Timing key for Olympic hopefuls

Tuesday 10 July 2012

With just over a fortnight to go until the start of London 2012, the majority of athletes in Team GB are hidden away, heads down, finely tuning their preparations to ensure that they put in their best performance at the Olympic Games.

Custom byline text:

Susan Egelstaff

There are a few obvious exceptions, however; Andy Murray has just played for the full two-week duration of Wimbledon and Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish are currently slogging it out for the yellow and green jerseys respectively in the Tour de France.

So, how easy will it be for these athletes to peak twice in such a short space of time, for two such massive events? Well, it will be extremely difficult. With just 20 days between the final of Wimbledon and the start of the Olympic tennis tournament, and only six days between the end of the Tour and the start of the road racing in London, the proximity of these major events certainly poses a problem for the athletes.Elite athletes follow meticulously designed training programmes which normally will only include three or four peaks each year. Obviously, in sports such as football and rugby, athletes are required to perform consistently over an eight or 10-month period, but for the vast majority of sports, including my own, badminton, there will be a few key events each season which are prioritised.Peaking is an artform. For Murray, Wiggins and Cavendish, the timescale makes it impossible for them to do a training block then taper for the competition as is the norm, and is what the majority of athletes from other sports will be doing. I haven't competed for 10 weeks to allow me to fully focus on my training in the lead-up to the Games, and most athletes will follow a similar pattern of restricting their competitive appearances. Very few athletes who are in Team GB competed at the European Athletics Championships, for this reason.Studies have shown that elite athletes are, for a lot of their year, chronically overtrained – which in layman's terms basically means bloody knackered. Pre-competition, athletes taper their training and their workload will significantly ease off, allowing their bodies to recover and perform at their maximum. Every athlete is an individual – some can maintain their peak for as long as four or five weeks but I know I have always struggled to prolong it for any longer than three weeks at a time.Often elite athletes train so hard that, physically, a competition day is light in comparison and, in fact, it is the emotional stress of competition which takes its toll. Competing, and doing well in a major event, can be extremely draining and it may be this effect with which these athletes find the hardest to cope. It is exceptionally rare for a tennis player to win back-to-back the French Open and Wimbledon and, while this is in part down to the change of surface, it is also acknowledged that the closeness of the two tournaments hampers the players' ability to recover. Maria Sharapova looked to be the form player coming into Wimbledon following her first French Open title but was strangely lacklustre in her fourth-round defeat, which may have been down to the amount of emotional energy she expended in completing her full set of grand-slam victories at Roland Garros last month. Cavendish has already stated that he is prioritising the Olympics over the Tour this year, and as a result is at less than 100% for the Tour, which may mean he fails to defend the green jersey. There is, of course, a lot to be said for the positive impact confidence can have on performance, and there is no doubt that when an athlete has been performing well they find it easier to continue to do so. Murray will go to the Olympics on the back of his best Wimbledon and, if Wiggins can become Britain's first winner of the Tour then he may be able to maintain his form in London. If successful, they could contribute to Britain's best ever summer of sport.

Contextual targeting label:

Education

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Timing key for Olympic hopefuls

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED