Try This At Home………………………
Have your child hold her hands straight out to the side at shoulder height, like an airplane, for 30 seconds. Depending on her age and ability you may need to make some adjustments by either decreasing or increasing the time or having her hold a water bottle in each hand for extra weight. You want her to feel a little fatigue at the end of the 30 seconds, but most importantly, be successful in completing the task. Afterward, tell her that this exercise is meant to show her what she can accomplish when she has allowed her body to rest before a performance.
Next, have her hold her arms out first for 15 seconds, then 20 seconds and finally 25 seconds with a minute rest in-between. After another minute or two of rest, have her hold her arms out for 30 seconds again, like she did in the first exercise. Have her compare how she felt during the first 30 second exercise to the second time she did it. Explain to her that not allowing her body to rest and recover before a big competition can cause a less than optimal performance, just as it did in the second exercise.
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Resting before a big competition or game is generally called a taper. It is an extremely important part of achieving peak performance. A complete taper is only done before the most important competitions. A mini taper can be done before other competitions, but for some competitions your child may choose not to taper at all. Your child needs to know what her ultimate goal is and understand that in order to be as prepared as possible, she may need to sacrifice by training through less important competitions. In order to improve, she needs to increase her work load and intensity; if she is always tapering for relatively unimportant events, she won’t maximize her gains.
I found that racing unimportant races in a tired state was a great way to raise my game. I am extremely competitive, so I always pushed myself harder in a race than I ever could train by myself, even when I was exhausted.
A mini taper generally ranges from a few days to a week. During my career, my main goal each year was either the World Championships or the Olympics. Therefore, before World Cups and important National selection races I only did a mini taper. All of the coaches I worked with during my cycling career worked backward from my competition when they developed my taper.
- The day before my competition I did what we called,”openers”. Openers were about half of a normal workout and focused on the heart rate zones and intensity I’d be using most in my race. The purpose was to wake my body up and make sure it was ready to work hard again after several days of rest.
- Two days before my race I would go for an easy hour ride.
- Three days before my competition I would generally do an easy hour ride as well, but sometimes I would take completely off.
- Four and five days out I’d do a normal workout, but I would control myself and wouldn’t over do it. If I did a second workout either day, it consisted of an easy half hour to hour ride.
- Six days out I’d generally ride for an easy hour or two.
A big taper can begin anywhere from a week to two weeks out from the competition. It follows the same structure as a mini taper, but is less dramatic further from the competition. In my regular training I generally trained three to four days in a row before taking an easy day. Often I did two workouts a day. For a big taper, two weeks out I’d decrease to one intense workout a day, and if there was a second workout it would just be an easy ride. I’d also decrease the number of intense days between rest days, so instead of going three days before a rest day, I’d do two days or sometimes even one.
It is easy to think that more is better and that last minute cramming will pay off, but in general you child is better off going into her competition rested. That is a true statement for sports as well as other activities and academics.
Every athlete and every sport is different, but the principle is the same; peak performances come from rested athletes. Decreasing her work load is the most import part of a taper, but making sure she is getting proper sleep and nutrition is also important. She should know, that just because she has a rest day doesn’t mean she can go play Ultimate Frisbee with her friends, or spend hours on her feet shopping. She truly needs to rest if she wants to perform at her best.
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