How You Can Help Your Athlete Reach Their Athletic Potential

Everyone wants to be at their best, especially when it comes to sports and competitive athletics. And the common consensus is that with proper training, every athlete should be able to improve and keep maximizing their capacities.

 

But oftentimes, we come across really bright and promising athletes who just cannot make it to the cut because something blocks them from reaching their true potential.

 

Now, this is something to be taken into high significance in athletic coaching and training. You may spot talent, but grooming them to perform at their best is what eventually matters. And sometimes it takes more than just hard work to get to truly unlock one’s athletic potential.

 

There is a whole science behind it starting from physiology to the type of sports and nutrition. Failing to focus on the details and sometimes even the most basics can make an athlete keep striving yet never reach the greatness they have the potential to be.

 

So how can one make sure their athletic performance is at par with their actual abilities? Professional sports performance training in Fort Myers is the answer.

 

1. Through Sports Performance Training

 

Sports performance training is the systematic process of training an athlete by focusing on its capabilities to help them compete in sports.

 

That said, sports performance training is necessary for a range of reasons. Let’s explore all of them.

 

Advantages of Professional Sports Performance Training

 

What makes sports specific performance training in Fort Myers stand out from other kinds of training is the fact that it is tailored to your specific sport needs. Such training prepares you for your chosen sport and helps you in improving in areas like endurance, power, and strength.

 

Here are some ways in which sports performance training helps you out:

 

Improves metabolic conditioning

 

The physical trainer conditions an athlete to their sport, and works on their muscle tissue and energy levels. This makes them prepared for the tough competition and stress ahead.

 

Prevents injury

 

Injuries are unavoidable. However, physical trainers try their best to prevent their athletes from undergoing any injuries. They work by analyzing your past data and use that as a foundation to keep you fit.

 

Adds fun

 

Physical training is tough but sport-specific training makes things easier for the athletes by making resistance workouts fun for everyone. This helps them in focusing more on training, thus preventing them from feeling tired out, both physically and mentally.

 

Improves performance

 

This goes without saying that athletes cannot take any risks, at any point in time, if at all they want to make progress in their career. Thus, if they want to prevent the risk of a serious injury and want to improve their sporting performance at the same time, it makes sense to enroll in sports performance training.

 

These trainers come with years of experience and are well-aware of what works and what doesn’t. This way, they improve the performance of an athlete and help them in performing better.

 

Prepares you physically

 

Talking about younger athletes, they are still in their development stage and don’t have established coordination between strength and endurance. This can lead to mistakes and things could go wrong.

 

This is why it is necessary that young athletes prevent themselves from any injury by working with experts.

 

Corrects weakness

 

In addition to empowering you physically, physical trainers also help you in improving your performance by identifying your weaknesses and helping you correct them. Athletes might be too slow, or can’t jump or show poor hand-eye coordination or lack in some other aspects of the sport. A physical trainer recognizes these areas and helps them in performing better.

 

However, in addition to providing the guidance of an efficient sports trainer, it is equally important to help them unlock their true potential.

 

 

2. By Helping Athletes Unlock their True Potential

 

Physical trainers at Back in Motion suggest the following ways to help your athlete unleash their true potential.

 

Build confidence

 

So, to truly achieve one’s potential, one should actually believe in themselves. Success does not happen by a miracle. You will do something you believe you can do. And that kind of confidence comes from regular practice and affirmative actions.

 

Training should be disciplined and must be done with undeterred commitment. Getting a personal trainer who can motivate your athletes and make sure they are committed to their training is a good way to keep training on schedule.

 

Set your long term goals

 

Make a vision for the future and work towards it. Goals help a person stay focused and be diligent to achieve them. Be smart about your goals and make them challenging. A good goal demands you to achieve something within a stipulated time and forms the stepping stones to your ongoing success.

 

Break down the long term goals into short term small goals that can be tracked for progress.

 

Let your athletes set their own goals and encourage them to dream big.

 

Make training fun

 

Sports performance training can be hard as it obviously involves pushing one’s body and mind constantly to keep improving. But you should also remember to make it an enjoyable activity as any athlete who comes to resent their training hours will find it difficult to maintain consistency.

 

After all, when an athlete trains, they are doing something they love, they are pursuing their passion. It has to be fun and healthy for the mind and body. So, make sure the training environment is friendly and lighthearted.

 

This means you need really experienced personal coaches who have the proper qualifications.

 

Recognize their uniqueness

 

Every athlete, though even when fighting for the same medal, exhibit their potential in a different way. What works for one person may not suit everybody. An athlete’s physique, mental attitude, their approach to handling a situation, strengths and weaknesses are all unique.

 

Recognizing all the details starting from their physical endurance to nutritional requirements are very important to provide the proper support for them to shine as best as they could.

 

This requires an immense amount of expert knowledge and practical experience which a good fitness studio like Back In Motion Physical Therapy & Performance can provide.

