In the sports arena, peak performance in sports has always been a much sought after state by players and coaches of all levels.
Whether the athletes are school boys soccer players or Olympians striving for their Gold medals, peak performance in sports. In our modern age of sports. where sports science is at a stratospheric level and rising. are the factors that when applied correctly can lead sports participants to peak performance in sports?. Are there secrets to sporting excellence?. This article discusses the factors that can lead athletes and coaches to peak performance in sports.
There has been many articles and books detailing principles, programs, success factors and the like that can lead to peak performance in sports. Many authors have written at length about them and in many ways. The principles and factors are universal. The principles of progressive resistance, variety, goal specific training, recovery, etc are all undisputed underlying reasons that allows athletes to achieve peak performance in sports. This article goes a step further by exploring these universal factors in a different light. In the process, I hope to give athletes and coaches alike how to practically apply these principles and which are the factors with higher weight age in terms of achieving success and peak performance in sports.
Technical and human factors. Let us take a look at the former set of factors first;
Technical Factors
1. Quality Preparation
2. Mastering Individual Skills
3. High Fitness Levels
4. Understanding Overall Team Play
5. Filling Up Key Positions of the Team
6. Minimize Errors in Games
1. Quality Preparation
The hard work for any sports season begins with the preseason training which is very intensive. No body likes this season, as the work and training required is often very boring and painful. When players cut corners and put in training at face value without their heart and soul, it will show up later in the competition as fatigue, injuries or lack of sharpness in their performance. Peak performance in sports cannot be possible under such circumstances. The quality of preseason preparation is even more important in youth sports.
Very often in schools, the playing seasons for many sports start almost immediately when the school year starts. With our children away for long vacations, our athletes very often return to school to face competitions with very little training time. This kind of preparation is also detrimental to the development of our children.
Our athletes need to understand that that their season effectively began when their examinations are over. With a training program started, coaches and teachers can than instruct athletes about a vacation training program as well. Each athlete should have one whereby, they can do something to improve their playing abilities during their break away from school. It could include things like maintain a certain standard of fitness through endurance activities like cycling, running or swimming, playing catch and pitching in the backyard with their siblings, or even individual practices to improve certain skills. Simply planning and training this way will ensure quality preparation for the sports teams to attain peak performance in sports later.
2. Mastering Individual Skills
In basketball, dribbling and executing a proper lay-up are crucial. Throwing, catching and fielding skills are a must in baseball and softball. The push-pass and receiving a pass are necessary skills in hockey and floor ball. The list goes on. Without these skills, a coach will find it very difficult to execute more complex team plays to achieve peak performance in sports. If strikers cannot even control a long pass from a teammate, how can we expect the same player to hold up the ball well up field against oppositions defenders and execute lay-off passed to oncoming teammates in support. It will be wise for coaches to develop these skills early and also for players to keep improving themselves in these skills even though they might feel that they are good enough already.
Even at professional levels, these basic skills for their sports is important for peak performance in sports. At the highest levels where opponents are very evenly match in all areas, one mistake can often result in a win or loss. It is even more important for professionals to master all the skills required of the game or sports. Only under such intense conditions can peak performance in sports be possible.
3. High Fitness Levels
At high school levels, many athletes would not have reached their maximal physical development yet no matter how much they train. Physiologically speaking, the development in this area in youths is very varied. Some children reach a high fitness standard faster than others, while others have body types that will only respond to training optimally when they get older.
No matter how skillful your opponents are, if you are fitter than him or her, you will be able to overcome your lack of fitness by reacting rapidly to overcome your short fall. Let’s say, you are out dribbled by a more skillful opponent in soccer. But if you are fitter than your opponent who have just out-dribbled you, you will be able to track back fast enough to cover your position again. This edge in fitness for youth is very important at the later stages of the game too, as players tend to tire faster at this age. A fitter team will definitely be able to prevail and score more later in the game.
How about professionals?If they are not, their opponents will be and consequently, they will outperform them and reach their peak performance in sports. Generally speaking, professional sportsmen know how to get into great shape and maintain that till the end of the season.
