The training of high level athletes.

Each sport requires different skills but, currently, to reach high levels, it is essential to have a good physical condition. It is quite obvious in sports such as football and rugby or athletics, but it is also valid in motorsports or even scuba diving.

The performances required to reach high level of competition have become so tough that to play in the big leagues, you have to put all the assets on your side.

If before, you could just be talented or just train hard to get there, today you need not only to have a genetic potential, to train hard in your discipline, but often you also need an auxiliary training of bodybuilding, basic fitness or even relaxation.

The difficulty is often to reconcile these physical or mental trainings with the schedules of the trainings in ones’ discipline to increase ones’ performances without overtraining. Because to reach a high level, avoiding injuries are a determining factor. Out of 100 athletes who start a dis-cipline, only one will manage to get to the top. The others will have to give up or will not want to go higher, conscious or not of their limits, or more simply will be injured and will be denied ac-cess to high competition. Many coaches do not hesitate to put their foals under pressure from a very young age to recreate as early as possible the stressful conditions of the competition, at the risk of disgusting more than one ... But in this environment, the end sometimes justifies the means. The goal here is not to take sides with this practice but just to address the subject.

To be able to increase its physical performances, the base is the endurance, that is to say its capacity to exert an effort of a relative intensity for a prolonged duration. In endurance, it is assumed that the oxygen supply is equal to its consumption. Of course, this ability must be expressed in the sport of choice of the athlete, but most of the time, it is exercised through jogging ... Once a week seems sufficient to hope to have a significant increase in basic endurance. If you manage to run one hour non-stop, then gradually increase the distance traveled, the endurance can progress fairly quickly.

Do not forget to train anaerobic resistance. That is, its ability to produce an oxygen-free, higher-intensity effort than endurance efforts. Anaerobic training can be found in such efforts as the 400 m, the 800 m and the 1500 m. So we can hope for an improvement of these qualities by a weekly and progressive training. Always pay attention to performance improvements to make good progress and make no mistake.

Speed is also an important factor. Shorter but more intense efforts such as in a 100m can improve the coordination, recruitment and relaxation of muscle fibers. Training this ability, as any strength or power training can be traumatic, so it is important not to forget a prior warm up and a return to calm with exercises of less intensity. If performed once a week, this training can give good results.

Stretching is very important for any athlete who does not want to end up with back problems or repeated muscle injuries. A flexible muscle is less subject to rupture than a stiff muscle. After each training, it is important to spend some time on flexibility.

Bodybuilding is an integral part of most high-level sports preparations. Being stronger, more powerful can help the athlete to increase his performance in his favorite sport. It must of course be adapted to the particular and personal goal of the athlete and also integrated into his program week.

In many sports, concentration is a determining factor for the success of a goal or competition. The best example is tennis, where the fate of a match can quickly switch to one or other of the participants simply as a result of a loss or trust. Relaxation, yoga, mental coaching can help any athlete who wants to manage his emotions.

You realize that to be a high-level athlete, with all these activities planned to increase performance, it becomes a full-time job. That the efforts made in these auxiliary exercises must of course serve the main activity and therefore be put in a particular context that will depend on the sport and the sportsman. That it will also be necessary to plan work cycles according to the dates of competitions to hope to obtain a maximum transfer of the capacities worked in auxiliary activity in the sport of predilection. It will also be necessary to measure your performance to be sure that you're on the road to progress. So ? Does it tempt you?

Yves Bondroit coach for QNT