rookie wall
n.— «We’re showing good maturity out of the young guys.…They got over the wall. The rookie wall hits around week nine or 10 and you see some guys start to fade a little bit mentally. They’ve persevered through it and now that they’re on the other side of it, they’re improving.» —“Tampa Bay’s Defensive Line Accepts Monte Kiffin’s Challenge” by Mike Cobb The Ledger (Lakeland, Florida) Nov. 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)