Today's blog is focusing on over-training – what is it; what are the effects and how can it be avoided.
Firstly, I want to include links to a couple of other articles. The first is the tragic story of a young US cyclist, who had won multiple world medals and a silver at the Rio Olympics. She had a degree in maths and Chinese and was studying for a masters in engineering. She was a talented artist and musician – an all round high achiever. Her sister described her as
'talented at literally everything she did. She just felt like she couldn't say no to everything that was asked of her.'
She took her own life last week and her father described it as
'..a “perfect storm” of overtraining, taking too much on and not fully comprehending the effects of her recent concussion'
Read Kelly Catlin's story here https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/11/kelly-catlin-death-cyclist-suffered-concussion-months-before-suicide
This is obviously an appallingly tragic event, and one that with the benefit of hindsight may have been avoided.
So what can be learned? What is over-training and how can we as parents help our young athletes to spot the signs. After all, an involvement in sport encourages us to push the limits, get out of our comfort zone and be an all round tough cookie. When have we toppled over the line of 'enough training' and fallen into 'too much training'.
And here, rather than re-inventing the wheel, I am going to link you to the words of another Olympic silver medallist, who has navigated the challenges of overtraining and come out the other side.
World and Olympic silver medallist, Vicky Thornley, had to pull out of last year's World Championships due to over-training. HERE she tells the story of her difficult journey through the season, and how she has come out the other side stronger and wiser.
As always, if you find our blog posts helpful, please like and comment – we love to hear your feedback. And please share amongst your network if you think it will help other athletes and parents navigate their journey positively through sport.
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