Track is a very unique sport for several reasons. Individualism, personal athletic responsibility, the tie in of different skills/events competing for a singular team, etc.
Just like every other sport, athletes dedicate large portions of their life to get better at their event/sport. However, what differs compared to those other sports is the obsessiveness of getting more technical for their individual event. The best track athletes in the world are constantly working on dialing in their technique/form every day (so the average high school or middle school athlete has endless things to work on lol).
With that being said, developing a mental system to work towards strengthening those techniques is CRUCIAL to ensure you don’t over stress yourself.
Look, I get it. You want to fix this, this, and that while working on 3 other things at practice because you think it’ll get better. I get that completely (i’m impatient too lol), but it’s important to make sure you're accomplishing the goals you’re stressing over. If you’re stressing over multiple things while not seeing much improvement in each field which causes more stress, you’re losing on all fronts (and we don’t want that).
If this problem seems like it’s relatable to you (and even if it isn’t), I want you to try and focus on only one problem you’ve identified. It could be something with your form, training intensity, eating plan, or even your recovery. Pick one thing to really focus on and a time range to focus on it in.
An example of using this way of thinking may look like this:
Example A = Monday - Arms, Tuesday - Cycling Form, Wednesday - Dieting, Thursday - Recovery, Friday - Blocks
Example B = Week 1 - Arms, Week 2 - Cycling Form, Week 3 - Dieting, Week4 - Recovery, Week 5 - Blocks
Try different methods. This is all to discover ways to take away from your overall stress while accomplishing the goals you set out to reach. Only you can figure out what works best for you and your way of thinking (plus less stress = better performances).
Have any questions ?
Please put them in the comments and i’d love to get back to you as soon as I can :).
Thank you for reading,
Kolton Osborn.
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