Planning Backwards
Before reading this blog, firstly complete this maze doing it from start to finish. Time how long it takes you.
Now try to complete this maze backwards from finish to start. Which method was quicker?
My guess is that going backwards was quicker.
As you can see, working backwards is much more effective than working forwards.
How does this relate to planning backwards as an athlete you ask? Well, if we use the same analogy, if you start planning backwards from dream goal, the vision becomes a lot clearer, and you can put into action the steps necessary to get there. To plan backwards you might want to ask yourself questions such as these:
What do you need to do to achieve your dreams as an athlete?
Draw out your roadmap with your end destination at the start of that map.
Do you know where you want to be in 1 year? What about 5 years? Or 10 years?
You may also need to consider some of these factors:
Your end goal. For most athletes it’s probably going to be related to success in their sport. it could be winning a premiership or becoming a world champion. For others it might just be to have their first fight. Whatever it is, have the big picture in mind.
Work out what you need to do to surround yourself with people who align with your goals They can maintain high training quality and keep you motivated and disciplined.
A continuation of the previous point. Build a team. It’s hard to achieve success alone. Find coaches that you trust and that help you to develop your skills. For physical preparation, seek out a strength and conditioning coach. For nutrition, a dietitian. For injury management, a physiotherapist. The most important factor to a team is that they also communicate with each other.
Of course, building such a team can be quite costly for athletes who aren’t part of multi-million-dollar organisations. You need to figure out ways to fund these resources. It might be working another job, teaching something within your sport or gaining sponsors. This is often an under-looked aspect of being an up-and-coming athlete.
Below is an example of how an athlete can apply some of these considerations into their future plans.
Skill Development
When you start a new sport, find a coach who is good at teaching you the fundamentals. As you progress, you should have a coach who can teach you skills that are effective against other high-level opponents. For combat athletes, try to find a respected gym as this usually means good training partners. Off-site training can be super beneficial to see where your skill level is at. Training with the same people all the time can become redundant at a certain point as your training partners begin to know your game.
Pyschology
For motivation and discipline find a training schedule that is realistic enough that you can adhere to consistently. It’s important to finding time outside of training so you don’t burn yourself out too. You may also need to figure out how to maximise your confidence and strategies to reduce anxiety before competition.
Recovery
Your two big rocks of recovery are sleep and nutrition. Develop a good understanding of the foods, supplements and fluids aka the “fuel” myself to help you to perform and recover. To take your performance to the next level, we always recommend our athletes to work with a dietitian. Consider creating good sleeping habits. This is where most of the recovery will occur. You may also like to experiment with alternative recovery methods like ice baths, saunas and massage.
Physical Preparation and Rehabilitation
Always find a qualified S&C who knows what they’re doing. By that we mean that they’re not destroying you after the every workout, they fit in sessions optimally based on the sessions you have during the week and they consider your background and history. We also recommend that athletes work closely with a physiotherapist as they will help return you to sport after injury safely (unfortunately injuries are a part of sport).
Planning
Think about how much you need to train each day and how often each week to continually develop your skills. Create an optimal schedule that involves a mixture of hard and easy days. Not every day needs to be hard. Play the “long” game.
Support Networks and Finances
As you have read, creating a team around you is not easy. You need to have the right people around you who will guide you on the right path. Not only that, you will need to pay for these services. Therefore, unless you are a multi-million dollar contract athlete chances are you will need to work hard in your day to day job and perhaps even promote yourself to obtain sponsors etc in order to fund these services.
Hopefully after reading this blog you have realised that a lot of planning goes into being a high performing athlete. There are many sacrifices to be made as well as many trials and tribulations that you will have to face. However, having a set roadmap in place will ensure you can bounce back even when times get tough.
Now it’s time to draw out your roadmap!