5 Keys to Training Like an Athlete

First posted by Gareth Houley at Anytime Health.

In a lot of cases we will find an athlete that plays a sport we love to watch (one of the many sports I love to watch is golf and watching Adam Scott win the US Masters earlier in the year inspired me to action) or exhibits a character that we aspire to (for this its hard to go past the professionalism and longevity of both Roger Federer and Kelly Slater).

But you may have thought:

1. I don’t have the know how to train like that or
2. I don’t have the time to train like them. Here are 5 Key points that all athletes in the modern sporting arena need to do.

Specificity

Every sport is different and you can see by the physique of the athletes that training in particular ways will give you different results so an athlete will need to be specific for their sports needs. That specificity is determined by the fitness components of the sport. For example a tennis player needs a lot of leg strength and quickness, plus dynamic flexibility and balance with quick reaction times. Their training program is obviously different to a 5,000m runner at the Olympics who needs a massive aerobic capacity and a great ability to push above their anaerobic threshold but mainly move in a straight line. Also, an athlete’s goal may be different for each season. Some may want to crack into the top 10 in their sport, others may want to have consistency in their skills or it might be as simple as achieving a personal best. To train like athletes we need to be specific. Specific to our sport, specific for our abilities and specific for the goals we want to achieve.

Assess and Reassess!

For an athlete to know where they need to get to they need to know where they are at that moment. This requires extensive assessment and testing of physical components like girth measures, body fat percentage, lean muscle mass, hydration status and the list goes on… It also requires testing of performance indicators. Such as max lifts, 40m sprints, 1km/1.6km/5km time trials, video analysis of technical aspects, GPS data and again the list can go on. What gets measured gets managed so athletes will be measured on things that correlate to their goals. Assessment and then reassessment is the perfect place to start for anyone who wants to achieve improvements in performance.

Fundamentals

Elite performance is about autonomy. Being so good at the fundamentals that when the pressure is on your skills hold up, your body is fueled and rested, and your mental state allows you to deal with the pressure rather than crack under it. There are 5 fundamental aspects that athletes have to address which are the same for all sports and Australian sports betting sites who bets on athletes.
They are

1. The movement patterns specific to that sport
2. Hydration of their tissues
3. Optimal nutrient rich nutrition
4. Sleep rest and recovery and finally
5. Positive psychology

If these sound familiar that is because they are the same fundamentals required to life a health life. (for more details look at the personal trainers story blog) The differing point here is the depth that athletes and their coaches can go into to maximize their performance.

Professionalism

This is the hardest aspect for normal people like you and me (and some athletes) to follow. Professionalism requires an unwavering compliance to the program that is set out for them. The better the athlete can comply with the program the better the projected results. Professionalism also allows for personalization of the individuals program matching to the specific goals and needs of each athlete. In the real world professionalism is synonymous with planning and preparation. The better prepared you are the more likely you are to comply with your program.

Performance

The final component is the performance itself. Showing up on the big day and performing to the best of your ability. The performance is usually determined weeks in advance and dependent of the training, professionalism and quality of the months leading up to the event. At this point the athlete needs to be in the moment and ready to play! We all need to have that time to achieve. Whether it is going for an Olympic gold or you just have to step up to the plate and play with your kids the result will be determined by how we you have done the previous 4 steps.

See if you can use these 5 keys and adapt them to your personal journey and perform beyond what you thought possible.