Tag Archive for: Peaking

GAINcast Episode 263: Odds and ends

Competition season is starting up again in many sports. We start this week’s GAINcast off by looking at how to best structure training in the days before a competition and how to learn what works best for your individual athletes. In addition we also talk about pre-meet workouts, psychological preparation, GPS data, single-factor models, and much more.

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HMMR Podcast Episode 286: Planning Q&A

It’s time to open the listener mailbag again. On this episode we answer listening questions, with a focus on questions about planning, organization, and even throw in a rant to top things off.

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Training do’s and don’ts #5: peaking and tapering

John Larralde has spoken at GAIN on preparing his milers to win California State high School championships. In his words: “Sometimes in the peaking process is not what you do it is what you don’t do.” Below are some thoughts on peaking and tapering, with some special considerations for how it applies to swimming.

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HMMR Podcast Episode 252: Talking shop

We’re trying something new on this week’s podcast. We don’t have a theme or key topic, we just have some friends on to share some ideas and see where the conversation goes. Adam Kuehl, Carrie Lane, and Brek Christensen join us to talk about rethinking peaking, the benefits of hiking for power athletes, the skillset of mid major coaches, and much more.

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What makes the difference in a championship?

This weekend’s European Indoor Championships marks the return of championships to track and field. After nearly 18 months without a major championship, both athletes and fans will get a reminder about what championships are all about. Performing well at a major championship is the main goal of any elite athlete, because, when they look back at their career, it is the medals that they will count the most. Asafa Powell may have run under 10 seconds nearly 100 times, but he’s remember just as much for the fact he never won a major title. Optimizing performance on the day of competition is therefore of critical importance, and a lot of time is spent—or at least should be spent—developing strategies to support competition day performance.

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What makes championships different?

Recognizing the importance of being able to perform on the day, coaches spend a lot of time developing training programs to support peaking, with a variety of different planning and periodization strategies in use. But the physiological side is just one factor that comes into play at championships.

In some events, primarily the middle- and long-distance events, performance at a championship may come down to tactical as opposed to physical differences, with elite athletes potentially putting themselves in better positions during the race, as opposed to focusing just on out-running their opponents. In addition to this, pacemakers are often used in Grand Prix meets, and are obviously not present at major Championships, which again may influence performance. Furthermore, performance management across multiple rounds of competition is also important at major championships and not a challenge the athlete often has to consider at Grand Prix meetings.

For example, when I competed at the 2007 World Championships, I had a 100m heat on the morning of day 1, quarter-final in the evening of day 1, and then semi-final and (had I qualified) final in the evening of day 2. In comparison, the majority of competitions on the athletics circuit are either one-off races, or a semi-final and final in quick succession. Being able to manage energy and performance across two days is, therefore, an additional issue for athletes looking to win medals at major championships.

Understanding competition dynamics

Being able to better understand the dynamics of competition day performance is, therefore, likely to be of considerable interest—and, fortunately for us, was the subject of a recent paper published in the European Journal of Human Movement. Here, the authors compared the seasons best performances of top-8 finishers at the World Championships and Olympic Games from 1999-2019 inclusive in sprint (100m & 400m), middle-distance (800m & 1500m) and long-distance (5000m) events to their Championships performance. Overall, 2472 male and 2463 female performances were analyzed, making this a very rich dataset.

The results make for interesting reading, and I’d encourage you to read the whole paper yourself as it’s open access. As a summary, for male medalists, there were no differences between pre-Championships SB and major championships performance in the 100m (e.g. average SB = 9.90 and average final performance = 9.89) and 800m events; in the 400m, the athletes were generally faster at the Championships (e.g. 44.4 as an average SB, compared to 44.24 average final performance); and, in the 1500m and 5000m (e.g. 13:00.89 as average SB, 13:20.31 as average finals performance), the athletes were typically slower at the Championships relative to their SB. For female medalists, there was no difference between SB and championship performance in the 100m (10.91 SB vs 10.90 finals); in the 400m (49.99 vs 49.61) and 800m performances were generally faster than SB; in the 1500m and 5000m (14:35.12 vs 14:50.01), performances were generally slower than the athlete’s SB.

