Posts Tagged ‘pre-competition’

Focus

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Try This At Home…………………………………….

Have your child, and at least three other people, stand in one of the two configurations below.  The one you chose depends on the number of people you are playing with.  Each letter represents a person.   The people represented by the letters bolded and in italics, should start with the ball.  Each letter, throws the ball to the letter that follows them alphabetically. (For example, A throws to B, B to C, C to D and D to A.)  Each time a person throws the ball, they need to yell out their own name.  As soon as a person throws the ball, they need to prepare to catch the ball from the letter that precedes them alphabetically.  (A will be catching the ball from person D.)  I suggest tossing the ball underhand. 

Here is an example of how the game will go.   Assuming you are playing with four people, give person A and C the ball.  When you say go, person A should throw the ball to person B, and yell their own name out loudly as they throw.  At the same time, person C should throw the ball to person D and yell their own name.  Person B should catch the ball and throw it to person C, and person C should catch the ball from B and throw it to person D.  With two balls in play, everyone will either be throwing and yelling their name or catching.  Play the game until someone messes up.   You may want to play it a few times until everyone gets the hang of it.  This game shows how important focus is.   It will teach your child to focus on what they need to do and ignore all of the distractions.  The exercise also shows the importance of teamwork.  Everyone has to work together to keep the game going and if one person messes up; they mess up the game for everyone. 

configuration 1- for four people.

A           C

D            B   

configuration 2- for five people.

        D

A              B

   C        E                                      

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Being able to focus is one of the key tools of success.  Focus will help your child in sports and school.  Good focus will allow her to tune out distractions and accomplish her objective, whether that be scoring a goal or finishing a paper.  Focus comes with practice and the more your child does it, the better she will get.

There are two kids of focus, a big picture focus and a small picture focus.   Having a big picture focus will allow your child to stay focused, day in and day out, in order to achieve a long term goal.  Small picture focus will allow her to tune out distractions and zone in on the immediate task at hand.

In order to practice both big picture and small picture focus, your child needs to have something to focus on.  It’s important for her to have a goal.  Make sure to read my three part blog on goals and help your child develop some goals.

For big picture focus, it helps to have a plan that defines a daily or weekly task to be completed until the ultimate goal is achieved.  Had I not had a day by day training program to help prepare me for the Olympics, it would have been very hard to stay focused and keep my eye on the prize.  Four years is a long time to stay focused!

For small picture focus, it helps to have a routine.  Make sure to check out my post on pre-competition routines and help your child develop one.  The key to small picture focus is for your child to worry about herself and no one else.  She needs to lose herself in her task.  Obviously, if her task is to beat her competition, she’ll need to pay attention to her competition during the event, but she doesn’t need to worry about what warm up they are doing,  who is in the crowd, what she is doing later that day or if her hair is messed up.

Small picture focus is also the ability to set aside and forget about the little hiccups that come up.  Things don’t always go perfectly, and when things go wrong, it’s important for your child to hunker down and do what needs to be done.  Worrying about, and dwelling on, things that have gone wrong, won’t help her achieve her goal. 

Here are some things that can help, not all of my suggestions will be appropriate in all situations. 

Music- putting head phone on will help keep people from bothering your child, and listening to music she likes, will pump her up and help her focus.  With enough practice she can condition herself to focus every time she hears that music. 

Self talk- Have your child mentally talk herself through what needs to be done.  It might help to have a phrase she uses to snap herself into focus.  Something like, “It’s Time.”

Environment- Teach your child to make the best of her environment and eliminate as many distractions as possible.  For example, she can choose to sit far away from a goofball classmate.

Despite how hard the travel was, and the fact that international races were always important ones, I always found it easier to focus when I was racing over seas.  Since I couldn’t understand most of what the announcers were saying, or any of the conversations in foreign languages, it was easy to tune everyone out and disappear into my own little world.  In the beginning of my career I didn’t know my foreign competition well, so it was easier to worry about what I needed to do, instead of what my competition was doing;  I didn’t know anything about them, so I couldn’t worry about them.  That environment, along with my routine and music, allowed me to get in the zone and get the job done.  As I became more experienced, I tried to achieve that mindset at every race I did, regardless of where it was.

So, the next time your child is zoned out watching television and doesn’t hear you call her name, don’t be too hard on her, she was just practicing her focus.

Come back next Monday for another blog.  For more information about myself, or my children’s books, please visit www.erinmirabella.com

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Taper- Resting Before A Competition For Peak Performance.

Monday, February 8th, 2010

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.  

For more information on myself or my children’s books please visit www.erinmirabella.com

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Warming Up

Monday, January 11th, 2010

I apologize again for not having a post for you last week. Thanks for checking back.

 Try This At Home…………………..

Take a frozen French toast stick and snap it in half. Tell your child that when she hasn’t warmed up before exercise, her muscles are cold, inflexible and less capable of working hard. Explain that exercising without warming up first, can cause injuries to muscles and tendons. Next, heat up a French toast stick in the microwave and show her that afterward it is supple and bends easily. Explain that just like the French toast stick, her muscles aren’t ready until they are warmed up. After a warm up, her muscles are lose, warm and ready to work hard. Note that a warm and bendy French toast stick doesn’t break, just like her muscles are less likely to be injured when they are warm.

