Kickstart your season
It has been an eventful 2020 with many additional challenges that none of us foresaw and many of those challenges will continue at least throughout the first quarter of 2021. But with the global rollout of multiple vaccines there is optimism and a hope for a slow return to normality in the sporting world. Many coaches will find themselves in a situation where they are not as familiar with their athletes/teams and can’t fall back on the regular training and competition assessments of the recent past. Global restrictions introduced to help with the pandemic have had a huge impact on many aspects of day-to-day life on physical, mental and social well-being. Lack of training and adherence to programs, along with a very changed lifestyle for your athletes has produced a very different set of circumstances as we start into the new year. This is not an optimal start to a new season or a return to full time training. Having a clear understanding of the lifestyle stressors your athletes are experiencing is a necessity.
Athlete Well-Being
Sport has been significantly affected from amateur to professional. The Youth Sport Trust produced an evidence paper on the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on children and young people.
More than a quarter (29%) of 16-25 year olds feel that their future career prospects may have been damaged, 46% believe that finding a new job now feels “impossible”, with one-third feeling that “everything they have worked for is now going to waste”. 69% feel that their life is “on hold” and almost half (47%) don’t feel in control of their lives … Boredom (51%), worry (28%) and feeling trapped (26%) are the top three emotions experienced by children and young people.
In the US, The NCAA Student-Athlete COVID-19 Well-being Study was designed to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student-athletes’ current physical and mental well-being. Over 37,000 student-athletes responded to the survey, spanning the three divisions, all sports and athletics conferences. The survey found that there were higher rates of mental distress, increase in sleep difficulties and anxiety and depression. Emotional barriers included a fear of exposure to COVID-19 (43%), lack of motivation (40%), feelings of stress or anxiety (21%), and sadness or depression (13%).
On the positive side, deterioration in mental health and reduced physical fitness and activity has increased the appreciation of the importance of sport in many young people’s lives and the benefits it can bring to them.
Assessing the well-being of your team
Ensuring athletes are fit and healthy from both a physical and mental perspective is essential to allow performances to flourish. As the old adage goes “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”. Like anything you want to monitor, it is important initially to know what your baselines are.
What are your team’s weaknesses and strengths?
How can you educate your athletes and encourage good lifestyle habits that help improve the performance of every athlete on your team?
Metrifit’s new lifestyle profiling survey can help you kickstart your season and assess the overall health and well-being of your team, allowing you to understand the main priorities on the road back to normality to help optimize performance.
Developed with our Chief Research Advisor, Dr. Catherine Blake, Deputy Head of UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sport Science, our detailed lifestyle profiling survey makes use of a number of validated questionnaires across many variables including Sleep, Stress, Health, Nutrition, Fatigue and Motivation. Athletes can take this survey monthly and receive individualized dynamic reports and feedback on progress from month to month with educational infographics emphasizing the importance of lifestyle habits in relation to their performance. A detailed team overview for coaches collates this information across the whole team providing invaluable insight into the main lifestyle issues that they are experiencing.
This new functionality is available within the existing Metrifit Ready to Perform product but also as a standalone product.
Conclusion
Multiple lifestyle factors can have a significant effect on athletic performance. Evaluating these is important to help each athlete reach their potential. An athlete who is not sleeping and is suffering from chronic stress is more likely to burnout and dropout than perform their best on the sports field. Early intervention identifying issues and educating athletes on how lifestyle stressors can affect their performance can reap immeasurable rewards. Metrifit’s profiling is scientifically supported and offers a practical way to assess and improve lifestyle strategy for your team.
It may be just one of the best things you do for your team this year!
To find out more about our Metrifit Ready to Perform product or our new lifestyle profiling contact us at or click on ‘Request Demo’ below.
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