Readiness. Set. Go! How to Interpret and Respond to your Athletes' Readiness Data
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How do you know if your athletes are ready to compete?
How do you know if they’re ready to take on the practice or the workout of the day?
It’s hard to assume everyone on your team will be ready when it’s time to train or compete, but implementing a Readiness Questionnaire and monitoring results can help with that.
Although your athletes may be enduring the same practices and workout regimens, it does not mean their bodies will all respond in the same way. Each athlete will have a slightly different perceived rate of exertion and they’ll each have their own set of external stressors or factors that influence their performance. These external factors may not be perceived as additional physical stressors, but they can certainly carry mental and emotional stress.
These mental and emotional stressors may include personal hardships, relationships, school, work, a traumatic event, internal or external pressures, sleep deprivation, lack of nutrition, or financial struggles.
The tricky thing is, you may never know these things are happening if you don’t frequently check in with your athletes or they don’t confide in you. These factors could be the reason their progress is being inhibited or their performance is declining.
A simple, yet effective readiness check-in questionnaire can help paint a better picture of how ready your athletes are.
It can also help you identify potential red flags that may be occurring within an individual or the whole team. This type of assessment is a brief, thought-provoking exercise for your athletes to evaluate how they are feeling. We are all guilty of going through our day without taking a moment to assess how we feel physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Volt’s readiness check-in is an opportunity for your athletes to take time to self-reflect on the current status of their overall wellbeing, AND share that with you - the coach.
Volt users are prompted with the following five questions at the start of each workout.
Let’s take a moment to break down each of the factors measured in the Volt Readiness score.
Soreness
Delayed onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS, may occur 24-72 hours after a workout. This is a common result post-workout and is caused from microtears to the muscle fibers during training. Soreness should subside within 24-72 hours and if it does not, this could be an indication that your athlete is not recovering properly.
Lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and stress are all factors in the recovery process. As a coach, you can make educated predictions as to when your athletes may be expected to be sore.
You may anticipate your athletes being very sore upon their return from summer break or if they are in the midst of a high-volume training block. But if you are seeing low soreness ratings (which indicate a great deal of soreness) during a time of year where you’d anticipate better ratings, you may want to consider making some training adjustments or adding additional recovery time and opportunities.
Stress
Stress is defined as your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. It can be a physical, mental, or emotional challenge and can manifest in many ways. It is important to note that stress is inevitable. In many cases, stress is necessary for us to adapt and evolve.
Stress becomes a problem when it starts to compile and we don't have the tools to manage it. Your athletes are managing physical stress on a regular basis, but they are also tackling external stressors that may be out of your control, and often theirs. You can predict, based on the academic calendar, when your athletes may be more stressed. For example, during exam weeks they may be feeling a higher stress load.
Additionally, their stress may increase in the postseason. Regardless of the time of year, you can use this readiness check-in to identify any athletes that may need help coping with their stress.
High amounts of stress can lead to weakened immune systems, delayed recovery, and decreased performance. More importantly, it can lead to a decline in their mental health. The Readiness Check-in can help you identify athletes whose mental health may be suffering, providing you the opportunity to intervene and provide them with the resources they may need.
Energy
One of the most direct ways an athlete's energy level can be influenced is through nutritional intake.
Many athletes struggle to adequately fuel their body for the demands of training and competition, leaving them with an empty tank when it’s time to perform. Many also struggle with when to eat to optimize their performance, energy levels, or digestion. If possible, seek nutritional counseling from a Registered Dietitian to ensure your athletes are timing their meals and snacks appropriately throughout the day and around practices. An RD can also help them learn how to choose what types of food to eat, which will affect their concentration, focus, and effort during a practice or workout.
An athlete’s energy levels can also be attributed to the amount of sleep they are getting each night, and we’ll talk about sleep later in this article.
If your athletes are consistently reporting low energy levels, it’s important to try and understand why this may be occurring - is it their nutrition? sleep? something else?
Mood
Mood can be defined as a conscious state of mind or a predominant emotion. It is a general feeling, but not a reaction to any particular situation. An athlete's current mood may last minutes or days.
With the readiness check-in, you can identify if an athlete’s reported emotional status is an acute occurrence or a chronic state. If they are repeatedly rating their mood negatively for weeks, this may be an indication you should check in on them. If they are consistently rating their mood positively, it may be an opportunity to find out what is contributing to this “good mood” and so the athlete can learn how to harness it more often.
You may notice that energy, mood, and stress are often scored similarly, so improving one may also have similar affect on the others.
Sleep
Whether you’re in the classroom, on the battlefield, in the office, or on the athletic fields, sleep can impact your performance in many ways.
Sleep plays an important role in your cognitive function throughout the day, and it also affects the body’s ability to recover and heal. The only time of day that our bodies are in a true state of recovery is while we’re asleep. It is recommended to get 6-8 hours of sleep every night.
Lack of sleep and poor quality sleep decreases focus, concentration, decision-making, critical thinking, and reaction time. It also increases cortisol levels, which is a stress response that impairs the body’s ability to repair and grow tissue. Athletes who sleep less than 8 hours per night have 1.7x greater risk of being injured than those who get 8 hours or more.
The readiness check-in can help you identify athletes that may be struggling to meet their sleep needs. Their lack of sleep could be a result of poor time management. This is a great opportunity to provide guidance on how they can structure and manage their time more efficiently to ensure full, restful sleep.
These are helpful tips for anyone that struggles to fall asleep or stay asleep:
The bedroom should be cool, and as dark and quiet as possible
Eye masks and earplugs can be useful, especially if sharing a room
Try using a white noise machine
Create a good sleep routine by going to bed and waking at the same time each day (as permissible)
Avoid screens in bed and close to bedtime
Avoid watching the clock
Avoid caffeine approximately 4-5 hours prior to sleep (this may vary among individuals)
Avoid consuming alcohol and recreational drugs
Avoid consuming too much fluid a couple hours before going to bed. This may result in waking up to use the bathroom periodically, interrupting or inhibiting optimal sleep patterns.
Napping can be useful; however, naps should generally be kept to less than one hour and not too close to bedtime as it may interfere with the ability to fall asleep
If you identify that your athlete(s) could improve their sleep, use this opportunity to educate them on the importance of sleep and how to achieve a better night’s sleep.
Summary and Next Steps
By monitoring your athletes’ readiness scores, you have the power to stay on top of their health and wellbeing.
You can make educated decisions and last-minute changes to improve their health and performance. You can often predict behavior patterns and reactions depending on the time of year or season, however, some factors can be less predictable and can be indicative of underlying factors that could be decreasing performance.
It is always best practice to refer your athletes to a professional if you feel their situation is out of your scope of practice or if you feel someone else may be better suited to handle the challenges they are facing.
If you are a member of the Volt Family, remember that we’re here to help you! If you have further questions on our readiness check-in and how to apply it to your coaching practice, please reach out to support@voltathletics.com!
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