By; Dr. Alan Hetherington/ Sports Injury Writer
- Many athletes believe their competition ends when the game is over. This approach is not an issue if you play for fun, but if you want to reach your greatest potential, you are giving up significant opportunities to improve. Approximately two percent of US high school athletes go to compete in NCAA Division I sports. If you are not gifted with natural talent or the financial resources to advance quicker, it can be difficult to get to the next level. Individuals with more talent will have an advantage, requiring you to work harder and remain healthier if you hope to defeat them.
- In order to do so, you need to regulate your life towards your peak performance. It requires you to compete with the lazy voice in your head. Without incredible natural talent, you need to optimize your health and training to reach your best as an athlete. The major components to excel in are your mindset, training, preparation and recovery, sleep, and nutrition. If you perform in each category to your best ability, you will reach your greatest athletic potential. I experienced this first hand, going from an average cross country runner in grade nine to an NCAA All-conference runner.
- Mindset
- A strong mindset is the foundation of success. If you are not disciplined and resilient, it does not matter what your mission is because you will be easily diverted from it. The rest of this article will not help you if you cannot nail down your mindset. Everyone wants success, but very few are willing to sacrifice immediate gratification to achieve it. Doing hard things is not fun. It demands discipline and holding yourself accountable. Making realistic goals and actionable steps will lead you through your seasons without falling off track.
- You have to work harder than athletes with more talent. A devotion to self-improvement allows you to make up ground on the naturally talented and does not leave the opportunity for others to work harder than you. Consistent habits take discipline and are required to remain a healthy and successful athlete. Withstanding physical hardship requires strenuous effort to maintain belief in yourself. Obstacles must be turned into challenges instead of consuming you, “I don’t like it, I’m not good at running” is immaterial if you have any hopes of being an athlete. Being good at things you do not like is a necessity for many sports. Finding ways to overcome the mental barriers you place on yourself will make you better in sport and life. It is what great athletes do.
- Training
- Once you have developed a mindset driven towards athletic excellence, the easiest way to improve is by performing to your best in every practice drill and shift in the game. You will not improve if you skip practice, but if you show up and do not try your best, you are still wasting opportunities to improve. You have limited time to train and need to extract the most value you can out of your one to two hours of training sessions. Being focused in training prepares you for in-game situations. Giving up early on drills, going easy with ten minutes left in practice will give you the same results when it matters most. It is incredible how much better you can get from showing up and working as hard as possible in practice. I learned from experience, my performance from grade nine to ten cross country substantially improved simply from deciding to run every day with the goal of training to my best ability. If you go into practice trying to win drills and perform to your greatest capacity everyday for years, you will rise above the athletes that do not work as hard as you.
- Preparation / Recovery
- You need to train harder than everyone, but you also need to take care of your body better than anyone else. Your effort will go to waste if you do not because you will spend more time injured on the sidelines. If all you do is work hard but do not take the proper time to prepare and recovery from physical activity, eventually you will pay for it with poor performance or injury. Physical activity is beneficial for your health, but you need to prime your body for sports and help it recover for the next session. Proper warm-up helps prime your body for athletic movements. Your warm-up gets your muscles and nervous system coordinated for the sports as seen with the FIFA11+ warm-up that was developed to prevent non-contact injuries in soccer. Sitting around before you play will leave you unprepared and at a disadvantage before the game begins.
- Sports work your body in repetitive movements that your body can handle at the right dose. Chronically overloading certain muscle groups can lead to dysfunctional movement patterns that eventually fail and can lead to pain and injuries. Investing time after your athletics to keep you body operating optimally is less costly than spending a long period injured. Stretching, performing mobility exercises, and seeking regular treatment to manage aches and pains can help keep muscles and joints in proper function. Giving yourself proper maintenance so you can perform at your highest level will put you ahead of your competition.
- Sleep
- Sleep is for champions. Professional athletes that prioritize rest and sleep perform at their best. You cannot burn the candle at both ends and expect to perform well over a long season. Whether you claim to not need much sleep or feel alright after late nights, the fact is that you need adequate sleep at the right time to recover from your day. This is particularly true if you are training for sports five to six days per week. It is under appreciated how important sleep is to your performance. Sleep deprivation can negatively impact reaction time, reduces speed and muscle strength, worsens mood, increases HR, alters circulating cytokines which can increase sensitization to pain.
- Early in your season you may not notice the negative effects but towards the end of the season when you have worked hard and need that extra bit of energy, the difference could be whether you have good sleeping habits. It takes discipline to commit to a bed time when there are distractions of cell phones and social media. A routine of avoiding bright light two hours before bed, avoiding late caffeine, and having a cool, quiet room are good places to start. If you can control you sleep habits and avoid distraction, you have a rare skill that no amount of additional athletics training will teach you.
- Diet
- If you want to perform at your best, you need to fuel your body for high performance. Nutrition is highly debatable. There is no perfect diet for everyone, but there are general principles that anyone can benefit from. Avoiding ultra-processed foods is a standard to adhere to. Food like potato chips and soda are obvious to avoid but even granola bars and sports drinks are highly processed, containing chemical compounds and seed oils used to maximize shelf life. Convenience comes at a cost and you are the one that pays it. If all you do is remove ultra-processed, packaged food and eat whole foods, you are well ahead of the average athlete.
- Emphasize protein in your diet with preference for natural sources. This is the most important nutrient for repair and development of tissues. Animal-based sources are high in essential amino acids and are the easiest form to ensure adequate consumption with a busy schedule. Finding meat, eggs, and dairy at butcher and natural food shops beats the bargain bin at grocery stores in terms of quality and satisfaction. Focusing on protein will also help with satiety and avoid filling up on empty calories. For your nutrition to aid your athletic performance subtracting ultra-processed foods, focusing on adequate protein and filling in your diet around it are good first steps.
- Conclusion
- Athletes like Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, were not the greatest athletes from a young age. They were competitors on and off the field and over time became the best. You can achieve your greatest potential as an athlete if you develop the mindset to compete with yourself everyday. Compete for every practice drill, compete to be the best prepared and recovered, compete to sleep the best, and eat with your performance in mind. Even if you do not want to be the greatest athlete, you can still strive to be the best you can be because it translates into the real world and we need more people who are on a mission to be the best version of themselves in health and in life.
References
Sadigursky D, Braid JA, De Lira DNL, Machado BAB, Carneiro RJF, Colavolpe PO. The FIFA 11+ injury prevention program for soccer players: a systematic review. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. 2017 Nov 28;9:18. doi: 10.1186/s13102-017-0083-z. PMID: 29209504; PMCID: PMC5704377.
Charest J, Grandner MA. Sleep and Athletic Performance: Impacts on Physical Performance, Mental Performance, Injury Risk and Recovery, and Mental Health. Sleep Med Clin. 2020 Mar;15(1):41-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jsmc.2019.11.005. PMID: 32005349; PMCID: PMC9960533.