Peak Performance

And the preparation that goes into it

Peak performance or being “in the zone” is often talked about in sports. And yet, it can seem the concept is more mystical than anything. The aim for today is to better understand peak performance, and how you can help your athletes prepare to perform at their best.

In this week’s 3 Points, I’ll discuss peak performance and how coaches may be able to help their athletes prepare for peak performance more effectively.

1. What is peak performance?

There are a number of definitions for peak performance, however, today we will focus on peak performance as “the upper limits of performance, where athletes are able to perform at their optimum levels of functioning and produce outstanding performance outcomes.”

Further, researchers suggest that the difference between peak performance, also referred to as an athlete being in the zone versus normal performance state, is associated with psychological functioning. This makes sense, as an athlete’s physical skill likely has not changed drastically from one performance to the next.

2. A group of researchers sought to investigate the psychological elements of peak performance by interviewing 17 World Championship and Olympic athletes and 6 coaches who had coached Olympians. After analyzing the interviews, the researchers proposed, “three processes as factors that may have enabled athletes to act on the psychological experience and positively influence the performance outcome: self-regulation, taking control, and trust in ability.

• Self-regulation looked like athletes understanding their pre-performance anxiety, being able to acknowledge it, and knowing how to handle it.

• Taking control was embodied by athletes feeling like they were in control from moment to moment.

• Trust was mentioned by athletes as trusting their preparation and being able to “go for it.”

3. How can coaches help their athletes prepare for peak performance?

The most interesting finding, and why I chose to highlight this study was the difference in how coaches and athletes perceived factors that lead to peak performance:

Admittedly, the sample size is very small but it is interesting to note the difference between athletes and coaches. For example, 9 of the athletes and none of the coaches thought that psychological preparation was a key factor contributing to peak performance. That looks like opportunity.

I think an advantage exists for coaches who can understand what they believe contributes to an athlete’s peak performance, and what the athletes believe contributes to their own peak performance and blend the two together in preparation.