Is your thinking front to back? I think everyone would agree that now more than ever, our talented young players are under more pressure than ever to perform. If player shows any amount of promise, it would seem that it is acceptable for him to be thrust into competitive situations at every available opportunity. In the beginning, the player will willingly accept this and push himself. After all, who doesnt want the recognition attached to being one of the few who is first on the team sheet? Over time, this can become a problem. Gradually, the same player may find he is training or playing far too often. This can be a combination of training with a club team, a league representative team, perhaps training with the emerging talent program and not to mention competitive club matches at the weekend. Now add in extra matches for an older team with the same club and training or matches for the school team. And we havent even touched on other sports. What started out as something that was fun and enjoyable, can turn into a burden. The player himself will feel that he shouldnt miss a game and that he must give 100% during every training session. He is under pressure to perform at his maximum level at all times yet he is never given the time to recover. Warmups and cool downs are given only a passing mention. Injuries creep in and are ignored because as we are all aware, if you lose your place for your club team, you may not get it back. And so the issues begin to snowball. Strength and mobility issues that need to be worked on are ignored. A player may find he is falling behind and now has niggling groin or hamstring issues that just wont go away. Questions begin to pile up and very few answers are given. The question we would ask of a player with aspirations of playing at the highest level is this. Whats most important to you and what is it you want to do best every week? Most would say that they want to be at their best for their club team every week. With this in mind, we recommend that elite and aspiring elite level players need to change their way of thinking. Instead of filling up the week from front to back and hoping for the best at the weekend, work backwards. Structure the week towards delivering an excellent performance when it is needed most. Think about introducing specific and structured strength, mobility and correctional work. And finally, consider cutting back on playing time and adding in extra rest & recovery days as needed. If you found this information useful, please like and share this article. If you have any questions, post them in the comments below. #rest #recovery #accelerateperformancecoaching
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 20:55:19 +0000