“How to reach the limit for the European Championships or
Olympics”
The World Athletics Championships in Beijing China have
now ended, but now come two new challenges- The European Championship in
Amsterdam and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. How many athletes could
not participate in the World Cup? For
some, it was because they could not reach the limit set for the competition, and
for others it was even more painful, as their distance stood a few centimeters
away from the qualifying limit imposed by the IAAF.
I really feel the pain of those athletes , and personally
I had have lived through very painful experiences with respect to these
decisions, but I want to tell all those athletes that it is never too late and never give up.
Only you as an athlete can change this situation and give yourself new plans to
address the next two major competitions which are coming up.
Before you begin the preparation, you have to be aware of
what it is that you really want, and analyse everything that you have to leave
behind in order to achieve these goals. If you think that your conditions will
not allow you to achieve your goals, then don't waste your time, as you will
only receive another disappointment.
Here I write some ideas of what you can do to achieve
those goals
Note: Each coach has to work with the objectives of
assessing the problems to improve the athlete.
The first thing to do is, a deep analysis the work done
this year, and a review of the training program which led up to the world championships.
- Here you have to check very well, all technical and
tactical factors, from the preparation stage until the competition
- Injury or illness that caused the noncompliance of the
training program
- The nutrition and rest
- The psychological character of the athlete
In the technical and tactical factors, many coaches make
the mistake of focussing ,eg on working
to improve the speed, because this was the biggest problem that caused the
athlete to not reach the desired limits.
The problem is, that when we focus to improve a technical failure, often
without realizing it, we forget other factors which may be harmful to
fulfilling 100% the technique. Everything in triple jump has to be balanced
from the approach until the final jump.
Imagine a chain with 4 links in a straight line, and
visualize the chain in this way;
Approach---hop--- step--- jump
If one link is broken (in this case the approach), and
you try to stretch the chain, it probably will break .When we repair this link
(approach) we have to re-polish the material in order to maintain it`s strength
and quality. This process will maintain the strength, stability and quality and
that will improve performance (remember that when the technique is good we avoid
injuries). This is exactly what happens with
many jumpers, most focus on improving a single technical defect and they
begin to lose quality in the other technical aspects and of course this causes
a destabilization of the balance which unfortunately ended with poor results.
It is highly important to pay attention to all the elements of the technique,
and not just focus on one thing.
Injuries and illnesses during training are something that
greatly affects the results of an athlete, therefore it is important to have a
regular medical check. If an athlete misses training just for one day for
whatever reason, immediately he will
start losing centimeters in their preparation. Punctuality in training is very
important even when the athlete has an injury. If he has an injury, for example in the knee or
ankle, the coach should organize a special training program for the athlete to
keep continuing with their physical activities. Of course if you cannot use
your legs, the program should be
dedicated to train the upper body
for example; Core stability, abs etc.
Too often, we see
many jumpers devote most of their efforts to control and improve
techniques and physical fitness,
neglecting other key aspects such as rest and food. We have to take into
account the physical demands which elite
athletes are subjected to daily ,both in training and competition ,and the
potential impact on performance, which could result in not following a diet according to their
energy needs. It is important to note that adequate food will not be enough to
win a competition, but with a poor diet, even if there are good preparations,
you can lose a sporting event.
I want to clarify that a balanced diet will help the
jumper to keep in good health and make the most of their potential physical
abilities to get the best results. I also want to clarify that there are no
food or miracle diets that allow one to achieve a spectacular result.
If after having analyzed all the factors you discover
that everything was achieved 100% and there was no problem that caused such
poor results, then you have to deeply analyze the psychological factor. There
are many athletes who during training get to jump several times over the 16.60m
or 16.70m but at the time of the competition always stay below the 16.20m
16.30m. Here we are in the presence of a mental block that causes the low
result in any competition. Although many athletes do not trust a sports
psychologist, I recommend that when you are with this performance problem the
best thing to do is try to talk to a sport psychologist.
In conversations with different athletes I always hear
the same thing, I am 29 or 32 years old with personal record of 16.20 or 16.85m
and I have not the support needed to train five days a week and because of my
age it is impossible to get a sponsor. Forget the sponsor and forget that you
are 33 old, find yourself a good coach and the first thing you have to do is:
- Listen to your coach and of course make sure that he also
is able to listen to you
- Trust your coach 100%
- Analyze every detail of the training program, even
changes that occur during the weeks
- Be present in each daily training
- Do not try to push your body, wanting to do more than
what is programmed,
- Take seriously every break, programmed by your coach
