The Daily Training Environment

I have had a little bit of a reality check of late.

Coming into the new varsity season, I had grandios plans for the athletes whom I have to privilege of working with. Stress questionnaires, HRV monitoring, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, what I forgot to realize was that before you get to point D, you need to make sure you hit points A, B and C first.

I was stepping up to the plate with the intention of hitting a bomb. But what I really needed to do was take care of my own backyard. But unfortunately, I lost a little sight of the "as little as necessary" principle.

Because reality is:

1. They're not my teams
2. Varsity teams have limited budgets
3. Athletes are not robots.

And what I really needed to do was, as Coach Wes Moerman puts it,

"Do the common things uncommonly well"

So to me what that means, is emphasizing the smooth running of the day to day operations but keeping the big picture in mind. And in a low tech environment, that means ensuring that your athletes are
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1. Maintaining good nutrition habits - quality, quantity and timing
2. Being diligent about their simple yet effective warm ups - quality and timing
3. Getting adequate rest and recovery - sleep, it's way too underrated
4. Doing what they need to do to negate the effects of being a student - including postural effects

Coach Boyle mentioned in a recent podcast,

"Do the best job you can, where you are, with what you have"

That all said, monitoring is very important. But again, athletes are not robots and sometimes we must take a Foucaudian approach to sports performance. So if you have the luxury of incorporating the high tech, please do so. But do make sure it doesn't replace knowing and communicating with your athletes regularly. And if I may suggest, the "interactor" approach be utilized over the "operator" approach.
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And truly, it won't get any simpler.