The example that comes to mind is that when we see great athletes compete on television, we don’t often consider what happens behind the scenes when the cameras are turned off. In actuality, the few minutes spent competing under the lights are a small part of the thousands of hours they devote to the sport. The iceberg metaphor is frequently used to depict the hidden parts of an athlete’s life.
For young aspiring athletes, this realization is critical. The reality is that you spend the majority of your time practising and preparing. If young athlete wants to pursue a career in elite athletics, they must be aware of this reality.
Performers’ social media accounts in the digital era certainly provide a peek into this world, albeit one that is skewed. The constant references to the grind on social media are completely harmful from this perspective. Rather, because training takes up the majority of a top performer’s time, aspiring high performers should learn to embrace and love the process.
THE UNDER-Appreciated Aspects of Athlete Preparation…
It’s critical to think about the bits we can’t see. In truth, coaches and practitioners have little control over much of what an athlete does. Even when I was working full-time with a team or an individual athlete, the amount of time they spent in my company was still a small part of their overall day. A percentage of any athlete’s preparation and self-management is done unsupervised outside of supervised training sessions. Perhaps the most recent period is the best illustration. Individuals were forced to find a means to train on their own for a lengthy period due to circumstances. It has been the final test of the individual performer’s commitment to invest in the goal without direct coaching supervision and away from their usual training setting in certain aspects. Beyond training, an individual’s daily decisions and how they live their lives outside of the training facility have a significant impact on the outcome. Sleep and diet are two of the most significant factors, both of which are mainly in the athlete’s control because most of this occurs while the athlete is not under the supervision of the coaches. This is understandable; after all, it is their show.
When it comes to planning and programming, however, the unknowns and random aspects that are beyond the coach’s direct control provide a challenge. Our ability to foresee the future in general, and how another human would respond in particular, is quite limited. Because of the inherent uncertainty, the strategy must adjust as events unfold, and we must be flexible in terms of what we offer on any given day, depending on the athlete’s condition.