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Warming up is key to an optimum performance. If I jumped into a race or intense workout without warming up, my body revolted. I was miserable; I felt stiff, sluggish, extra sore and unresponsive. Plus, I was putting myself at a much higher risk of an injury. If you skip a workout you run the risk of being unprepared for an opportunity early on in your competition.

Everyone’s ideal warm up is a little different, but the concept is the same. A warm up is an easy exercise, like walking, jogging or jumping jacks, which increases blood flow to your muscles and slowly elevates your heart rate.

I personally found that I needed less of a warm up than some of my teammates. If I warmed up too much, then I was tired for my race. When I first moved to the Olympic Training Center they helped me develop a warm up program. I had always warmed up, but with their guidance I started using heart rate, and eventually wattage output, as a guide. Fundamentally there wasn’t anything wrong with the warm up I had been doing, it actually wasn’t much different from my new and improved one, but my new one was more specific and routine.

 At first, the warm up they prescribed was too much for me. The first time I tried it in its entirety was at my first World Cup in Italy. I followed my warm up as prescribed and I got to the start line feeling shaky. I still had a great ride, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I left some of it in warm up. Maybe it would have been an even better ride. My husband Chris helped me tone it down to a warm up that worked best for me. He pointed out that before my workouts; my warm up was much more concise. Generally my first effort of each workout was my best, so obviously a shorter warm up was enough.

Below is the warm up I did before races. I would ride easy for ten to fifteen minutes, depending on how I was feeling. Then I would ramp up from about 50-60% of my max heart rate to 70%. I’d hold it there for about three to five minutes and then I would increase it to 75-80% for another three or four minutes. Lastly, I ramp it up to about 90% for about thirty seconds to a minute. After that I would back off and ride easy for another five minutes or so until my heart rate had come back down. I’d get off the bike and stretch for a few minutes. Then I’d put my race gear on my bike and depending on my event that day, I’d do either several ten second sprints or one and a half kilometers at race pace. The first sprint usually felt pretty lousy but the second one was always much better. Afterward I would stay warm by riding easy for several minutes, off and on, until it was time to race. I liked to end my warm up about ten to fifteen minutes before my race. That allowed me time to get race gear on, use the bathroom, etc. More time wasn’t a bad thing as long as I could keep myself warm by riding easy.

 Here are some additional things to consider.

 In cold weather it is much harder to get warmed up and to stay warm.

In very hot weather you may have to warm up less and need to make sure you stay hydrated.

You need to be somewhat flexible. Murphy ’s Law says that if something can go wrong it will, so you have to expect that at least occasionally something is going to happen to throw a wrench in your plans. Your goal should be to get the perfect warm up before a competition, but prepare yourself to have to improvise.

 Help your child develop good warm up habits at a young age. Set a good example, and help her develop a routine that works for her.

For more information about myself or my children’s books, please visit www.erinmirabella.com

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Raise your child’s game through competition and modeling.

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Try This At Home……………………………

Here is a great way to help you child improve in a sport or activity that he or she is already interested in and good at.  Find out who is the most celebrated person in that sport or activity and do some serious research on them. (Research them on the Internet, watch videos of them, etc.) Analyze the specific things that make that person successful and encourage your child to emulate and model them.  Have your child work on improving those characteristics or skills you identified.

Next, find someone locally who is just a little better than you child and, if possible, have your child practice with him or her on a weekly basis.  Encourage your child to learn from them.  Monitor the situation to make sure you child is having fun and isn’t getting frustrated.

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Competition makes you better.  If your child is always the best player on the team or in his or her league, then they aren’t being challenged and pushed to improve. If at all possible, find someone for you child to train with who can push and challenge them.  This will prevent their progress from becoming stagnant. Without competition your child ends up a big fish in a small pond. Later, it’s hard to move from the pond, where he or she is the star and accustomed to winning, to the lake or ocean, where he or she is just a little fish and won’t necessarily find success immediately.  (It’s not a bad idea to get a realistic idea of what you child can expect when they bump up to the next level, but I’ll save the details of that for another post.)

My first year training at the Olympic Training Center was a gradual immersion into the world of elite international racing.   My second year however, felt more like getting thrown into the deep end of a pool to see if I’d sink or swim.  Thankfully I didn’t sink, but that was in large part because I was training with stronger, more experienced women.  They pushed me every day, physically and mentally, and their presence both encouraged and forced me to raise my game if I wanted to succeed.

I vividly remember a training day at a World Cup selection track camp in Plano, Texas. Nicole Reinhart*, Karen Dunn and I were all vying for a spot in the points race at the upcoming World Cup, and each work out was considered by the coaches in selection. This particular work out was on the velodrome (a cycling track.) Our coach was driving the motorcycle and we were taking turns coming around the motor and leading out sprints to the finish line.  The goal was to win the sprint.  Karen and Nicole were much more experienced than me.  For the first few sprints my timing was all off; I would either go hard too soon, or I would kick too late.  I’ve very competitive, but instead of getting frustrated I tried to figure out what the other girls were doing that I wasn’t.  We were rotating through and taking turns leading out the sprints, so every third sprint I had an opportunity to watch them from behind.  I noted how they made their moves, when they made their moves, and how successful they were at it. I started copying their successes and by the end of the workout I was winning sprints. 

