Book by Jack Orrock by Freestyle Academy

Athlete of Resilience

Jack Orrock

Dedication This book is dedicated to my amazing brother, Luke Orrock. He has been by my side my entire life, and he has been supportive of me all this time. He is extremely talented and is the dream brother for pretty much anyone, and I am very blessed to have him as my younger brother.

Acknowledgements I'd really like to acknowledge my design classmates for being great support in working on this project and being able to have people see my progress to completion. David, Kali, Lindsay, and Jake. We all work very hard each day in design class and really enjoy each other's company. I am so glad to have such amazing new friends that I get to see everytime I go to class.

My Design Classmates 2022

Mountain View High School Football Field 2022

Table of Contents 8

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Conclusion

Works Cited

About The Author

Preface Going into the Documentary Unit, I was quite intimidated by the prompt. If I was to reach out to someone with a bigger role in society, I would have to step far out of my comfort zone. However I was luckily able to reach out to someone who I have known for a long time and who had a story I'm sure a lot of us could relate to. And that person I am referring to is my own brother, Luke Orrock. We had just made it through the quarantine that was brought along with the COVID-19 Pandemic. We got closer to each other through the entire catastrophe and both made it out on the other side. He loved to do sports, and I was very curious to know how it was for him being an athlete during quarantine. Like many other survivors of other tragedies, Luke would have a very fascinating story to share about his life as a teenage athlete during a global pandemic.

Outside Luke's Window 2022

Introduction

lifelong athlete lives and breathes passion for sports. It is hard to imagine that everything can change in an instant. Luke Orrock was someone who experienced that. A teenage athlete who had endured and survived the COVID-19 pandemic. Like everyone else it was an extremely unexpected event, and seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was like the entire world had stopped working and was stuck on pause, yet everyone had to live and age during it all. As for the athletes, be it high school or professional, were hit hard by the sudden lock down orders and quarantine. Frontier’s article on COVID-19’s impact on athletes talked about how “This enforced period of isolation, disruption to normal training routines and competition cancellation, could be having an adverse effect on the mental health and wellbeing of athletes.” Stuck inside, Luke had to ﬁnd ways to improvise in order to stay in shape and maintain good mental health in the face of adversity. Luke would need to learn about why resilience was necessary in order to overcome hardships.

Luke 2022

Chapter 1 The Lock down

uke experienced the many struggles and hardships that come with having very limited sports-related fitness opportunities at his disposal, forcing him to find alternative ways to stay in shape. Through the struggle, he achieved physical, mental, and emotional balance that he has carried into the post-pandemic athletic life. The Wall Street Journal talks about “post-traumatic growth” “Endurance athletes, who typically prevail through extreme emotional as well as physical challenges, often experience a type of post-traumatic growth. Through years of training and experience, they build an increased sense of personal strength. They also learn important skills of emotional management, including how to maintain confidence, persevere, be resilient and conquer fear and anxiety.” The COVID-19 pandemic came out of nowhere and took everyone off guard. The lock downs turned the outside world into a bleak and empty place. Any large gatherings were prohibited. For the first couple weeks, Luke was struggling and it all felt so weird. The days where he’d usually play sports he was trapped inside. Luke had to become aware this was the reality right now and he had to deal with it for now. The NCAA went into detail of how the pandemic affected the mental health of student

athletes. “In most instances, the rates of reported mental health concerns experienced within the last month were 1.5 to two times higher than have been historically reported by NCAA student-athletes in pre-pandemic studies.” The first few weeks were hard for Luke, and he struggled because of it. Not only would he not be able to practice their sports, but he would be forced to be stuck inside thanks to virtual learning. He never went outside and would usually be watching shows and lying in his room. Staying inside all day is not healthy at all, and it shows why it took a toll on the well being of many teenagers such as Luke. Around the time the virus became a threat, Luke was in middle school, and he had been playing baseball and flag football. In order for him to have gotten good at sports he would have to have practiced and trained. It would require lots of working out and different exercise regimens depending on the sport he’s playing. Although he wouldn’t have baseball or flag football practices at his disposal, he still had other workout methods he could apply in order to stay in shape, and be able to get stronger despite the fact he couldn’t go to sports practices. 13

He was tired of just sitting around all day doing nothing, as that would accomplish nothing. He had other methods and tactics to be able to remain in good shape and said, “I just felt gross. I didn't want to just sit on the couch all day and stuff like that. So I started to just start taking things in my own hands and do my stuff.” (Orrock). Soon enough he decided he was ready to get back to exercise and not lazily sit back doing nothing. Only time would tell how much longer it would be till it was safe for him to return to sports. In the meantime he would have to improvise and come up with alternative ﬁtness plans. He would go outside with his dad to practice throwing the football, and he would go to baseball ﬁelds with a few friends and practice baseball from a safe distance. On his own time he would do sit ups or push ups. That way his skill in each sport wouldn’t fall off. He was planning to take tackle football when he started high school, so he had to be in the right shape to be able to reach a destination like that. He was lucky to have access to so many great resources and strategies during this time, especially given how limited everything was. “I just felt like I could at least do a decent amount of physical exercise whereas there's some kids, you really can't do that much at all” (Orrock). Frontiers’s article

on social distancing measures for athletes explains what may be necessary for athletes to remain in good shape physically and mentally. This relates to Luke in the sense that everything the article mentioned happened to him, and the sports he played.

