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How to Build Mental Toughness in Youth Athletes

February 27, 2023/in For Coaches, Guides, Training Tips /by Matthew Mace

Help youth athletes build a healthy relationship with hard work and mental toughness — here’s what you need to know.

Mental toughness is a term thrown around in abundance in the world of sports. Many people believe that those who display the highest levels of mental toughness will come out on top — they will succeed.

Although the term is almost as popular as Michael Jordan in his prime, very few people know what it actually means. After all, it is a very subjective term — people have their own definitions of what mental toughness is.

David Goggins will give you a different definition than Michael Jordan, and LeBron James will describe it differently to Tiger Words.

At Rewire, we prefer the definition of mental toughness as a personal capacity to produce consistently high levels of subjective or objective performance despite everyday challenges and stressors, as well as significant adversities [2].

Typically, mental toughness is only applied to adults and professional athletes. But what about youth athletes — should they build mental toughness to improve performance? Here’s everything that you need to know.

Mental toughness for youth athletes

If youth athletes can learn mental toughness from a young age, they can then apply this not only to sports, but to life.

Sport is a powerful vehicle for building positive habits, beliefs, and developing discipline.

But how should coaches and parents build mental toughness in the youth? Read on to find out.

Maximum effort

Great coaches should encourage maximum effort in youth athletes. However, where many coaches go wrong is by punishing or withdrawing support when the athlete does not perform to their expectations.

Instead, their maximum effort is a better gauge of performance — working hard each session will instil the importance of hard work.

Coaches should show encouragement and praise hard work to reinforce this behaviour. It’s not only a lesson that pays dividends in sports, but also in life.

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” — Michael Jordan

Encourage mistakes — they are a part of learning

We all make mistakes — it’s a part of human nature. But as a coach for young athletes, you should not discourage mistakes as they are a necessary part of learning and improving from our experiences.

If you’re a coach, allowing your athletes to make mistakes can prove difficult — you don’t want to hurt their confidence, but equally, you want them to improve and learn valuable lessons.

So, how can you encourage learning from mistakes? For optimal learning, you can increase training difficulty to the point where youth athletes make mistakes approximately 15% of the time [5].

If you increase the difficulty of training, whether learning a new skill or attempting to hit challenging splits too often at too hard a difficulty, then the cons will likely outweigh the pros, perhaps resulting in a frustrated athlete.

It’s all about finding a healthy balance between success and learning from mistakes to become a better athlete.

I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” — Serena Williams

Build a solid foundation by emphasising sports to be fun

As a coach, you want your athletes to succeed. But at a young age, it’s important for sports to be fun — this encourages a balance between physical fitness, psychological well-being, and lifelong lessons and learning [4].

Children and youth athletes participate in sports to have fun. If, at an early age, they do not enjoy sports, they might be less likely to continue participation in that sport (and others).

Coaches and parents should prioritise sports participation to be fun. All too commonly, parents and coaches skew the goal implicitly or explicitly in the hopes of a scholarship, that the child will become a professional athlete, or as a parent, to achieve unfulfilled childhood dreams [1].

For example, imagine a twelve-year-old showing up to training twice a week and being told to run as fast as they can twelve times around the track. That’s not a fun session — and while they may do it, if they are not having fun, they’re less likely to go back.

But if you can build a foundation for the athlete, prioritising fun with hard work sprinkled throughout, the athlete is more likely to stick with the sport, learn valuable lessons along the way, and perhaps even avoid burnout. That’s a big win in our book.

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually, it will subside, and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” — Lance Armstrong

Create a healthy training environment

To get the most out of a youth athlete, coaches and parents should foster a healthy training environment.

As previously stated, training should be fun. It doesn’t mean it can’t include difficult aspects, but first and foremost, it needs to be fun. The training environment needs to reflect that — incorporate games into training, be there after training and competition if your athletes want to talk to you, and create a place that kids and youth athletes look forward to coming to.

And if a child wants to do multiple sports, encourage them to.

There’s a whole debate surrounding multiple sport diversification vs. early sport specialisation in one sport. But ultimately, being told they can only do one sport may increase their risk of burnout, injury, and other risk factors [3].

Besides, trying other sports is also fun! And this is the ultimate goal for youth sports — it is also likely to encourage mental toughness.

“Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance and beautiful silence.” — David Goggins

Key takeaways

Developing mental toughness from an early age can help youth athletes push through pain, learn from their mistakes, and ultimately become better athletes. But the benefits span far beyond sports — they also transfer to life, teaching self-discipline, hard work, and not giving up.

