Going into championship season athletes are struggling to make last-minute changes to their training, to their mindset, and diet. What are the best changes an athlete should make at this point in the season?
The short answer is none. Any changes made in haste are best not made at all.
Any changes made in haste are best not made at all. Tweet ThisSome blatantly obvious changes may be worth making even this late in the season. These are the things you should’ve been doing all along as an athlete. These are the big-ticket items like eating more vegetables, getting an appropriate amount of sleep (for a developing athlete, this should be no less than 8 hrs / night).
Other more nebulous items may fall into a grey area that may be best left until next season. These are things, generally proven to be safe and effective, but may not be worth the minimal risk they present.
These changes that I advise against are things like supplement changes, large scale training overhauls, or recovery enhancement techniques to which you lack exposure.
Going into championship season, an athlete may look to supplementation for a quick fix. Usually in the form of pre-workouts or caffeine in general. Caffeine has been proven relatively safe, effective, and the volume at which it becomes a banned substance in most sporting federations is astronomically high. But caffeine can potentially cause adverse reactions in some. The day of a big game or event is not the day to find out if you’re in the slim minority that experience any ill-effects.
The time to play with these variables is early on in the season. The pre-season is fair game for doing all the AB Testing that you can handle. As it relates to athletic performance, AB Testing refers to regularly swapping side-by-side variables and seeing which of the two options yields better results.
As the in-season advances towards championship season, the majority of your training and event-day variables should begin to line up. This ensures that you have a stellar championship day performance strategy based on dozens of tests and experiences.
The acceptable last chance for change should be the last competition before the beginning of the championship season. If you’re lucky enough to be in a sport or division where you know you’ll be handed a win in a particular event during your sport’s respective playoff season, this may be a good opportunity for manipulating these variables as well.
If you’re playing to win, you need to take the entirety of the season seriously and as a chance to elicit the changes you’d like to see as part of your pattern of behavior come championships. Even a generally very favorable change like Vitamin D supplementation can cause ill-effects in some (hot-tip: if Vitamin D gives you headaches the culprit it is likely a magnesium deficiency). Don’t start thinking about being the best version of yourself when championships show up because then it’s too late. If you’re too close to this year’s championship season now, attack with all of the skill set that you’ve developed and all of the ferocity that you have. But don’t let next year’s championships get out of mind.
If you’re too close to this year’s championship season now, attack with all of the skill set that you’ve developed and all of the ferocity that you have. But don’t let next year’s championships get out of mind. Tweet this