As I sat at a coaching session, one of the
county coaches had just started their course to go for senior coach award. One of the tasks was to write a 2000 word
essay on the theory of over train.
This would be a good blog post idea. What is it about and if it exists.
Overtraining is a simple concept; it is the
total focus on training to a point that it damages your ability[1]. So by trying too hard we will almost loose our integrity and become
worst at our sport. Now this can come in many forms and one of the examples is
with injury.
This is a tragic case when he suddenly
collapsed on the pitch during a football game.
The most excepted theory is that Fabrice Muamba went to an intense American
fitness camp club in Feburary of the same year[2]. It was surmised that
this had put an untold stress on his heart and turned it into time bomb just
waiting for it to give up. This theory can never be proven, but if true it does
indicate the risks of overtraining.
It is not just fitness the pressure and
stress of training can also cause anxiety. The mental stress is similar
to job stress and it is well known that a broker’s job is stressful[3].
These examples could be result of over
training, with both the sportsman and brokers going for gold at all cost, with
themselves being the ultimate sacrifice. Yet training is not simply the number of hours
shooting or working, it covers a number of areas like[4].
- Technique.
- Psychology.
- Fitness.
- Nutrition.
With the case of Fabrice Muamba it could be
argued that too much effort in fitness caused him to bow out from the game and
too much stress with the brokers affects their Psychology/mental state with
similar results.
So have these athlete’s/workers neglected
parts of their training program by focusing too much on one section, thereby
leading to under performance?
This is possible; Simon Needham discovered
that by shooting less number of arrows the week before a major competition
actually improved his performance[5]. So before this realisation was he overtraining
and focusing too much on shooting?
It could be that he was neglecting the
other aspects of your training program or it is possible that his previous
training program was not entirely suited to him.
Fabrice Muamba and brokers is a clearer
example of overtraining and Simon Needham is less so. What can be gleamed from both examples is that
regular review of an athletes training program is key to maintaining peak
performance.
This leads back to the original question;
does over training exist? Yes I feel it does; there are too many examples of
professional and amateur athletes bowing out from the game due to overtraining.
The bigger question to answer is though can
the effects of overtraining be nullified by a complete training program?
Maybe as a complete program should be
reviewed regularly, tailored to the athlete and complete in such a manner to
maximise performance and minimise risk. Training programs can often be far
reaching as current thinking (particularly in cycling world) is all about
marginal gains to edge victory.
Reference
[5] the Art of Repetition Simon Needham pg 103
