One year ago, on March 29, 2010 this blog took its first steps with a post entitled "The keys to Eneko Llanos' victory at Abu Dhabi Triathlon " (in Spanish). In this time I have published 92 posts related with sports physiology, training, performance and some other related topics.
The blog has received 14,236 single visits, entering a total of 87,101 pages, with an average of 6.12 pages per visit. The rebound rate (percentage of visitors entering a blog page then exiting without continuing to surf) has been just 7.83%, a very low percentage that, along with the number of page views per visit, indicates that those who enter the blog find the contents sufficiently interesting to keep surfing thorugh it and read several posts. This number is even more valuable when noting that half the blog visitors had never entered it before.
During my lecture in Ottawa.
I just returned from Ottawa, Canada, where I was invited to lecture (video and slides from "Peaking and Tapering for Optimal Performance") and carry out some workshops for a group of about 80 top level coaches within the framework of Canada’s Own the Podium – À nous le Podium program. Interestingly, a few months ago I published an editorial in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, of which I am Associate Editor, entitled “Sport Science in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics”. In that paper, I highlighted the contribution of the Own the Podium initiative to Canada’s Olympic success in home soil, so I thought it would appropriate to reproduce the relevant part of that text here:
Eneko Llanos, in Abu Dhabi.
At the world stage, doing almost everything right is not good enough. We can plan, implement, quantify, measure, assess, test, evaluate, adjust, reassess… but unfortunately for us (and fortunately for sport) we can’t control everything. A puncture, a crash right in front, a last minute viral infection, an equipment malfunction, a missed drink station, are all factors that may severely affect the outcome of a race and that are beyond our control.
A year ago I was writing a post entitled “The keys to Eneko Llanos’ victory at Abu Dhabi Triathlon” (in Spanish), feeling proud and totally satisfied with the outcome of a perfect race by Eneko. In that post, I mentioned that the keys to his win could be found not just on race day, but many weeks earlier, and that the win was the combined result of motivation, planning and execution.
Iñigo Mujika, Louise M. Burke
Ann Nutr Metab 2010;57(suppl 2):26–35
Gloria Balague (Photo: TPSR-Alliance).
In the recent post entitled “The preparation of Olympic swimmers”, in which we refered to a round table with swimming world champions Erika Villaécija and Mireia Belmonte, it was mentioned that “Both athletes indicated that the support of a sport psychologist is also key in their preparation, to learn how to face complicated situations and never lose concentration”.
Track cycling Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton also made the following statement in our section Interviews with the Elite: “I had the raw materials and the motivation to train at the highest level, but I just didn’t have the mental skills and the self-belief to go all the way to the top. My head was the only thing holding back”. It is obvious that at the highest levels of performance, the physiological, technical and tactical abilities of the great champions is quite similar among them, and their psychological preparation could be their performance determining factor in competition.
For this reason, our next guest in the section Interviews with the Elite is one of the top sport psychologists in the world stage: Gloria Balagué.