Luke's Baseball Bat 2022

HOME

GUEST

“I just felt gross. I didn't want to just sit on the couch all day and stuff like that. So I started to just start taking things in my own hands and do my stuff.” 16

Chapter 2 The Resilience

Luke had the resilience to confront the adversity, by taking matters into his own hands in order to come up with solutions on how to deal with the current situation. The American Psychology Association talked about teens missing milestones. Luke had missed a Flag Football milestone right as the pandemic hit. However he had to learn how to overcome adversity. Soon enough, it became safer to go back to sports. If this were to happen though, precautions would need to be taken. The people who showed up were usually family of the other players, whilst also being mindful of the safety precautions. To Luke it didn’t feel much different. Players would need to wear face masks and stay distanced from each other. When Luke was entering high school and starting football, he practiced weight lifting during the summer. During the same summer in 2021 Luke was doing baseball again. He said for safety they didn’t want players in the dugout that much because of how conﬁned the area was, and made it easy for germs to spread. Instead players had to be outside the dugout most of the time. Jama Network’s article on athletes returning to sports stated how in order to determine how safe it was for an athlete to play, there would be a tier measurement based on the

symptoms being presented. “Whoever is getting COVID like a relative friend or stuff like that, and you just see a decrease in people, which was kind of interesting.” (Orrock) Depending on the comfort level of the families who had their kids playing sports as well as the positive COVID tests, played a big role in determining how many players were in or out. Given how baseball would typically have players distant aside from in the dugout, it was less risky than something like football, but it was always still possible for a player to get sick. He had gained resilience and managed to power through the pandemic no matter how hard it was. Despite the fact he missed out on the Flag Football Milestone, he managed to get into tackle football and made great achievements through that. Given how he just made it out of the COVID pandemic and managed to get into tackle football, it really showed how he did all he could to make it through. Luke ﬁnding ways to cope with the struggle of the pandemic demonstrates having to ﬁnd ways to make it through a bad situation. He had athletics taken away from him, so he found methods to work against it. To this day Luke continues to follow the same routine in order to remain strong and in shape.

Despite the fact that quarantine is history, he demonstrates that what he has done is essential in preparation for any tragedy and to not fall off of a routine. In his case, COVID-19 lock downs went on for a long time, and Luke would need to dedicate time in the days to maintain good resilience and balance so that his skill wouldn’t fall off when he did return to sports.

Weight Lifting Set 2022

“Whoever is getting COVID like a 'relative friend or stuff like that, and you just see a decrease in people, which was kind of interesting.”

Chapter 3 The Return

uke had played all kinds of sports when he was young, such as soccer, Basketball, but none resonated with him better than baseball. He loved the San Francisco Giants and ended up playing nonstop baseball for years to come. He was set on pursuing a life of a competitive baseball player. He had grown up in a family that has always loved baseball, and his dad played baseball at one point too. However, to prevent getting burned out from just baseball, he started flag football in preparation for tackle football when he became a freshman in high school. Although he was unable to continue flag football when COVID took over, that was his chance to maintain all the fitness he had worked so hard for. Sure enough, he’d end up coming out on top, ready to make it through the disaster and be able to return to sports feeling good and accomplished of what he made it through. Hub’s article on the pandemic and teenage resilience demonstrated the pandemic brought forth lots of struggles, “The good news is that many of these issues have proved temporary, says Vidal, who is part of a group of doctors promoting the Urgency of Normal Toolkit. Their message is that returning to reliable, in-person school is vital

for getting kids back on track after such a prolonged disruption.” For people like Luke, the pandemic was a hardship, but at the end of the day it was all temporary and more of a challenge for Luke to take on to test his resilience.

“I just felt like I could at least do a decent amount of physical exercise whereas there's some kids, you really can't do that much at all.” 27

Conclusion Luke spends each day making sure he trains and works hard for his sports, since he has become fully aware of the importance of being resilient and having good physical, emotional, and mental stability to perform as an athlete. Luke is an example of someone who is a survivor of the pandemic, and knows what it’s like to live in a time when we are shut off from the outside. The COVID-19 Pandemic was an example of an adversity that brought lots of other struggles.

Works Cited James E. Udelson, M. D. (2021, September 1). Return to play for athletes after COVID-19 infection. JAMA Cardiology. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2780549 NCAA.org. (2021, December 22). Pandemic continues to impact student-athlete mental health. NCAA.org. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.ncaa.org/news/2021/2/16/pandemiccontinues-to-impact-student-athlete-mental-health.aspx Woodford, L., & Bussey, L. (1AD, January 1). Exploring the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic social distancing measures on athlete wellbeing: A qualitative study utilising photoelicitation. Frontiers. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ fpsyg.2021.624023/full Kwadwo Owusu-Akyaw, M. D. (2021, January 29). The pandemic's impact on athletes' training and injuries. OrthoVirginia. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.orthovirginia. com/blog/the-pandemic-s-impact-on-athletes-training-and-in#:~:text=During%20the%20 pandemic%2C%20the%20risk,months%2C%20to%20lose%20your%20gains Teens missed Milestones - American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/teens-missed-milestones.pdf Bernstein, E. (2021, May 4). Can the pandemic make us stronger? endurance athletes tell us how. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-thepandemic-make-us-stronger-endurance-athletes-tell-us-how-11620154800 31

About the Author Jack Orrock is a junior at Mountain View High School and currently attends Freestyle Academy as a design student. All his life he has had the amazing talent of being very creative in his storytelling, art and writing. He has been drawing his entire life and currently does digital artwork and draws characters and does world building. He really wants to be a character designer one day, since he really enjoys being able to come up with how a character's appearance looks, as well as their traits and what makes them a compelling character to learn about. Jack also is studying Japanese and hopes to one day become ﬂuent in the language. He loves listening to music while going on walks, and loves the rainy weather.

Athlete of Resilience

Jack Orrock