Obstacles on the road of form peak reaching

The form peak is natural and very wishful result of several months of hard work and correctly planned training program. There are few factors that can have negative influence to form peak. Coaches responsibility is to be aware of that factors and to be able to control them, which will eliminate obstacles and increase form peak reaching.

Competition organizing

Before taking part on the competition coach and sportsmen expect normal, standard conditions. It can often happen that sportsmen idealizes everything inside of his head and expect perfect circumstances. So every unpredicted change in conditions that the sportsmen survives may lead to his worser peak reaching and performance. Natural factors, like strong wind or rain, may hinder athletes that didn’t  get used to it. Very strong wind can also be fatal in soccer, due to ball direction changes. Strong rain can also affect soccer player’s ball control, headers, tackles, shots… Fog is also dangerous, especially for goalkeepers.

Snow and terrain quality are also very important factors. If it is snowing, it is better if the snow is dry then wet, and if the surface is not covered with ice and heavy ground, unless if the stadium has underground heat, like on many stadiums all over England. Extreme temperature, climax and altitude will also have influence.

Response to these changes in modeled training that should be prepared, and athletes should be trained under that type of circumstances that cannot drastically influent on form peak reaching. Schedule changes, referees and crowd can also have strong influent on the competition result. Taking part on competitions that are very similar with main competition is the precondition to peak form reaching if the conditions are significantly differentiated than circumstances that they got used to.

Sportsmen conditions

Coach can monitor, and he can also have control over sportsmen only during training. Though coaches ability to positively influent to athletes training, when the athlete is not under his leadership or when is alone, it is not unusual to discover behaviour and life style that are not according to sport morale standards. Negative behaviours influent on work capacity, and on peak reaching. These things, like insufficient sleep, alcohol consuming, smoking and weak nutrition decrease recovery speed, and consequently training condition. Similar, social non-pleasure with family, coach, friends, school or work negatively reflects on athletes behaviour during training and competition, which results with unproper performances. In sports that demand particular risk or strong initiation, fear of competition or injuries decrease self-control and lead to inferiority complex. Coach should then overlook sportsmen and gather info from close cooperators to do everything possible and correct that attitude and behaviour.

Training and coaches

Training programs that are not planned properly, with too much intensity, fast intensity increase or with too much competitions, are not only stressful, but influent very negatively to form peak reaching. It is more emphasized when competitive phase is long. Under these circumstances is almost impossible to keep the first zone and to adjust the form correctly, which is usually the end of phase. Need to change work with regeneration negligence not only can decrease possibility to reach peak, but it leads to injuries as well. If athlete is constantly exposed to too big number of these stress factors, probability to come in overtrainness is increased.

On athlete performance can also influent coaches knowledge, behavior and appearance, so as his possibility to overrule his own emotions and frustrations. Faith missing in coaches abilities and knowledge, especially if present during main competition, negatively influents on sportsmen performance and reaching competitive peak. Solution for these problems is simple: further personal education and selfcontrol promotion; if the coach works on himself, results will come one day for sure, it is just important that faith and selfworking never become lost dimensions.  

"Periodization, theory and methodology of training", Tudor Bompa