That year I trained with, lived with, and vied for spots against those same women, over and over again.  As difficult and stressful as it was at the time, it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me, because I never became complacent and improved immensely.

Later on in my career I didn’t have that same benefit.  I found that training with guys was another way to raise my game.  This is one advantage women have over men, women always have the opportunity to train or practice against someone stronger and faster than them, because they can train with the men. 

I am grateful that I learned this lesson early on in my career. If you child has aspirations to make it to the next level, then he or she needs to constantly be looking for ways to improve.  Training with and modeling after people who are better are great ways to do that. Just like in a free market, we all benefit from healthy competition.

* Nicole Reinhart was a fantastic road sprinter, fierce competitor, a good, kind person, and someone I looked up to and admired. Her life was tragically cut short in a cycling accident during a race on September 17, 2000.  I’d like to dedicate today’s blog to her memory and encourage you to visit www.nicolefund.org for more information about her.

For more information about me or my children’s books, please visit www.erinmirabella.com.

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Creating a pre-competition routine.

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Try This At Home……………………….

Sit down with your child and write out his or her pre-performance routine.  See below for details. 

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Before I get into developing a pre-competition routine, I want to address one thing I forgot to mention in last weeks post.  Both your child’s expectations and the expectations they feel you have for them, can add to their nervousness.  Whether they finish first or last, their best is all you can ask of them, and all they can ask of themselves.  Focusing on doing my best versus winning always helped me stay calm. 

Now, for today’s post.

When I moved to the Olympic Training Center I was immersed into USA Cycling’s endurance track program.  They stressed the importance of a pre-competition routine and helped me develop mine, step by step.  For me, developing a pre-competition routine was a defining moment in raising my game to the next level.  It helped me focus, prepare and keep my nerves under control.

A pre-competition routine is a step-by-step procedure that, if followed, ensures proper preparation allowing for an optimum performance. 

Below is a general outline to develop your child’s pre-competition routine.  You may need to tweak it for your child’s specific needs. He or she can use this technique for sports, tests, and pretty much any other activity that requires peak performance.

 1. Start by working backward from the start time of the competition.

 2. The last five minutes before the competition should be used for collecting thoughts, taking a few deep breathes and putting on gear, if it isn’t already on.

 3. Approximately 35-50 minutes before the start of the competition your child should begin warming up.  Types of warm-ups are unique to each sport.  Warming up is a completely separate post, but in general a warm up should start out easy and progress in intensity.  Go a step further than just saying that this time is set aside for warm up; have your child write down, minute by minute, the type of activities he or she will do and the intensity at which each will be done.  Remember that every athlete is different.  Have your child experiment to see what combination of warm-ups works best for him or her. Once you child finds their perfect warm-up recipe, write it down and stick with it.  I know many teams warm up together.  If that is the case, have your child join the team in warm ups.  If needed, he or she can add on additional exercises before or after the team warm up, or your child can talk to the coach about incorporating these additional activities into the team warm-up.

4. Now that you know when your child’s warm-up will start, you can help him or her calculate how much earlier to arrive at the field of play.  Account for things like equipment prep, pinning numbers, team meetings, and extra trips to the bathroom. 

5. If at all possible, have your child pack his or her sports bag the night before the competition.  If the sport requires a lot of equipment create a checklist so your child doesn’t forget anything important. Do as much prep work as possible before you get to the venue, (i.e. pin numbers, fill water bottles, prepare food, etc.)

6.  Lastly, create a music list on an iPod, MP3 player or CD that gets your child pumped up, focused and ready to compete. Have them listen to it while they are preparing to perform. (Where reasonable and safe.)   In addition to pumping them up, it will help them tune out unnecessary distractions and having ear phones in their ears will help keep people from interrupting their routine.

Here is an example of my pre-competition routine. The night before I tried, if at all possible, to get a least 8 hours of sleep.  I ate approximately two and a half to three hours before my race.  I arrived for my race an hour and a half before I was to compete.  I checked on my equipment and made sure that the appropriate gear was on my bike.  I laid out my helmet, shoe covers, gloves, cliff bar gel, etc.  I went to the bathroom and then climbed on my bike, with my music, to warm up.  I rode easy for 15 minutes.  Next, I got off my bike and stretched for 10-15 minutes.  Then I got back on the bike and did approximately a 10-minute wind up with the last 4 or 5 minutes at my threshold (Time trail pace.)  I ramped up my intensity by changing my gear to race gear and completing several 15-second sprints.  I then took one last trip to the bathroom, ate my gel, and finished with 5- 15 minutes of easy riding to stay warm.  During my warm-up I visualized myself doing my races perfectly.

Having a pre-competition routine will give your child security, confidence, and ensure that they do everything necessary to prepare for their event.  

For more information about me and my children’s books, please visit www.erinmirabella.com

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