Top 5 tips for high school athletic performance success
Long time no article!
Every athlete I know wants to get better. Whether you are aiming for a division 1 scholarship or want to make the high school team, time and again you hear stories of athletes working their tails off to gain any competitive edge they can.
But, as the adage goes, more does not always equal better. Taking a smarter approach to your training can net you those results you are working so hard for.
With that said, here are 5 things you can do to maximize your progress:
1. Sleep!
Sleep is the greatest performance enhancing drug on the planet. From regulating hormones to repairing damaged muscle, sleep is the best thing you can do for your recovery and in turn, your performance. Studies show that athletes who get less than 8 hours of sleep per night chronically are a whopping 1.7 times more likely to have had suffered an injury. My recommendation is to have a nighttime routine and stick to it. Start winding down your stressors and screen time about an hour before bed and do something relaxing like read or write to get your body used to falling asleep in a relaxed, calm state.
2. Manage stress
Similarly, your stress has a lot to do with how well you can recover between training bouts/sport practice and games. Especially for teenagers navigating the challenging dynamics of social situations, grades, sport and everything else that comes with being in high school, your body needs a break! The thing is, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol (the fight or flight hormone) to regulate how you react to the environment around you.
If you’re anxious for a test, your significant other just broke up with you or you have a big game today, they might feel different but your body produces the same cortisol response to handle each situation. Normally, elevated levels of cortisol will subside when the threat of danger has passed (in today’s world, not actual danger like a bear, but maybe an embarrassing situation, for instance) but what happens when we have elevated levels of cortisol, chronically? It can lead to anxiety, depression, and a host of health issues, but it also can impair our performance and our recovery.
The body doesn’t know the difference between detention and a deadlift, so managing your environment and the stresses that come with it are important. If you had a fight with your parents, barely slept and skipped breakfast, it would be appropriate to scale your training session back to accomodate. Like we’ll get to in a minute, training is about the long-term view, not a day-by-day thing.
3. Weight room complements field work and sport
As a strength and conditioning coach, this one might seem a little backwards, but it’s true. The most specific thing you can do to improve your sport is…do your sport. Things like sprinting, jumping and sport practice are still stressors on the human body, and it serves us well to remember this when constructing a strength program. If you perform 10x10 squats on Monday only to have rigorous practice with lots of sprinting on Tuesday, you haven’t set yourself up for success very well.
This is why I use a hi-lo model with my athletes. On days where you have your hardest sport practice and heaviest sprinting (things with high demands on your central nervous system), we will also have our most CNS-demanding (intensive) weight room work. On days where sport practice demands are lighter, we will use the weight room extensively (low CNS-demand). Even if these days feel harder because of less rest time/higher volume, they are allowing your central nervous system to recover in time for your next intense practice, or game and allowing you to perform at your best.
4. Build a strong base (don’t major in the minors)
With the advent of Instagram trainers, catchy and flashy is the new cool. While there are some fantastic trainers out there producing great content, it’s still without context. So while that band resisted Bosu ball squat might look pretty cool and impressive, you don’t know if that trainer is just doing it for likes, and even if there is good, solid physiological reason for doing such an exercise…you haven’t seen the years of work the athlete put in to get to the point where such an exercise makes sense in their program. At ELEV8, we believe most athletes, especially high school aged athletes, can see phenomenal progress hammering the basics.
Squat, push, pull, hinge, carry, sprint, jump and rotate. Add in some accessories, and you hit every fundamental movement pattern found in sport, in life and in training. Continually progress in these matters, and I promise you’ll be the strongest, most athletic on the field.
Young athletes can tend to get caught “majoring in the minors,” or getting caught up in unnecessary details. Simply focusing on doing the basics well will yield phenomenal results.
5. Show up every day (long view > intensity)
You ever binge a whole season of something on Netflix in 2 days, only to not come back to it for another 3 months? That might be fine for your 8th run of The Office, but your training must follow a more intelligent approach. Anyone can beat themselves up for a week, but if you’re consistently taking days or weeks off, you’re losing valuable time.
There’s a popular saying that you’d rather be a mile short, than an inch too far. Start small, build over time. Showing up day in and day out will get you the results you seek. If you have a day off for recovery, own it and do the best you can to be fully recovered. If you’re in the weight room, attack each rep with the desired intent of the coach and just keep putting work in, the results will come!
There you have it, 5 of the things I think are most crucial for success in your performance training. Put these into practice, and you’ll be well on your way to seeing good results. Remember, your time in the weight room or field is such a small piece of your week, and you have to make sure you’re putting the time in elsewhere to be a great athlete!