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Nike Has It Right: Just Do It!
By WILLIAM J PRICE
Saluki Head Coach
The new season is just
started and for some it may seem like the championship series is a lifetime
away. But, as with everything in life, events have a way of sneaking up on
us when we're not paying attention.
At the beginning of the season
all windows of opportunity are open, all possibilities exist, many things
are planned. But the thing about opportunities is not simply that they
exist--they're all over the place if we just look--but rather what people
make of them. Recognizing an opportunity is one thing. Doing something with
it is another.
At this time of year the
big rocks of training have to
be placed in the tank if opportunities for top performances in February and
March are to be realized. 6 or 7 months from now is not
really that far away. To a high school aged athlete though it's a big percentage of his life and it's
easy to put things off until later.
Preparation for
the big things is a continuing process. Lance Armstrong did not hop out of
bed on Memorial Day and decide to enter the Tour de France. The
preparation for such an event had to begin years before. And, at the time,
the Tour may not even have been part of the plan but because of his
preparation the window of opportunity
opened a little wider and, perhaps without anyone noticing at first, riding in
the Tour gradually became a possibility.
When athletes fall short of
expectations at end of season meets the reason can usually be traced
to inadequate training. Barring illness or injury, infrequent training
habits are the biggest culprit behind poor performance. High school aged athletes
need practice--lots of it. Unfortunately there are many activities competing
for the high schooler's time and attention, few of which have any
beneficial effect on their swim training. A well trained athlete is a
disciplined athlete. They realize that although practicing on some days may
be easier than others the general principle guiding early season work is to
just do it.
To get the most out of the
training season athletes need to plan on attending every
practice right from the start. Here are some tips that
will help older athletes get on track and stay there:
Plan on attending every workout. Don't set artificial
schedules around what used to work when you were a 12-year-old. There will
be days when you absolutely cannot get to practice; when you are ill or
have an unusual amount of homework, for example. But if you attend every
practice then these occasional breaks in training will not have as much of
an effect as they would if coupled with an artificial schedule of 4 or 5
practices per week. This worked when you were 12. It won't work anymore.
Good training habits are
created by adopting a 'just do it' attitude. Although athletes may have to
make themselves get to practice early in the season it won't take long
before going to the pool everyday becomes a habit. When this finally
happens, when coming to practice everyday is the norm rather than the
exception, then the hardest lesson in training will have been learned.
Get the big rocks in the jar now. Don't plan on 'really
getting to work' after homecoming is done, or after soccer season is over
etc. By that time the big rocks, a solid foundation of cardiovascular
endurance training, are already in everyone else's jar. They won't be in yours
though because you missed much of the work that puts them there due to
other commitments. You'll never be in shape, you'll have trouble
completing workouts, and younger athletes will pass you by. You'll
become discouraged. After practices and meets you will feel like you're
living at the bottom of an avalanche of human misery. All of this will
occur because of a poor decision made early in the season.
Make the effort to understand what is going on at practice.
Because of the length of the short course season it's easy to think of
certain kinds of training sets as 'throw-aways' i.e. not that
important or something you can always pay more attention to on another
day. This is merely a rationalization for not putting the effort into the
workout. You think your putting things off until later. In reality you will
never get them done.
Take charge of your participation. It's important that high
school aged athletes are involved in planning their season. This includes
giving serious thought to the training schedule, setting goals in
conjunction with the coach, and signing up for the meets they need to
attend. It means knowing what's important to you as an athlete and
understanding your role in the club. Top athletes are role models and along
with athletic success comes a responsibility to help younger members get to
where you are now.
At younger ages
parents handle or manage their child's participation in the sport;
getting them to practice, figuring out what days they can attend, which
meets they can go to etc. This is essential when children are younger but as
athletes age it is they who have to take over these duties. Deep
cognitive involvement is necessary to any successful athletic endeavour.
The older an athlete is the
more they have to be actively involved in their participation. Not just
churning out the laps but really understanding why they're doing it, and with a clear idea of what they want to accomplish. Without
this depth of involvement results will be disappointing. With an attitude of
just do it athleticism though almost anything is possible. |