Olympic year to gap year
Take home message
gap year - a chance for personal discovery
For Coaches
That time you have always wanted for extra planning, review or personal development - it’s here.
For Athletes
This is an amazing opportunity to grow as a person and an athlete. Sport will come back, when it does, will you be better?
It’s probably no surprise to say that postponing the Olympics was a devastating blow to many athletes and coaches. Preparing for an Olympics is not a 6 or 12 month process, but a multiple year plan for the chance to fulfill a special dream. At the time of writing, it has been about 6 weeks since the Australian Olympic Committee announced withdrawal from the Tokyo Olympics, shortly before the games was officially postponed. That was only a few weeks after our hockey tour to Europe was cancelled due to the Corona virus. It seemed that our sporting world was falling apart. After all, so many athletes and coaches define themselves by sport. However, that was soon put in perspective with the subsequent devastation due to COVID-19.
There was the initial shock of the Olympic opportunity being “stolen” from us. Then the realisation that there was more important things than sport as we focused our time on family and friends. Once the disappointment subsided, I feel athletes (and coaches) have handled the situation in a few different ways.
Some athletes realised they had no Plan B to fill the gap. Their life was sport or … sport. The nature of elite athletes has seen many of them take up remarkable physical challenges in running, riding or swimming, and creative ways to mimic their daily training, demonstrating both their remarkable physical capacity and competitive drive. Initially lost, they have been forced to balance their lives with more than just physical activity. Experiencing a premature glimpse of the inevitable ‘life after sport’ has encouraged awareness of gaps that require attention. I hope they can continue some resemblance of balance when sport gets to re-start.
Others who had a Plan B, some part-time work or study, have used that to fill the gap. Also ultra competitive seeking to fill a ‘sportless’ void, their work load has filled the gap to an extent that finding time for training is hard, especially without the camaraderie of teammates. Another way of handling the break is to take a break. Without the camaraderie of the team, some isolated team sport athletes have struggled without the routine and companionship. I appreciate that these are unusual times, but this break could occur with injury or illness and athletes need to know how to work in isolation, without their peers. As a coach, it has been a tricky time to balance space and support without encroaching. Letting athletes find their way and being there for support, without being the crutch or ‘online’ taskmaster.
Regardless of how each athlete handles this period, the opportunity for learning is exceptional, and one I am trying to learn and encourage others to learn too. For athletes, it can be what training they find easy to do and the training they need help with. It could be new exercises or routines and learning how have these positively or negatively affected them. Some athletes have (in my opinion) used this break incredibly well. They have tried new exercises and listened to their body. They have tried different training modalities (run, ride, swim, yoga, circuits, etc) and used the period as an extended recovery time. Some have sensed that when this break is over, competition will be in catch-up mode with sport governing bodies making up for lost time and maybe our lives will be more frantic than before so athletes are making the most of this break - it could be the last for a while. They have relished family time and found a desire to train again. We have learnt that there is more to life than sport. And how important sport is to life.
Coaches too have also tried to make lemonade with lemons. Don’t forget, it was their dreams too that were postponed. The same way a player’s skills require constant practice, so too does coaching. Whilst it is hard to do the practical, like many coaches, I have enjoyed the theoretical, the review of training practices and the opportunity of a “redo” of the Olympic preparation. Sure, there have been the updating of protocols or reviewing current literature on rehab or endurance programming. But some of the most stimulating moments have been the conversations with coaches outside my immediate program or reading books by coaches on coaching, examining their philosophies and considering my own.
The end to our COVID life of lock down and isolation is getting closer to an end. When it does, are we going to return where we left off, or be better?
Compulsory reading at hockey. Just kidding.
(Sort of kidding.)
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Thanks again. BA.