Four Simple Things You Can Do To Help Peak for a Competition
Coaches love talking about periodization and planning for competitions. Unfortunately, this leaves many athletes bamboozled and they fail to make the most of what they can do when they compete. If the athlete focuses on simple things that are within their control then they can gain confidence and feel ready to compete.
This article shall look at four things that all athletes can do to help them be ready for the day. The coaches can then worry about the planning.
1. Know the rules
It is astounding how many athletes turn up to competitions without understanding the rules of the event. You might be used to training on your home pitch and in a minor league but when you travel to a regional or national competition the rules might change.
Simple things like knowing the order of events, how a knockout tournament works, if you have heats to qualify when the weigh-in is and what the uniform/ equipment requirements are will allow you to train accordingly.
For example, most track events are a single race but bigger events have heats. If you only ever practice a single 100-meter maximal effort then you might struggle with having to do two, even if they are four or five hours apart. If you know the rules then you can practice doing two or three 100-meter sprints a day.
In combat sports, some competitions have a repêchage where the loser of a bout gets to fight against another loser in either a shield or up to third place event. This means having to both arouse yourself psychologically and physically after a defeat. This needs to be practiced because it is hard.
Finally, know the start time, the venue, and the correct equipment required: the best plan in the world will fail if you arrive late or without the correct kit.
2. Eat to win
Making weight for a wrestling or weightlifting competition requires an article, but eating healthily is important for all athletes.
The number one rule is not to rely on the venue for food: you never know what might be there or if you can stomach it.
Eating plenty of unprocessed food in the weeks before the competition will help your body recover and repair and improve your chances of resisting minor illnesses. Fresh fruit and vegetables, complex carbohydrates such as wholewheat pasta, rice, and oats as well as protein from various sources, including eggs, fish, and lean meats, are the staples of successful eating.
If you leave eating to chance and rely on processed foods, ready meals, and take-outs then you are leaving your performance to chance too. Practice eating what you need on the competition day whilst you are training. What can you stomach when you are feeling nervous and tired? What makes you feel good and confident?
You can treat yourself to a take-out or your favorite dessert when you are on the way home.
3. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
Have you got a routine you follow to warm up or do you do a sequence of random exercises? You have no control over the weather, the officiating, or what the opposition is going to do but you can control your warm-up. By knowing how long it takes and what equipment you need then you can take comfort in the routine. However, at some major competitions, you might have extra tasks to do such as singing the national anthem, greeting dignitaries, or observing a two-minute silence. This then delays the time from your warm-up to playing.
Rehearse this too, and then think of a 30-second warm-up burst of essential exercise that can help you.
Have you rehearsed having to take a penalty kick or game-winning field goal straight after running fifty meters, or do you take twenty shots in a row? The latter never happens in a match so you need to practice under as realistic conditions as possible. Stop playing soccer after five minutes, line up for a penalty, take it, and then resume play for another five minutes.
Rehearse shorter and longer rest periods between maximal efforts than your ‘perfect’ amount of time. You need to be confident that you can lift, throw or run your best even without the perfect preparation
4. Visualize success
Finally, visualize yourself lifting the most weight you can, throwing the javelin the furthest you can, and flying out of the blocks as soon as you hear the gun. As long as you have done all the required training (and you trust your coach to take care of tactics) then the most important thing is to be confident in your approach.
I know that you are facing a strong opponent then you can visualize making a good tackle, or doing a great sidestep and cutting to run around them. Once you get into the competitive arena you can focus on the task at hand and the process of executing a good technique. But, in a week or two before you compete, think of what success looks like.
You might get beaten in a competition but that is the nature of the sport. What isn’t okay is beating yourself through a lack of preparation.
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Four Simple Things You Can Do To Help Peak for a Competition
Coaches love talking about periodization and planning for competitions. Unfortunately, this leaves many athletes bamboozled and they fail to make the most of what they can do when they compete. If the athlete focuses on simple things that are within their control then they can gain confidence and feel ready to compete.
This article shall look at four things that all athletes can do to help them be ready for the day. The coaches can then worry about the planning.
1. Know the rules
It is astounding how many athletes turn up to competitions without understanding the rules of the event. You might be used to training on your home pitch and in a minor league but when you travel to a regional or national competition the rules might change.
Simple things like knowing the order of events, how a knockout tournament works, if you have heats to qualify when the weigh-in is and what the uniform/ equipment requirements are will allow you to train accordingly.
For example, most track events are a single race but bigger events have heats. If you only ever practice a single 100-meter maximal effort then you might struggle with having to do two, even if they are four or five hours apart. If you know the rules then you can practice doing two or three 100-meter sprints a day.
In combat sports, some competitions have a repêchage where the loser of a bout gets to fight against another loser in either a shield or up to third place event. This means having to both arouse yourself psychologically and physically after a defeat. This needs to be practiced because it is hard.
Finally, know the start time, the venue, and the correct equipment required: the best plan in the world will fail if you arrive late or without the correct kit.
2. Eat to win
Making weight for a wrestling or weightlifting competition requires an article, but eating healthily is important for all athletes.
The number one rule is not to rely on the venue for food: you never know what might be there or if you can stomach it.
Eating plenty of unprocessed food in the weeks before the competition will help your body recover and repair and improve your chances of resisting minor illnesses. Fresh fruit and vegetables, complex carbohydrates such as wholewheat pasta, rice, and oats as well as protein from various sources, including eggs, fish, and lean meats, are the staples of successful eating.
If you leave eating to chance and rely on processed foods, ready meals, and take-outs then you are leaving your performance to chance too. Practice eating what you need on the competition day whilst you are training. What can you stomach when you are feeling nervous and tired? What makes you feel good and confident?
You can treat yourself to a take-out or your favorite dessert when you are on the way home.
3. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
Have you got a routine you follow to warm up or do you do a sequence of random exercises? You have no control over the weather, the officiating, or what the opposition is going to do but you can control your warm-up. By knowing how long it takes and what equipment you need then you can take comfort in the routine. However, at some major competitions, you might have extra tasks to do such as singing the national anthem, greeting dignitaries, or observing a two-minute silence. This then delays the time from your warm-up to playing.
Rehearse this too, and then think of a 30-second warm-up burst of essential exercise that can help you.
Have you rehearsed having to take a penalty kick or game-winning field goal straight after running fifty meters, or do you take twenty shots in a row? The latter never happens in a match so you need to practice under as realistic conditions as possible. Stop playing soccer after five minutes, line up for a penalty, take it, and then resume play for another five minutes.
Rehearse shorter and longer rest periods between maximal efforts than your ‘perfect’ amount of time. You need to be confident that you can lift, throw or run your best even without the perfect preparation
4. Visualize success
Finally, visualize yourself lifting the most weight you can, throwing the javelin the furthest you can, and flying out of the blocks as soon as you hear the gun. As long as you have done all the required training (and you trust your coach to take care of tactics) then the most important thing is to be confident in your approach.
I know that you are facing a strong opponent then you can visualize making a good tackle, or doing a great sidestep and cutting to run around them. Once you get into the competitive arena you can focus on the task at hand and the process of executing a good technique. But, in a week or two before you compete, think of what success looks like.
You might get beaten in a competition but that is the nature of the sport. What isn’t okay is beating yourself through a lack of preparation.