Peaking for competition
When considering whether you should be peaking for a competition, the first question to ask yourself is: Am I training to train or to compete?
If you train because you enjoy it, want to stay active, have fun, and occasionally participate in competitions for the experience, peaking for a competition may not be necessary. However, if you train to compete, peaking should be part of your yearly vocabulary. When an athlete is in the peaking phase for the most important competitions, training volume is typically decreased to optimise performance when it matters. This deliberate reduction in training for some time is known as taper.
Tapers are used by athletes in various sports to maximise their performance outcomes in competitions. For some Coaches, this phase can stand out as one of the most intricate parts of the athlete’s annual plan. When executed correctly, it involves skillfully adjusting training volume, frequency, and intensity. This allows the athlete or competitor to attain an ideal physical and physiological readiness to excel and embrace the upcoming competition.
How do we go about defining a taper? As mentioned earlier, one of the first things to manipulate is the training volume. Coaches typically decrease the overall training volume leading up to the competitions. This reduction not only reduces the cumulative fatigue naturally built up during training but also contributes significantly to athletes’ or competitors’ readiness to perform at their best. It’s important to note that athletes and competitors are often deeply rooted in their training routines and may not fully be able to assess the extent of this cumulative fatigue until the workload is scaled back.
Simultaneously, while reducing the training volume, maintaining the training intensity is crucial. Studies have indicated that tapers that maintain a high training intensity while reducing the volume tend to have a higher likelihood of success in achieving the optimal competitive state we discussed earlier.
When it comes to determining the extent of volume reduction, it varies from one sport to another and depends on the competition’s duration/length. Tapers can reduce volume by 40% to as much as 90%. Nevertheless, scientific consensus suggests that reductions in 41% to 60% are the most common. This percentage will be influenced by the workload leading up to the taper and the taper’s duration. For example, if there was a higher increase in training volume for a specific reason before the taper, it’s expected that a higher % of reduction will be necessary.
Here are some valuable guidelines you can use for yourself or your athletes/ competitors:
Create an individualised taper that can last between 1 or 2 weeks
Maintain a high intensity of training to avoid “detraining.”
Decrease training volume by 41 to 60%
Use the taper to dissipate fatigue, keep physical abilities and improve performance
If you are training to compete, you should aim to be the kind of athlete or competitor fully prepared on competition day. You don’t want to approach competition day with complaints about feeling exhausted from training and dealing with various physical discomforts and stress resulting from training volume.
Eddie
References: Periodization – Tudor O. Bompa
