Why Performance Drops in Athletic Performance

It seems very simple and practical that athletes put in a certain amount of work and could expect a certain amount of improvement in their performance. Sadly this isn’t how sports or anything else works in life. If we could constantly make progress in linear fashion, then it would make all performance achievements less impressive. If you could simply add 10lbs to a barbell every time you worked out, soon you would bench press over 1,500lbs. If you could sprint faster every time you ran, you would crush feats that left us in awe by Usain Bolt and Ben Johnson. Understanding performance drops takes experience and also knowledge of what to do next. This is where a coach in the specific area is beyond valuable. A coach can help keep your head level when performance drops, understand why it dropped, and create a plan to overcome that plateau. Many times in athletic performance or your career, your big break is a little beyond the point of where you want to quit. This blog will dive into the common reasons for drops in performance and how we help people overcome them. It’s important to remember that even the best athletes in the world experience periodic declines in performance. It’s how you decide to navigate those difficult times that will determine your outcome. 

1) Overtraining

Signs : Decreased speed and strength, irritability, and fatigue

Causes : Too many games and practices, not enough rest days

Practical Solution : Periodize technical and strength training, and have scheduled rest days as part of the plan. Days of travel don’t count as rest days. 

“ Overuse injuries, for example, can result from repetitive stress without sufficient recovery that leads to accumulated musculoskeletal damage. In addition, extended periods of increased training loads that exceed the intervening recovery can have systemic consequences such as overtraining syndrome, which results in decreased performance, increased injury and illness risk, and derangement of endocrine, neurologic, cardiovascular, and psychological systems. Burnout represents one of the primary reasons for attrition in youth sports.” (1)

We have worked with athletes of all ages and levels of sport and the athletes who prioritize rest and recovery as much as the performance aspect have longer and more successful careers. I remember speaking with Dave Tate, owner of Elite FTS about athletes saying they’ll do anything to perform better (PEDs, questionable interventions, new training techniques, etc) and his response was to ask them if they would take 2 weeks off and get their blood work examined by their doctor. This seems counter intuitive, but sometimes we need to take away to progress further. 

2) Poor Nutrition and Hydration

Signs : Sluggishness, frequent cramps, slow recovery

Causes : Poor nutritional habits

Practical Solution : Emphasize eating whole food based meals with snacks in between to help meet caloric needs based on age, sex, and activity level. 

“Basic nutrition is important for growth, achieving good health and scholastic achievement, and providing energy. Sports nutrition enhances athletic performance by decreasing fatigue and the risk of disease and injury; it also enables athletes to optimize training and recover faster. Balancing energy intake with energy expenditure is crucial to prevent an energy deficit or excess. Energy deficits can cause short stature, delayed puberty, menstrual dysfunction, loss of muscle mass and increased susceptibility for fatigue, injury or illness. Energy excess can result in overweight and obesity. ” (2)

Youth athletes should have a basic understanding of healthy nutritional habits before worrying about skill specific lessons or travel teams. If your youth athlete knows how to structure a meal with basic macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) then this will give them a better chance of being fueled properly to perform their best at practice and games. If you compound these efforts over a 10 year span, you have a huge advantage over the athlete that has never learned these skills. 

3) Lack of Sleep and Recovery

Signs: Moodiness, low energy, poor reaction time, decreased grip strength

Causes : Not having a sleep schedule, not having screen free time, late practices and games

Practical Solution : Create a sleep schedule that gives your athletes 8-10 hours of sleep each night. 

Lack of sleep isn’t a badge of honor and it’s detrimental to the development of youth athletes. “Sleep deprivation in teenagers is associated with poor athletic performance,  increased risk of injuries,  increased pain scores,  persistent pain,  and overall health.”(3)

We have data to show that sleep deprivation has a direct negative effect on athletic performance, so why is a sleep schedule not utilized as much as a practice or skill session schedule? When athletes don’t get proper sleep, it raises cortisol levels and makes the athlete more susceptible illness and less able to tolerate stress. 

4) Psychological Pressure or Burnout 

Signs : Anxiety, reduced enjoyment, drop in motivation

Causes : Pressure from parents or coaches to do more because of time or financial commitments. 

Practical Solution : Focus on fun, process based goals, not outcome based. 

Youth athletes don’t quit playing sports because they had a bad game, they quit because it’s longer enjoyable. When we take something like sports and take the fun away from it, it becomes a job that doesn’t pay. The truth is, very few youth athletes turn into professional athletes. Knowing this, we have to focus on the process of creating healthy habits to help them become successful adults. There are many lessons to learn from playing sports, but they will all be overshadowed with negativity when adults ruin the experience for kids. “The world’s tendency for early specialization especially leads to dangerous consequences when immature children participate in intensive all-year-round training and competition in a single sport. The lack of diversification and exposure to different sports activities during the developmental periods may underlie the enhanced risk of injuries, stopping motor skill development, psychosocial problems, overtraining syndrome, and a high possibility of burnout and potential dropout from sports. Moreover, children who are specialized early in one selected sporting discipline are deprived of the opportunity to increase their self-esteem by naturally trying different activities and hobbies.” (4). 

Whenever I feel myself going backwards in an area, I reach out to the person coaching me in that area to help me figure out how to overcome the obstacle. Having a coach gives you an unbiased opinion of what is happening. Sometimes when we’re close to a situation we have trouble being honest in evaluating what is happening. If you begin to notice your performance dropping, just be aware that the do more attitude could be digging a bigger hole than you’re already in. Learn to enjoy the process of long term development and appreciate the results as they come. If you need help getting your performance back on track, reach out to our team of coaches to fast track your goals. 

References

1) Brenner JS, Watson A; COUNCIL ON SPORTS MEDICINE AND FITNESS. Overuse Injuries, Overtraining, and Burnout in Young Athletes. Pediatrics. 2024 Jan 1;153(2):e2023065129. doi: 10.1542/peds.2023-065129. PMID: 38247370.

2) Purcell LK; Canadian Paediatric Society, Paediatric Sports and Exercise Medicine Section. Sport nutrition for young athletes. Paediatr Child Health. 2013 Apr;18(4):200-5. doi: 10.1093/pch/18.4.200. PMID: 24421690; PMCID: PMC3805623.

3) Coel RA, Pujalte GGA, Applewhite AI, Zaslow T, Cooper G, Ton AN, Benjamin HJ. Sleep and the Young Athlete. Sports Health. 2023 Jul-Aug;15(4):537-546. doi: 10.1177/19417381221108732. Epub 2022 Jul 19. PMID: 35855519; PMCID: PMC10293556.

4) Wilczyńska D, Qi W, Jaenes JC, Alarcón D, Arenilla MJ, Lipowski M. Burnout and Mental Interventions among Youth Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Studies. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 26;19(17):10662. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710662. PMID: 36078376; PMCID: PMC9517900.

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