Preparation: Tailoring your Training
A dive into how different training styles in practice can prepare athletes for major success
Welcome to the third and final article of The Athlete's Guide to Preparation. This is the last of a three part series that has focused on the role that preparation plays in athletic performance, including how it can be trained and developed for maximum output.
This third article is focused on training strategies and the ways that an athlete can incorporate these strategies into their training to optimize their performance. Proper, focused training is the most effective way that an athlete can prepare themselves for game situations. In this article, we will cover the following topics:
Learning how to fail (And how to train for it).
The benefits of adding scenario-based training.
Let’s get into it.
Incorporating Failure into Training
Why is training with failure important?
Failure is a part of every single competitive sport, some sports to a greater extent than others. Let’s look at baseball, for example. Typically, a successful batter bats for an average of around .300. That means, for a SUCCESSFUL batter, they are still “failing” 70% of the time.
Basketball is another similar example. Someone who makes 50% of their shots is usually considered a good shooter. This means they are also “failing” on 50% of their shots.
So, how does this apply to training?
Very often during practice, athletes only want to put themselves into positions where they will succeed the majority of the time. And while it is good to train for success, this can hold them back when it comes to competitions where they will fail on a regular basis.
Think of it this way.
If you are used to succeeding the majority of the time, what happens when you get put into a game and you fail once and it’s time to bounce back? You don’t know what to do. You aren’t used to rebounding from failure. 0-1 turns to 0-2 turns to 0-3.
So how can you train to bounce back from failure?
The simple answer is to make your training harder.
You might think that’s obvious, but really think about it.
When was the last time you did a drill where you failed more than half the time?
For baseball guys, when was the last time you pumped the pitching machine up to a point where you just couldn’t touch it and had to learn to adapt?
Too often we like to stay in our comfort zones. Taking easy shots in practice that we make most of the time, hitting easy speeds where our swing feels good.
What happens then? It gets late to a game, you’re 0-4 and you feel off. You come up to bat in a huge spot, and you have no faith in your success, because you aren’t used to bouncing back from failure.
All-in-all, my main point here is to get out of your comfort zone when you are training.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Embrace your failures and learn from it. This is all a major part of preparation.
Scenario-Based Training
Scenario-based training is another great way for athletes to prepare themselves for high-pressure game situations, and these more challenging training strategies will help athletes to incorporate that training for failure that we were talking about.
Athletes can incorporate scenario-based training into their routines through several strategies:
The first main step is to identify key game situations and design specific drills to make those situations as realistic as possible.
The most important here is determining how to make the drills as game-like as possible. These may include scenarios such as late-game situations, high-pressure situations where it is focused on an individual, or team situations where communication is necessary for success.
To mimic game conditions as closely as possible, coaches and players can do things such as using props like cones or markers to simulate opponents, setting up specific field or court configurations, or incorporating time constraints to add pressure.
When it comes to your scenario-specific training, there are a few main things that you can focus on to ensure that you are making the most out of your training time:
Provide Goals: Coaches or players should provide context for each scenario, explaining the purpose of the drill and the desired end-results. In other words, have something that you as an individual or as a team that you are striving towards.
Rotate Roles and Scenarios: Athletes should have opportunities to rotate roles and experience different scenarios during training sessions. Adaptability is a major part of success when it comes to game situations. Adding variability into training helps you to prepare for these complex situations.
Incorporate it into Regular Training: Scenario-based training should also be used during regular training sessions. What this means is that basic drills that you might otherwise be doing could be enhanced by putting players through different scenarios. This helps to make drills more engaging, interesting, and challenging.
By incorporating training through failure and scenario-based training into their routines in these ways, athletes can develop the skills, decision-making abilities, and confidence needed to perform effectively in real-game situations.
Thank you for reading! That concludes the third and final article of The Athlete’s Guide to Preparation. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. If you found this article useful or helpful and worthy of sharing, please share this article to anyone you think could find value in it.
The Athlete’s Guide to In-Season Training—Article 1—Coming Next Week