# @thehiddenopponent on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DdFSUDJoBpG
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70245587-thehiddenopponent-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/5729d91bf3.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-09T22:01:51.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Hidden Opponent ©️ (@thehiddenopponent) — https://gondola.cc/thehiddenopponent

## Caption

Years before Psalm Kolenda experienced it himself, he watched his older brother struggle with isolation in football.

Despite his dedication, his brother found himself barely seeing the field. One night after training, Psalm watched his older brother, someone he had always viewed as fearless, curl up in the back of their mother’s car and cry. No one in his football environment had asked what was happening inside his head. Years later, Psalm found himself in a similar position.

While playing U19 football in Germany, Psalm was substituted out at halftime and never received an explanation about what had gone wrong or what he needed to improve. He kept showing up and training harder, but as the weeks passed without communication, determination slowly turned into isolation. Psalm began to feel invisible.

From the outside, he looked fine. He went to school, talked to friends, trained, and smiled. But internally, he was struggling to sleep, losing his appetite, and beginning to dread the sport that had once given him happiness and purpose. And he never told anyone.

Those experiences led Psalm to a question: What if we stopped waiting for athletes to ask for help?

That question became GRADE, a project designed to encourage people in an athlete’s support system to notice significant moments, like losing a starting position, being left off a roster, returning from injury, or being released, and use them as an opportunity to check in.
Not to diagnose. Not to assume something is wrong. Just to ask: “I noticed what happened, how are you doing? 

To read Psalm’s full story and learn more about GRADE, visit the link in our bio and head over to our blog.🔗💚
#blog #mentalhealth #athletementalhealth

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## Tags

athletementalhealth, blog, mentalhealth

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