships. When you go to a party in college, the smell of weed fills the room. Essentially, weed can be a bridge that builds friendships. However, there have been times when I told people that I did not want to smoke and was judged negatively.

Personally, I have never smoked weed or consumed alcohol, and I do not plan on trying either because it would be against my moral code. When I was young, I was taught by my mother and father that smoking weed was bad for your physical and mental health.

Some athletes smoke weed to help calm their nerves about competing, which can help with their performance in their respective sports. Weed decreases anxiety, fear, depression and tension, which are all common feelings amongst athletes before competition.

Whenever I enter a high jump competition, I see ways people try to eliminate their nervousness. A couple of common ways athletes do this include drinking energy drinks and eating candy to fuel their bodies before jumping. I have also seen people listening to ambient music to help calm the tension built in their bodies.

To gain a better idea of weed’s role in sports, I reached out to an old friend of mine who decided to remain anonymous. They described to me how weed had helped them acheive success in wrestling.

“I was really nervous about trying weed for the first time just because of the risks, but I found out that it was really beneficial for me,” they said. “I wouldn’t promote smoking or anything just because everyone’s experience is different, but I was able to become really good because smoking weed helps calm my nerves.”

As an athlete, being nervous before competing is common because of people’s high expectations. For my friend, weed helped eliminate that feeling of nervousness and allowed them to focus on competing.

In sports, there are different ways that success can be achieved, but all require some type of preparation. The work you put in during practice improves both mental and physical health. Making progress during practices helps boost an athlete’s confidence when it is time to compete. Weed can help an athlete’s performance to a certain extent, but at the end of the day, how an athlete performs is completely on them.

“Even though weed helped improve my confidence, it did not eliminate my fear factor completely,” my friend said. “I had to dial in and focus on the task at hand.”