Tips For Record Breaking

For this blog entry, the In the Arena athletes have been prompted to respond to a recent article about a UK man, Richard Jenkins, who is attempting to break the world land speed record over ground by a sail powered craft. Throughout his battle to break this record he has had to had to over come many obstacles, some personal, some financial, but all potential set backs... He compiled a list of "Tips for Record Breakers" and my task on this blog is to create my own, "Tips for Record Breakers" using what I have learned throughout my athletic career.

TIPS FOR RECORD-BREAKERS

• Develop a plan that continually evolves and adapts to your circumstances. If part of your plan fails, then learn from that and modify it. Most importantly, trust in your plan.

• Hope for the best, but plan for the worst... pack an extra pair of shoe laces or backup uniform. The phrase its better to be safe than sorry was coined for a reason.

• Develop your own training plan through trial and error, find out what works for you and try to make that aspect of your training stronger.

• Be goal oriented. Make immediate goals that can be accomplished every day. Make short term goals that can be accomplished in the near future and finally and most importantly, make long term goals that drive you to be who you are.

• Don't stick to conventional training. Think outside the box, just because the book says it is to be done one way, doesn't mean that there are better ways that work for you.

• Start from the ground and work your way up. In most athletic events, the initiation of movement or action starts on the ground. If you are having trouble with your technique in your upper body, track the flow of power or movement backwards and try to find out where the problem starts. Where you see the problem isn't always the cause.

• Lastly and most importantly....stay healthy. This comes at all cost. In the athletics arena, he who stays healthy longest wins. It doesn't matter if your the worlds strongest or fastest, if you are injured you cant compete. World class performances also require world class treatment. If you are aiming for world records then you have to treat your body the same way.

The last tip for me is often the most important one. Don't be afraid to spend money to stay healthy, after all, if you cant compete because your injured, then you cant make money in the first place. One of the greatest coaches in the world said, "be prepared to spend 15% of your income on treatment." When an individual is competing at the highest level, it is no different than driving a formula 1 car. Do you think that after the F1 drivers take their million dollar vehicles out for a run, the simply just park it in the garage? No, they change the oil, check the tire pressure, monitor the cars computer systems, tighten screws, replace fluids...and so on and so on. The human body is no different. I hope that theses tips give some insight to what I have learned over the last 5 years.