Individuals who have aimed to be at their emotional and physical 'best' for a major event can lose that little bit of extra energy when it comes time for that very 'important race/game' if they have been their magnificent best at one of the run-up events or tournaments.
For a team sport, the players may have performed with a most wonderful result, not in the final, but in a semi or a preliminary final - or they may have had a winning streak during the preliminary matches – but they may not be able to maintain the same momentum in the 'final'.
Coaches in both cases have, at their finger tips, primed athletes. They know that it is necessary to win the preliminary fixtures so as to be at their peak for the 'big one', and the perennial question is "how do they get those athletes to perform at their absolute best at the final performance?"
There is a common belief today in sports that in some way, peaking can be associated with 'over fine-tuning with fitness'. An athlete trains so much in order to tune their physical attributes within a hair's breadth of the very top, just in time for 'that big event', and this brings an inherent danger of getting to a point at which they go over the top, sometimes just a fraction, and then something goes wrong.
Although generalisations cannot be made, some specific examples can be given.
• Cricketer Shane Watson is Australia's opening batsman, and he was so prone to injury on the field that he changed his training program to one more like those used by rugby league football players, so as to not be so 'finely tuned' to a particular event. This strategy seemed to work for him. It may not be appropriate for every cricketer.
• As a former field hockey player, and author of hockey books, M V Tronson has noticed a constantly changing approach to the fitness regime recommended for hockey players, over several decades. Sometimes these changes have been made necessary by technical improvements – such as the introduction of artificial pitches. Mark Tronson commented that hamstring injuries were more frequent, until the athletes adjusted their preparation strategies.
• There is a belief that too much is being done, especially for footballers, and a new program called MedX is designed to reduce the highly stressful parts of current training methodologies, and alleviate a good portion of the possible mis-judgements due to hyper-fine-tuning.
• It is almost getting back to the notion of balance. M V Tronson is an advocate of this, more general information can be found on this with Dr Darren Scheuner
This indicates a constant re-evaluation of current 'fashions' of training, and shows that fresh thinking can turn around a program that isn't working. MedX advocates that "less is more".
Mark Tronson wonders whether there is a parallel in the current frenetic attempts of some Churches and Christian Mission in their early planning of outreach functions. Are they peaking too soon and over fine-tuning?
M V Tronson says he can recall so many occasions where so much promotion of an upcoming Mission event came to the congregation members so early, that either they were exhausted before the Mission began or the Mission didn't live up to the hype.
Therefore he contends that 'peaking too soon' applies equally to planning church events as it does to sports, and Christians can become over fine-tuned in their devotional lives. This results in them, in effect become confused and illogical in their theology, although they and their Church advisers started out being well-meaning.
A lack of balance seems to be the problem. Ministers themselves are not immune to this. They can sometimes be caught out by not having balance in their own lives, and are then in danger of 'burnout'.
There is great support in the Bible for 'balance'. There many examples advocating the balance between the practical and the theological. Jesus took time out to be refreshed. He also fed the five thousand who were hungry. Apostle Paul himself worked as a tent maker while preaching as a missionary. James said that telling others about Jesus by itself doesn't cut it, and advocated pitching in and helping someone in need.
Mark Tronson and his wife Delma recently had an opportunity to 'ease off' during a working lunch, and appreciate God's marvellous world around them for a refreshing moment.
Some whales and their calves were heading south past Point Danger (Coolangatta – Tweed Heads), so Mark and Delma dropped what they were doing and took time-out to enjoy watching the whales.
This illustrates what Well-Being Australia's Respite ministry to athletes is all about - it is associated with showing athletes, coaches and families how important it is to achieve balance within their busy training schedules.