To build mental toughness in youth athletes, coaching and parental figures should:

Teach the importance of hard work and effort
Keep training fun and exciting
Create a healthy training environment
Do not discourage multi-sport participation

And if you’re looking to take it a step further, you can try the Rewire neuro buttons and neuro training app — create a fun cognitive game for youth athletes. This helps train mental toughness and is a great tool for youth athletes looking to compete at the highest level.

Want to know more about how Rewire can improve your athlete’s mental toughness? Book a free consultation call with our team today!

References

Brenner, J.S. and Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, 2007. Overuse injuries, overtraining, and burnout in child and adolescent athletes. Pediatrics, 119(6), pp.1242-1245.
Gucciardi, D.F., Hanton, S., Gordon, S., Mallett, C.J. and Temby, P., 2015. The concept of mental toughness: Tests of dimensionality, nomological network, and traitness. Journal of personality, 83(1), pp.26-44.
Gustafsson, H., Kenttä, G. and Hassmén, P., 2011. Athlete burnout: An integrated model and future research directions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4(1), pp.3-24.
Merkel, D.L., 2013. Youth sport: positive and negative impact on young athletes. Open access journal of sports medicine, pp.151-160.
Wilson, R.C., Shenhav, A., Straccia, M. and Cohen, J.D., 2019. The eighty five percent rule for optimal learning. Nature communications, 10(1), p.4646.

6 Ways to Inspire Your Sports Team as a Coach

February 6, 2023/in For Coaches, Mental Fitness, Training Tips /by Matthew Mace

Here’s how to motivate and inspire your athletes for training and competition.

No two coaches or coaching styles are the same — but we’re sure all coaches can agree on one thing: the need to inspire and motivate their athletes.

Players who are excited about training, ready for competition, and willing to give it their all are all you can ask for as a coach.

But keeping your athletes interested, motivated, and inspired can prove challenging — it’s no easy feat.

With a gentle nudge in the right direction and a couple of changes to your coaching style, however, you can provide your athletes with the tools and inspiration they need to perform at their best.

In this article, we’ll highlight six powerful ways to inspire your sports team as a coach, from SMART goal-setting to team-building activities.

Set goals that your team believes in

All teams need something to work for, a reason to train, compete, and meet twice a week — or however often you train.

Whether your goal is to win the league, strive for a county championship, or qualify for an event, goals are important.

But whatever it is you’re aiming for, you need to get your athletes on board. It’s not enough for you, the coach, to be the only one on board with your goals — they need to be a collective effort.

Ask your athletes what they want to achieve and work on setting goals together.

You can use the SMART goal-setting principles to obtain better results.

Specific — what are you striving to achieve?
Measurable — how are you going to track your progress?
Achievable — be very realistic to prevent disappointment.
Relevant — is the goal relevant to the players or just the coach?
Timely — set a realistic time frame to remain accountable.

Create the best possible environment for your athletes

Creating the best environment for your athletes goes beyond plastering posters of Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Roger Federer, and Babe Ruth on the locker room walls. Although, a little inspiration here and there can go a long way.

While dribs and drabs of inspiration are recommended, you should also prioritise fun in training. We’re not saying you can never compete and test your athletes, but the more exciting training is, the more invested your athletes will become.

For example, instead of diving head-first into an interval session in the pool, you could warm up with a game of water polo.

Keep things fun, fresh, and interesting, and your athletes will keep coming back and putting in the hard work. It’s all about finding a balance between hard work, fun, and rewards.

Even if they’re not looking forward to a gruelling set of intervals in the water, the occasional exciting warmup, the friends they make, and your coaching style will work wonders when they need it most.

Be available

It’s a simple piece of advice, but it’s one that can and will make all the difference.

After a training session or game, hang around for a while — be available if your athletes want to chat.

Even if it’s not about the sport, it could be about school, work, home life, relationships, or anything else — sometimes, it’s nice to have someone to talk to.

This will also help you build a great relationship — your athletes will be more likely to talk to you when things get tough, if they have a niggle or a pain, or if they have any doubts about their training.

The better your relationship with your athletes, typically, the better the performance of the team.

Post-training social activities can also be a good way for athletes to get to know each other better.

Treat all players equally

While it’s natural that some coaches will have one “star athlete,” problems begin to occur when the coach prioritises that athlete above all others, sometimes without even noticing it.