 

Keep tracking progress

 

Training techniques need to be tweaked and growth trajectory needs to be carefully tracked to keep the athlete in a good form. The purpose of good training does not end with one peak performance. It relies on consistent improvement over time.

 

The reason why many promising athletes fail to make an impression is that their training does not get updated to keep matching to their growing capabilities. This is partly because there is no proper way to track an athlete’s progress.

 

So, make sure you maintain some kind of metric to help gauge your athletes’ performance and don’t fail to monitor their progress throughout training.

 

Objective feedback from fellow athletes and professional coaches can be of great help to get a clearer idea of one’s progress and track things you might have missed on your own personal assessment.

 

Be accountable

 

Let your athletes be responsible for their own goals and growth. Give them the reins for steering how far they want to go with their goals. One has to be accountable for their own improvement. Any effort taken halfheartedly will not yield the best results.

 

Let them handle their training schedules and keep track of their progress. Give them guidance using qualified trainers but make sure it is they who put in the effort to follow through.

 

 

3. By Introducing Lifestyle Changes

 

To a large extent, diet and simple life choices also play an important role in determining your athlete’s performance.

 

Here are a few tips that you should stick to:

 

Avoid Simple Sugars

 

Ever heard the phrase – garbage in, garbage out? This is exactly what happens when your athlete relies on simple sugars (think of fructose, glucose, sucrose, and dextrose). They do not help athletes with exercise, instead, they pose a range of health hazards.

 

Simple sugars offer limitation on absorption, however, this is not the case with complex carbohydrates which can be absorbed at about three times the rate when compared to simple sugars.

 

What’s more, athletes also get a steady and reliable flow of energy with no peaks and valleys.

 

Protein is necessary, too

 

Complex carbs are good and all, but they won’t be able to meet energy requirements if athletes workout for more than two hours. This is why it is essential to consume protein unless athletes want to feed upon themselves to make fuel

 

Prefer soy over whey

 

Whey is amazing, but only when it is consumed after exercise. Avoid consuming it before or during the exercises because it quickly degrades to produce ammonia. The production of ammonia could lead to muscle fatigue. Further, athletes produce ammonia when they exercise.

 

Thus, why make it worse? The best way here is to extract soy or rice protein. They are as useful and do not produce ammonia as well.

 

Rely on liquid fuels as your main energy source

 

Consuming a small amount of liquid fuel doesn’t hurt, especially after prolonged exercise, when athletes want a pleasant diversion from their monotony of liquid fuel consumption.

 

However, do not derail all your efforts so far. Make wise choices. Essentially, go for foods that do not contain saturated fats and refined sugar. And avoid consuming solid food consumption as much possible.

 

This is because solid food is harder to digest when compared to liquid, and it consumes a large number of electrolytes, water and time. This will make athletes feel lethargic and bloated.

 

Avoid trying new supplements and fuel

 

This goes without saying that athletes must refrain from trying new supplements and fuels as this could prove to be disastrous. Ironically, a lot of athletes still engage in these practices and end up facing dire consequences.

 

The golden rule of thumb is to test the products before consuming them.

 

Avoid over consuming food the night before the race

 

Various athletes think that if they will consume a large amount of food in the night before their race, their muscles will be able to store all the glycogen and they will be able to perform better the next day.

 

Do not fall in traps like these. Increasing muscle glycogen is not a simple task. It takes training for many weeks. The excess carbohydrates that you consume will only end up getting stored as body fats.

 

As is evident, the diet of an athlete impacts their physical fitness. To help them perform the best, it is essential to take the help of a physical therapist in Fort Myers.

 

4. Through Physical Training

 

An athlete is always prone to stress-related injury and physical limitations. Sometimes, these injuries could be serious and prove to be a major hindrance to an athlete’s career. This is where physical therapy comes in.

 

This branch of medicine makes use of physiological factors, nutrition, exercise, and sports psychology to treat athletes. The most commonly used treatments include muscle strengthening, water therapy, electrotherapy, and core stability training.

 

In addition to treating an athlete’s already existing condition, a physical therapist can also benefit athletes in a range of ways:

 

Functional testing

 

Here, an athlete is made to undergo a range of routine checkups to test and assess their mobility and functionality, and any instances of pain and weakness are observed.

 

Prevention techniques

 

It is necessary that an athlete stays fit throughout. This is why physical therapists adopt various prevention techniques to maintain fitness, balance, and strength in athletes and avoid any injuries.

 

The Wrap Up

 

That said, if you want your athlete to unleash their true potential and shine like a star, it is important to support them both mentally and physically. We, at Back in Motion, do exactly that! We help athletes unveil their true potential and enhance it with our proven techniques.

 

We devise a proven strategy based on the methods discussed above and leave no stone unturned in making your athlete deliver nothing short of the best.

 

Contact us today to learn more. Back In Motion Physical Therapy & Performance offers personal training, group training, and fitness boot camps to help you achieve all your health and fitness goals. Click here to arrange your free consultation.