Crossfit Norwest, Raw strength and conditioning and Barefoot Evolution Discussion Forum

[Matt_Wicks]

After attending a day at the Newcastle - Made of steel comp on the weekend and seeing our guys and girls do such an awesome job I am curious to know how people mentally prepare for a competition.
What sort of work up is going on in the head of the athletes. Is this just another work out or has the added pressure of a competition got them edgy, nervous or just fired up and ready to rock.

Watching some of the guys go full pelt right from the 3-2-1-GO! and run out of gas before the event was finished has me wondering is it best to come out of the gates as hard as possible and get some slow reps towards the end or is pacing yourself through the entire event so as you are still completely spent at the end but remain consistent throughout.

So, for those that have competed on the weekend or previously.

How did you feel in the days and hours leading up to the event? Just another work out or was there something else going on in your head?

How did you approach each WOD? did you plan it out or just go flat stick from the GO!?
Would you change your game plan next time?


Also congratulations to everyone that did compete, it was inspirational to watch everyone and now I know I have to get on that side of the rope shortly.

Wicksy

[Rob]

This is a great question and I would be interested to hear the feed back from some of the newer guys/girls to competition. I know that Corinne gets hell nervous and will go to bathroom about 30 times in a competition day. I know that others get nervous as well but not sure to what extent.

I have learned a lot from the competitions I have been in. The benefit for hindsite and experience I think. I used to train flat out and like you say Wicks run out of gas and not have alot more to give. Flat out and hang on to watch ever was left. I did that in my second workout of my first competition and I have never felt so bad in my life. Missed reps, uncontrollable heart rate, lactic acid blow out and the result a slow time compared to my other competitors. In that competition my comptitors new what to row at in terms of watts, strokes per metre and split times. I just rowed as hard as I could for as long as I could and came unstuck

I think it depends on the length of the workout and type of movements involved to see how fast you need to go. Obvisouly the better nick you are in the higher your work rate. You do not have to win every event at a competition. You justy need to perform well across the whole range of workouts so if you go flat stick in one workout and you have another 6 to go. how are you going to back up.

I think AMRAP you have to pace, I think 21, 15, 9 generally go for broke, other shit you can work out per workout but competition definitely makes it hard to hold back!!!!!

[Dazza jackson]

hey wicksy

for me i try and prepare for the worst i know on games day its going to be tough and we will be tested over all abilitys so i try and keep focused and treat it just like any wod we do at the box but its amazing when your in competition mode that you can push that little bit harder or summon some strength from somewhere because you know that every rep and every second counts and the difference between winning and losing can be determined by that, so in relation to going hard it all depends on the type of wod that it will be.

the biggest thing i think about leading up to a games day is to make sure my body is fueled properly and that i have given my body enough time to recover from training to feel fresh for games day, even on the day all im thinking about is what the wods are, how will i approach the wod, how much time i have in between heats and refuelling my body and recovering to prepare for the next wod.

also what keeps me busy is socialising with people and meeting new people, games days are great and i guess thats what its all about getting together, doing your best and have fun doing it with great people that share your passion for fitness.

so get i there and have a crack mate!

[Matt_Wicks]

Thought I would bump this thread as it seems relevant at the moment.

This morning was interesting watching some people get super nervous before the WOD. Those that seemed to have a lot of nevousness were some of the best I have seen on our leaderboard so far.

Could the anxiousness before the game be a positive for ones performance or do you find your nerves are more detrimental to going beastmode?

[Rob]

With out a doubt. The fright and flight response will increase performance by at least 10%. Our adrenal glands secret adrenaline which will increase your arousal level. This will give quicker reaction times, longer lactate tolerance and increase strength and power out put.

This is seen time and time again. State of Origin rugby league, the hits are bigger, the game is faster, people do freaky things because of the crowd, the atmosphere and the anticipation of the event.

[PeteB]

Thought I would drop in on this one. I find it equally very interesting and a tricky thing to work out how much I have in my tank at any time.
I have been to a few competitions and probably until the Open WODS recently haven't put too much thought into strategically thinking my way through a workout.
I see the value of it - the last think I would want is to have to put my hand up short of the line and say I haven't got any more. On the other hand it would grate on my nerves big time to think I could have done better because I got to the line with more than I should have left.

I have to get into my own head to ramp up the adrenalin. There is some raising of levels because it's comp day or games day or whatever but I don't naturally get over excited or particularly anxious.
I did note one comment to myself just prior to the beginning of my 12.3 workout. It had to do with my performance of the workout and that it comes down to an expression of my training to date.
I think in future that means I will have even less concern when it comes to the workouts - if I have done my training the way it should be done then I will be as prepared as I can be for the day/comp/wod on that day. Simple.

If the greater part of the question is about what individuals do then I don't know about others for the most part but that's how it is for me.
It would/could be useful to get more input from others on this to find out just what techniques people use - the challenge will be the correlation between the technique, the athlete and the result. Not sure but I think that would be the challenge.