Page 28 - Team TTO PARIS 2024
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Most athletes are doing their
                                                                   best to manage little niggles, if
                                                                   not outright injuries and go into
                                                                       competition with just the
                                                                       right amount of races and
                                                                    training load under their belt.
                                                                          As Richards stressed,
                                                                    “you don’t want to go into the
                                                                      Games over raced, but you
                                                                             don’t want to be
                                                                           under raced either.”





            How then do the world’s best athletes prepare for
            once in a lifetime moments like the Olym-pics Games   Training is also periodised. Coaches typically break
            – preparation. Swim coach, Mark Pouchet stressed   down their plans into specific time blocks. Each block
            that coaches do not consider their training plans as a   has a goal and provides the body with different types
            means to prevent injury. Instead these carefully   of stress. The aim is to stress the body over time, allow
            constructed programmes are devised to condition    it to recover and then stress it again. This allows
            athletes so they can withstand the challenges of a   athletes to train for and build particular types of fitness
            season, “with peaks at the right time.”            including speed endurance, strength and or anaerobic
                                                               capacity. Whatever is needed for a particular sport, the
            Preparation and conditioning for elite athletes is   best coaches develop mi-cro and meso cycles to
            targeted, specific and at its base a combina-tion of   achieve specific results.
            science, hard work and faith. Every athlete is different,
            the requirements of every sport differs, and the   On his approach to training, Richards said, “Preparation
            qualification criteria and timelines for each Olympic   never stops. We operate in a four year cycle, so every
            sport varies. The objective of targeted, precise   year you’re trying to build the foundation for the next
            planning, is to ensure that training and recovery   year. For Track & Field athletes, every year is either
            periods are matched not only to each athlete, but   World Champs, Commonwealth or Olympics. Ideally
            designed to build and improve on existing strengths,   coaches try to get you to where you need to be for
            while mitigating weakness.                         national trials and games. As the meets get closer, the
                                                               load in practice gets lighter because coaches are trying
            It all starts with testing. It is not uncommon for   to give athletes their legs back.”
            athletes from powerhouse nations including the US,
            UK, Australia, China and Germany to be the subject of   When it comes to ‘peaking’ at the right time, Richards,
            research and testing with a clear focus on identifying   said, “You want to open your season, in your zip code,
            and minimising deficiencies.                        which is somewhere close to your personal best and
                                                               with each competition get progressively faster.”
            Tests on body composition and power determine
            which areas are weak, tight or below aver-age. A   Decorated Olympian Michael Johnson, recently
            strength programme would then be designed to       weighed in on this topic on the social media platform X
            address weaknesses while still hitting the core areas.   saying, “Fast times in April doesn’t mean an athlete will
            Nutrition is also prioritised and blood work is often   keep running fast in the coming months. It simply
            used to tell athletes what supplements they should   shows what they’re capable of. Next step is figuring
            take, how they should eat and how best they can    out how to replicate that time in the biggest moments
            recover. Little things matter at this level. Sleep quality,   2-3 months from now. Fast times in April also doesn’t
            and an adequate warm up are not variables, train-ing   mean an athletes can’t replicate it later. The peaked too
            or supplements can address but their impact should   early theory has never been proven and makes no
            not be discounted.                                 sense.”





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