Excellence in Sports

Athletes are much fitter and healthier peoples than all the rest for the obvious reasons. They have a degree of discipline and dedication and hard work to achieve these levels. They tasted the success, after certain sacrifices along the line and also endured some pains physically and mentally.

All these experiences make them much more mature and responsible towards the life.

So what is the formula for becoming a successful and elite athlete? There is no magic formula or a set pattern, but all have certain traits in them. To some it may come naturally observing their surroundings atmosphere, some are coaxed by family and friends and some have their own dreams.

It is common to discover your talents when doing some fun activity. At some stage though you become serious and you start spending time regularly, 1-2-3 times every week. It may be debatable that, exactly at what stage of their athletic careers they started thinking seriously to achieve certain levels and more importantly, they started implementing some plans to achieve those levels.

It is common to see many club level players with plenty of talents. They really have potential to go all the way in their codes. But, a lot of them actually don't go too far. What are the factors which hinder their progress? And how some of them, who actually appears as normal talents but, achieves a lot?

Athletes are usually highly demanding personalities. They pride themselves in being perfectionist with ultimate professionals attitude. (Academics define professionalism as eliminating any mistakes in what they do).

To achieve optimal results in sports development, a well structured and well regulated phased development have to be followed to acquire physical and mental attributes along with sports specific skills.

We know that, those who go places, do it by setting goals and works to achieve their goals. They achieve in each of the fundamental ingredients like fitness, development of skills specific to their chosen sports, they have a nutritional plan and they also gain mental fitness. They usually also have a robust support group around them as help.

Following ingredients are required for an athlete:

1) Development of Physical Fitness

Should include the following components:

A) FLEXIBILITY
B) ENDURANCE
C) MUSCLE POWER & STRENGTH
D) NUTRITION &
E) RELAXATION

(Refer to Fitness for Life for more detailed comments)

2) Development of Sports Specific Skills

It goes without saying that, successful learning and development of sports specific skills are ultimate need of an athlete. However, it is our belief that, this component be left in care of sports specific coaches.

3) Development and Practice of Balanced Nutrition Strategies

All athletes have to develop very sound balanced nutritional plan. They require higher energy expenditure and even higher reserves of fuels for unaccounted stresses of enduring physical demands. A typical athletic nutritional intake is generally higher in calories compare to non-athletes. For an athlete, 55-65 % of the total daily calories must be supplied by complex carbohydrates. An ideal diet for an athlete should have high carbohydrate (55-65%), low protein (10-15%) and low fats (15-25%). In high performance athletes, complex CHO can constitute up to 75-80 % of daily total calories.

These calories shall be spent in several meals as follow:

• BREAKFAST
• AM SNACK
• LUNCH
• PM SNACK
• DINNER
• LATE EVENING SNACK (if needed)

Total Water and fluid intake is critical issue with them as well. Proper fluid and electrolyte replacement is key components of balance nutrition.

(Please see more details in Balance Nutrition)

4) Development of Mental Skills

(Psychological traits of successful athletes)

Successful athletes even without training posses high levels of psychological skills. Just as motor skills are honed by physical training using proper techniques, in the same way an appropriate training in psychological skills can improve on-field consistency of an athlete. Development of fundamental psychological skills also helps athletes to translate the task they perform effortlessly in practice to reproduce in real match in front thousands of fans.

There are several psychological skills an athlete can have. Following are some of the common psychological skills seen in most athletes:

• CONTROL OF AROUSAL,
• ROUTINE
• PRACTICE (PRE-MATCH, MATCH-DAY (& MATCH), POST-MATCH
• VISUALIZATION
• WELL DEVELOPED COMPETITION PLAN
• POSITIVE SELF-TALK
• GOAL SETTING & ACHIEVING
• MODIFICATION OF HARMFUL PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTER
• EFFECTIVE RELAXATION TECHNIQUES
  (eg. CENTERING, IMAGERY, VISUALIZATION, PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION etc)
• SELF-BELIEF
• WELL DEVELOPED COPING STRATEGY &
• CONFIDENCE.

5) Development of Skills related to handling Social expectations

At advanced and elite levels certain social expectations can play heavy on athletes.

Time management is often an issue for elite & professional athletes.

As they are well known and famous, given the opportunity, many in society would like to be in close proximity with them. Foe example, they find it hard to go shopping as a common person can; it is often difficult for them to go out alone and with their loved one.

Do you think it is easy with them and enjoyable experiences? Some says this is the cost of fame they have to pay.

The stress related with these restrictions, can get on the nerves of some in-experienced elite athletes with new found fame. They have to learn to cope with this pressure at times.

What about constant scrutiny of media, which appears to get intense by day? It is getting cumbersome by day for some, as media is lookind for sensational headlines. A good tact and interpersonal and communications skill stands in as good help. Some may have them naturally in them but, alot have to hone these skills.  

They have to learn to cope with the pressure most of the times. 

We can help you in all these.

We have developed measures which will help you to develop a level consistency in your performance and coping strategies to handle pressure. We will show you how to avoid personality clashes with your fellow players or officials and to perform well when traveling. We will help you to keep up your level of interest and not allow your performance to diminish as tournament or season progresses.

We can help you to acheive a particular sports specific, indivdual and team goals. We can teach  you, how to avoid persistent tiredness and/or recurrent injuries or illness. It is important these days how to avoid problems of substance abuse including drinking woes and domestic problems.

We will help you to develop your general physical fitness and set your fitness goals oriented to your given code We will help you to learn more about balanced nutrition and set your nutritional goals oriented to your given code We will help you to learn and develop mental fitness and hone your psychological skills We will help you to handle those tricky social situations loaded with pressure and expectation, which can take you to that slippery downward spiral in no time and, We will help you to manage your time in such a healthy manner that, it works to your future development and will relax you as well.