4. Understanding Overall Team Play
The next factor of great importance in achieving peak performance in sports is understanding the overall team play by the players. Imagine a coach telling his charges to clear the balls down the flanks in any invasion game. The understanding behind their action is very often very little. They might not know that by playing the ball down the flanks or wing, it actually forces the opponents defence to spread wider, thus leaving more gaps in the middle for the attacker to exploit subsequently.
That is why, you often hear players or coaches shouting to their charges to ‘throw it down the line’. Young players love the direct route to goal and very often that means playing through the middle. This form of coaching if done properly, makes the players better players and improve their decision making on the pitch. And we are always looking for more thinking players in our pitch which will give the team a higher chance of achieving peak performance in sports.
5. Filling Up Key Positions of the Team
The fifth factor that can produce peak performance in sports is actually finding the right players to fill up the most key positions of the team first. The point guard in a basketball team is the driver of the team. he controls all plays. A center in ice-hockey is pivot in both defense and attack, hence he must be the best and fittest and most able player. The catcher in baseball is the key man, as he dictates and calls the pitches, and also sees the entire fielding situation.
I use to have a very talented and strong striker who loves to score goals. Unfortunately, I also have a big gap in goal-keeping and he happens to be the best handler of balls in the team. After much persuasion and sacrifice, he finally converted to a goal-keeper. It was not easy to make this move. But as the coach than, I felt that the goal-keeper is too important a player to let any Tom, Dick or Harry player, hence it must be the best. These result was the least number of silly errors from our goal-keeping department and that gave the team a much better chance to win games.This brings us to the last technical factor that influence peak performance in sports – making fewest errors.
6. Minimize Errors in Games
In sports these days, errors often decide the outcome of the game. Errors will be more plentiful at youth and children levels. The team that makes the fewest errors in any game will generally perform at their peak. More often than not, you will realize that a goal started from an error from the opponents somewhere. Or a point or run is a result of some players fumbling the ball. Making many silly errors will not lead a team to peak performance in sports. A team that is doing well makes the fewest errors. So coaches, make sure you train your players to understand this and do the right things in the game.
So far we have discussed the technical factors that will lead your team to peak performance in sports. Otherwise, it will be a waste of effort and time no matter how talented the team and players are.
In trying to achieve peak performance in sports, human factors are also very important. Understand and master these factors, and success and peak performance in sports is almost a sure thing. But very often these factors are often the hardest to achieved. Here we are drawing on the qualities of human beings to excel in different areas in order for them to reach their peak performance in sports. Very often, these qualities form the foundation of all athletic performances in sports. The players and coaches will find mastering these factors most difficult because we are dealing with intangible elements of human nature. Its easy to improve on your pitching skills, but to improve team spirit it has a lot more to do with just practicing a skill.
Fortunately, we only need to focus on two human factors here in order to achieve peak performance in sports.
Human Factors
1. Players’ Dedication and Commitment
2. Team Work and Team Spirit
The first factor deals with having dedicated and committed players. This is very much an individual player factor, but it is also the coach’s responsibility to reap the highest commitment and dedication from each player. We all know that every player is different, hence it requires different strategies to motivate different players.
Whatever the strategies. Failure to get the highest commitment and dedication from players will mean that training and match play.
The second human factor that leads to peak performance in sports is team work and team spirit. When team is able to work together to a level whereby players’ understanding is so good. Than the team will have reach the ultimate potential. Not just will tactical plays be good all round. But the effort to play for each other in the team will be so high. Players are willing to run and cover for each other more. And there is almost a magical factor in the team play.
Team effectiveness will improve. Players will not be playing for selfish reasons but rather for the common team goals. History provides wonderful elements for us to see team work in action. Very often, it was not teams with the most skills that won the competitions. But rather, the teams with the greatest team spirit and team work. When players are willing to set aside personal differences to play for greater team goals.
Training and reaching peak performance in sports is very often the dreams and aspirations of many coaches and players. At all levels of sports all athletes and their coaches want to achieve their peak performance in sports. It is a inner desire of human to succeed and be the best. These factors are important for any sports fans striving for peak performance in sports.