leading up to a tournament

[robbwilson]

just curious on everybodys preparation leading up too tournaments!!
do you do extra training to accompany classes e.g stretching and sprints! and would like to know what mental preparation people do and diets!
I myself eat healthy and think positive and picture myself doing certain combinations and winning!
I going to start doing sprints in the park so i can stay at a decent pace in the next tournament

[Deleted]

This is a very good thread, Rob, well done.

The best preparation for competitions is sparring. Lots and lots of sparring. Sprints help, so do technique drills, and lots of other things.

To get the most out of your training, you have to make a program out. That means Making a calender up to the event, making it clear what you're going to do on what days, and how long you've got until the competition. I like to mark in how many days left as well as how many training sessions.
If you do this, you won't feel like the competition arrived suddenly, or like you didn't have enough time to prepare.

Now the training bit:
For 6 weeks you should have a specific competition training plan. (this should be marked in your program well)
Obviously everyone has different schedules, and are at different levels, so how much of each thing you do depends, but you should have the following in your plan: sparring, technique training, fitness/cardio training. These are the core of your training. You may also add things like sprints separately, or you can incorporate them into your core 3. (same goes for stretching, weights etc.). For example, for my cardio, I might go for a run, or do a circuit, or both.
how much of each thing you do is up to you and what you can fit in, but it's essential also to have at least 1 rest rest day a week.
Also, you do have to stretch EVERY time you train, AND do abs EVERY time you train. These are more important than people give them credit for.

This is a program not designed to make you a professional athlete and take over the world, but it is designed so that people who work for a living can fit in enough training to get the most out of themselves without dying of exhaustion from overtraining. (and getting fired for falling asleep on the job.) And, it's designed to get the most out of yourself for 6 weeks, not for constant training. Beware of the burnout!

Diet is really important too, as is getting enough sleep, but this post is too long as it is.

[Deleted]

To clarify what I mean in the last post, here's my training program for my last competition. (well, what I can remember- I dont have the book I wrote it in at hand.)

Monday- Sparring (I organise)
Tuesday- Sparring (9pm D7)
Wednesday- techniques (on my own)
Thursday- rest
Friday- Sparring (Team MAI D15)
Saturday- Run (alternating jog, run, sprint)
Sunday- Circuit and conditioning


Every week the training gets harder eg. for my runs- week one, 2 sets. Week 2, 3 sets, week 3 on, 4 sets.

This program included abs every day and stretching every day.
I managed to get my abs done by doing them with every class I taught during the program. Time savers like this are great for when you work full time.
Another of these is to do hard stretching after a hard training session, that way you don't have to come in and get warmed up just for stretching, you just do it when you're already warmed up.

Also, I wrote in my hours of work into my calender so I had no excuse to not do my training.

Another giant post. Sorry about that!