High Performance and sports psychology in athletes

To achieve good results in sports performance, it is crucial to maximize all available resources I.e. physical, technical and mental. Only then they can pass the limits themselves, expand the capabilities and aspire to be on top of the discipline.

The aim is to forge elite athletes, using special processing techniques, evaluation, diagnosis, training, nutrition, rest, etc.

At high levels of competition differences, marks and performance psychology play a fundamental role and stand out as the key issue in preparing competitive athletes. However in many cases, it’s a shame that many athletes do not have adequate specialists in this field for mental psychological work.

Current high performance requirements demand another level of professionalism to be at the level of the best. Many strategies that work for acceptable performance do not work for high performance and can even be contradictory. Many mechanisms usually used to create confidence in athletes end up being negative. Improving mental performance is a process that requires time and patience. The process allows elaborating the concepts to change old assumptions and beliefs by more advanced and revolutionary premises.

To expect an instant result, is to not understand the workings of the mind in sport. Professional work with the athlete should consider the mental aspect at the beginning of the road. Many athletes seek help with the sports psychologist in a crisis of results; this shows the lack of importance of the mental aspect. The results of the sports psychologist's work can only be seen after several weeks of work.

The results are not direct but in less than a month, if the job is well done  it can reap the first results. The principles of sport psychology are difficult to implement, but the extent to which you can improve the athlete, the higher level of development.

Each coach must have knowledge of sports psychology to generate their own thoughts and apply them with his originality and personal style to his athletes. Many coaches and athletes are successful but that does not necessarily mean they are  clear how they reached this success. Looking at the World Athletics Championships in China recently, many athletes arrived with a good personal record and were favorites for the tournament , but many of them never reached the final. This explains how essential   is psychological work with the athlete. If an athlete is well prepared physically, and has had good results throughout the season, but at the time of the great competition does not get the expected results, obviously there is a lack of mental preparation along the way to competition. It should be noted that many athletes do not believe in sports psychology and believe that with hard training can create a strong mentality. They forget that if the brain is not sufficiently prepared for action, his body never receives the message expected to achieve great results.

Although I have spoken about this subject many times, it seems that some people still don't quite understand how to divided a training program en sessions.

High jump, pole vault, long and triple jump

Each of the four Olympic jumps, high, pole, long and triple jump, have specific aspects but  also have differences, which would be necessary to analyze in a more detailed study of the subject. In this case it is much more instructive to consider them interchangeably.

Let's start by saying that the work of the jumpers is not the same all year long. Looking to the requirements of the current sports training as principles of progressivity, specificity, alternation, etc, we can consider it divided into three periods which match somewhat with the season’s weather ,as follows;

Period 1- Winter. - Generic preparation or General preparation, (November-February).

Period 2- Spring period. - Or specific preparedness and fitness or Pre-competition period (March to May).

Period 3- Summer period - Or competition and maintenance of the shape (June-October).

Note: It should be clear that when we are talking about professional athletes or elite athletes these phases  become four periods. The fourth period, I personally called (transition period) this is a small period of two months (September and October). After breaks the athletes have to do a preparation to enter in to the winter period (or general preparation).  

This period many athletes consider it the strongest period of the year. I work with this period only depending on the quality and results of the athlete during the year.

The work is not strictly the same in each of these phases having a logically phased transition from season to season

OUTLINE OF TRAINING PURPOSES:

In short, all the annual preparation of the jumpers is focuses on the acquisition and increase of the general condition (physiological improvement) and specific power, technique and speed, loading more emphasis on one aspect or another depending on the time of preparation.

DEVELOPMENT OF GENERAL CONDITIONS

1. - The race in all its forms: interval training; followed by cross forest, beach or park; "Fartlek" or "cross entertainment" using the natural terrain obstacles for sandwich spontaneous series of jumps and exercises.
2. - The practice of sports association, including volleyball and basketball, thereby forcing the athlete to jump almost constantly.
3. - The "circuit training", I.e.the strengthening of bodybuilding system. The next distribution of exercises and repetition brings the at the same time improvements of the overall organic strength.

WINTER PHASE

Its no exaggeration to say that this period represents the fundamental part of the preparation of every athlete and therefore,  can be considered as sub-divided into two parts:

First sub period or start (October to December).

Characteristics:

1. General Condition: Increased numbers of fractional sessions, cross race or "fartlek" circuits and association games, it seeks primarily organic progressive improvement after the short period of inactivity.

2. Empowerment: Beginning of the generic preparation with progressively increasing loads and  a few specific preparation exercises, (no technical or sprint).

Second sub period, or proper winter preparation. (January February)

Characteristics:

1. - General Condition: Continuing races and games.
2. - Empowerment: Maximum intensity of generic and progressive exercises

Note; when we are talking about professional athletes in this period there has to be a special change in the programme.Remember that athletes are beginning the indoor competitions in December and I as a professional coach particularly use these competitions to measure the athlete's development during the period. Of course everything depends on the training program and the competitions scheduled for next year. If the World Cup is scheduled in the program as part of the most  important competitions of the year, the general Terms and empowerment have to be different.

SPRING PHASE

As I said, this pre-competitive phase is the most technical, stylistic and physical.

Characteristics:

- General Conditions: First games,  and then cross sessions, gradually decreasing .

- Empowerment: Reduced in intensity, to improve an explosive performance and quality.

- Technical: . Assimilation of the special jumps exercises.  Complete jumps with full approach which will progressively increase.

- Sprint: 100-120-150 Series 75-80% speed, 50-60-80 Series 90%, on track or grass.

SUMMER PHASE

During this period, are the competitions themselves who determine the distribution of training throughout the week.