For non-medal winning finalists, times in the Championships final were, on average, slower than their SBs. For example, in the men’s 100m, non-medal winning finalists had an average SB of 9.99 compared to an average finals performance of 10.10; in the women’s, this was 10.97 (SB) compared to 11.06 (finals).

Making sense of the numbers

What does all this mean? To me, it indicates that, in the sprints, medalists are better at performing at or close to their SBs than non-medalists. The causes of this might be varied; medalists might be better able to handle the stress and pressure of competition, for example, or have more experienced coaches who are better able to develop a taper and peaking process to optimize their Championship performance. They might also be able to better manage their energy across heats, semi-finals, and finals; this could be matched to ability, as, in both men’s and women’s 400m events, non-medal winners had to run closer to their SBs in the semi-finals that medal winners did, which may have a knock-on effect to finals performance.

In distance events, however, this is not the case; athletes were generally slower than their SBs, with the same relative differences between medalists and non-medal winners. This suggests that race tactics are of huge importance in the distance events at major Championships, with season’s bests having smaller than expected relevance to performance.

Preparing for championships

From the data presented in this paper, there are some potential interpretations that we can make to inform how we might prepare athletes for major Championship performance:

  1. For sprinters, maintaining performance levels at SB level is crucial for success; adequate training planning and periodization to deliver this is therefore a crucial performance strategy.
  2. Similarly, optimizing energy distribution across the rounds is an important aspect of success. One way to do this is to improve the performance level of the athlete (i.e. it’s easier to run 9.99 in a semi-final if your SB is 9.80 than if it’s 9.98), but, from a practical standpoint, training programs that develop this capacity are crucial, as are “on the day” interventions such as recovery, nutrition, sleep, etc.
  3. In endurance events, tactical ability appears to a crucial underpinning construct of success; as a result, coaches and athletes should look to develop this through training and competition, as opposed to merely focusing on developing physiological characteristics.

Whilst much (maybe even all) of the above seems obvious, the performance trends presented in this paper suggest that not everyone gets them right, so, hopefully, this data serves as a timely reminder!

HMMR Podcast Episode 199: Q&A

Our mailbag is full, so it’s time to go through some listener questions about a variety of topics. On this week’s episode we dive into questions on the barbell, peaking, explicit coaching, throwing technique, and how much strength is enough. Read more

Setting up training around a competition

Competing is the reason that we’re all involved in sport, and how you or your athlete performs in those competitions is what determines whether you’re a success or a failure; no one gets medals for good training programs. However, when discussing training theory, we tend to focus on the mechanics of physical preparation in the big picture, while neglecting the short periods of time directly before and directly after a competition. Read more

HMMR Podcast Episode 121: The Peak Master (with Dale Stevenson)

At this year’s World Championships Tom Walsh emerged as the surprise champion in the shot put. Insiders, however, were caught slightly less off guard as Walsh has been the most consistent big meet performer over the past few years. On this week’s episode his coach Dale Stevenson comes back on the show to discuss training both the mental and physical dimensions of peaking and how coaches can create processes to continue to improve even at the highest level. Read more

Coaching Pitfalls: Taper and Pre-season Training

Over the years, I have seen that there are two periods of the year where good coaching can go awry: The pre-season training period and the taper. Both are essential but both are fraught with perils and pitfalls characterized by the same root cause – the willingness/desire/need/obsession to do more than is necessary. Ultimately do to insecurity and lack of trust in the process. Read more

The Championship Season

It’s championship season in Track & Field. This is what everyone has been preparing for all year. Are your athletes ready? Rest assured at this time of year there is always doubt. Have I done enough? Have I done too little? The bottom line is that you must trust your preparation and assure your athletes that their preparation has been what they need. Read more