And while that makes sense — if you want to make all players feel welcome, inspired, motivated, and part of the team, then you should treat all players equally.

It doesn’t mean you can’t provide more focus on the next Michael Jordan, but it does mean you should be available to all your athletes.

Remember, you’re coaching a team of athletes, not one athlete.

Provide positive affirmations to your athletes

“Good job,” “keep it up,” and “you’re doing great” — these are all examples of positive affirmations you can give your athletes.

Feedback can go a long way, both given in training and competition.

Positive affirmations tell your athletes that they see you and recognise the hard work they are putting in. As an athlete, that provides accountability — you don’t want to let the coach down, especially now they’ve acknowledged you and the work you’re putting in.

You don’t need to overdo it, either. In fact, it’s best to provide positive affirmations and words of encouragement infrequently — once or twice a training session, for example. Ideally, when the athlete needs them most — on the last set of intervals, when they’re flailing around in the pool, or when they’re struggling to shoot a hoop.

Introduce team-building activities

If you want to see some real team-building, sit down and watch Top Gun Maverick. While you don’t need to introduce dogfight football to your team, you can introduce similar team-building activities to build trust, respect, communication, and friendships within your team.

If you coach a team sport, such as football, basketball, or ice hockey, for example, then these team-building activities are even more important.

But even if you coach an individual sport, team-building activities can help build morale in training.

Coaches can use Rewire to improve team performance

To be a great coach, you need to be many things. But if you can inspire your athletes, then you’ll see some great results.

Aside from inspiring your athletes, understanding their physical and cognitive domains can help improve performance.

Rewire for Teams provides coaches with a toolkit for better coaching recommendations, providing insights into athlete readiness scores and other holistic viewpoints for improved mindset, better stress management, and other tools to help prepare athletes for training and competition.

Book a free consultation today to learn more about how Rewire can help your team.

What Qualities Make A Great Sports Coach?

January 30, 2023/in For Coaches, Guides, Training Tips /by Matthew Mace

A great coach has several unique traits — here’s what they are.

Coaches play a fundamental role in mentoring the next generation of athletes. And the skills learnt don’t end on the pitch — they also include life skills such as self belief, and many other important qualities.

Naturally, some coaches are better than others. That’s why the very best coaches mentor the greatest athletes. Think: Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Eliud Kipchoge… the list goes on. But how do coaches go from being good, to great? What makes some sports coaches that much better than others?

And how can you become a more successful coach?

That’s what this blog post is all about. We explain key traits and qualities of great sports coaches. If you’re a coach, there are definitely a few takeaways you can use to improve your coaching further. There’s something for everyone, whether you coach youth athletics, track and field, or professional sports.

Here’s why some sports coaches host better coaching sessions, and are generally more successful.

What are the qualities of a great coach?

So, what makes a good coach? What qualities do some coaches have that others do not?

An expert understanding of their sport
Effective communication
Good coaches have the willingness to share knowledge
Commitment, discipline, and passion

An expert understanding of their sport

Many of the great coaches were also athletes in the same sport.

For example, Phil Jackson won an NBA title with the New York Knicks as a player in 1973; Kenny Dalglish, a professional footballer player for Liverpool, Celtic, and Scotland, later went on to manage Liverpool, and Wayne Gretzky, arguably the greatest professional hockey player of all time, was also head coach at the Phoenix Coyotes.

While it’s not a requirement that the best coaches also be players, their first-hand athlete experience can certainly lend itself to a better understanding of the sport that they coach and how their athletes operate.

Athletes who turn into coaches can pass on their knowledge, from training techniques to mental preparation leading up to a big game. They can better relate to their athletes — they know what works, what it feels like to be a player, and what it takes to reach the highest level, especially if they achieved great success as an elite athlete.

Great coaching and effective communication go hand in hand

The importance of effective communication is coaching 101. But being able to state goals and expectations and deliver feedback clearly is a fundamental component of being a great coach.

But as you already know, communication is a two-way street. It takes two (or more) people to have a conversation. A great coach listens to their athletes — they know how they feel about training, if they’re experiencing any niggles or pains, and also share their goals so the coach can help them reach their full potential. It’s all about mutual respect.

Likewise, coaches should also look out for the well-being of their athletes. This includes an awareness of burnout — they should know the key signs to support their athletes and should be able to provide recovery advice if needed.

In recent years, burnout (and general injury awareness) has become one of the most important qualities in a successful coach.

Athlete feedback and communication are a part of the coaching process

There are countless stories of coaches not listening to their athletes, and this happens not only in grassroots sports, but also at the elite level.

