Recovery, Research Paper Example

Kellmann’s 2010 article, “Preventing Overtraining in Athletes in High-Intensity Sports and Stress/Recovery Monitoring,” is a detailed and well-documented examination of just how critically recovery plays into the over-all well-being of an athlete, and how directly attending to adequate rest and recovery enhance athletic performance. From an initial discussion on how this issue has increasingly commanded attention in professional sports, Kellmann then moves to the core of the work, which is to offer a model many coaches lack.  As it is widely understood that high stress and fatigue impact athletes in negative ways, there is still no accepted instrument to address the reality, and this is what Kellmann seeks to provide.   The goal is achieved, as the article is both scholarly, engaging, and rational, and the model is easy to comprehend.

As Kellmann notes from the evidence, athletes who are kept at consistently high levels of training intensity cannot adequately recover from brief rest periods (2010,  p.  96).  Then, and particularly in sports wherein competition is at a professional level, it seems that emotional and mental stress may be more harmful than the physical variety.  Traditional recovery periods cannot properly compensate, likely because an important and often overlooked factor is that there appears to be an exponential relationship between high-intensity training and advisable rest and recovery periods.  This is only logical, for it reinforces the nature of training itself.  The concept of training is based on accumulating strength and skills, as reached plateaus are gradually exceeded; consequently, stress and fatigue build up just as systematically.   To that end, Kellmann’s model presents a visually symmetrical rendering of balance needing to be achieved between recovery and exertion/stress.

Moreover, the article provides insight into an important aspect somewhat removed from training itself, in that fatigue and stress may well be components introduced by the athlete before any training or competition takes place.  Kellmann offers a case study of a rower who, after a regatta sequence of several days, completed the RESTQ-Sport profile.  The profile itself is widely used in high-profile sports, such as the Olympics, as it gauges stress scales subjectively reported by the athlete, from sport-specific physical stress to multiple, general recovery and stress.   The rower reported unusually high levels, and an ensuring discussion with his coach revealed that a personal issue had been severely affecting the rower’s state of mind, and consequently his performance (Kellmann, 2010, p. 100).   All of this must be considered by the responsible trainer of an athlete and, on a personal level, it very much influences my training maintenance of Mary, the gymnast.  It reminds me that greater sensitivity to signs of stress should be exercised at the final stages of pre-season training, and particularly during the seasonal.  Then, the complex nature of how emotional, mental, and physical stress interact in the athlete lead me to conclude that awareness is crucial, as the impacts of stress are not likely to follow specific patterns.

References

Kellmann, M.  (2010).  “Preventing Overtraining in Athletes in High-Intensity Sports and Stress/Recovery Monitoring.”  Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 20 (2), pp. 95-102. Retrieved from DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01192.x