Take Mary Cain, for example—she was the fastest girl in America until she joined the Nike Oregon Project under the supervision of Alberto Salazar. In a touching piece for the New York Times, Cain describes how her coach and coaching team did not listen to her needs, encouraged her to lose an unhealthy amount of weight, and even drove her to the point of having suicidal thoughts.

This is a perfect example of what not to do as a coach. A coach should do quite the opposite: they need to support their athletes, listen to their concerns, have open conversations with their athletes and actually listen to what they are saying.

The role of a coach is to support their athletes — this needs to be the number one priority. This is the big picture — everything else, in theory, should fit into place if you prioritise this correctly.

Successful coaches can identify unique strengths and weaknesses

Also in the domain of effective communication comes the sub topic of strengths and weaknesses. We all have them as athletes. Whether you’ve got better technique but poor form in the final 400m, or a solid aerobic engine but a lack of awareness on the field.

A good coach can identify these areas (especially weaknesses) and communicate these in the right way and with the right attitude.

If an open line of communication and respect is evident, athletes will be more open to feedback. And ultimately, that’s what makes for great athletes.

Good coaches should consistently strive to build effective communication with their athletes. It will also lead athletes to ask more questions, express feedback, and make for a better and more productive coach-to-athlete relationship in the future.

Good coaches have the willingness to share knowledge

A great coach not only tells their athletes what to do — what sessions to perform and when to take it easy — but they tell their athletes WHY they are doing it.

Sharing their knowledge provides athletes with a reason to do what they are doing. It adds context to those gruelling workouts — if an athlete knows that it’ll make them faster, they are more likely to commit to their training fully.

This is especially true with individual sports, such as track and field events. A lot of training is done solo — if there’s ever the need for a little added motivation, it’s when you’re tackling an interval session alone on the track.

Top coaches use this as a tool to build self belief in their athletes.

Commitment, discipline, and passion

A great coach has an infectious energy — they share their commitment and passion on the track, on the field, and in the locker room.

Athletes want coaches who can motivate and inspire them — this is an especially useful trait during challenging training sessions and intense competition.

A passionate coach can talk about their sport for hours. They often show great discipline and commitment to each of their athletes, going above and beyond to support them. Many coaches even coach in an unpaid or volunteer role — these are the coaches who really love what they do, supporting the youth and grassroots athletes, in particular.

Of course, you can be a paid coach with commitment, discipline, and an infectious passion for your sport. But having these three traits can make a world of difference for your athletes.

Coaches can use Rewire to improve athlete performance

If you’re a coach, whether you train older adolescents or adults, you can use Rewire to gain a better holistic understanding of your athletes. For example, you can measure their daily readiness, identify trends in performance, assess recovery and fatigue states, and even recognise physiological, cognitive, and emotional domains which may affect performance.

Rewire for Teams provides coaches with the tools to make informed coaching recommendations while supporting the health and wellness of their athletes.

Rewire is the best tool for coaches and practitioners — you can take your coaching a step further with new insights to support your athletes more holistically. Successful coaches use it and so can you.

Book a free consultation today to learn more about how Rewire can help your team.

What Separates a Good Coach From a Great Coach?

January 16, 2023/in For Coaches /by Matthew Mace

The difference between a good coach and a great coach could mean winning or losing. A coach teaches and provides guidance to athletes. But a great coach understands each of their athletes, their strengths and weaknesses, what drives them, and how to get the best out of each athlete or player.

But what makes me qualified to talk about coaches — more specifically, what makes one good, and another great?

I’ve worked with a few coaches when I used to run, one of which coached team GB runners. I’ve also interviewed a bunch of athletes on sports injury and discussed the coaching approach and how their coach reacted and supported their recovery and return to training.

So, I’ve seen first-hand the difference between a good coach and a great coach. But I’ve also read up on the literature to provide further details and insights into the very best coaches.

What makes a great coach?

Many coaches are good at what they do — they train their athletes for competition, and many of them go on to succeed.

But from personal experience and from talking to others, great coaches provide equal attention and interest to all of their athletes. I’ve heard time and time again (and you might have too) of the coach who focused on their “star athletes,” paying less attention to their other athletes who then get injured or fall out of love with the sport.

And sometimes, a coach can give terrible advice — I’m talking about running through injuries and not listening to the symptoms the athlete proclaims (fortunately, this one is not from personal experience).

A great coach is someone who:

Listens to the needs of their athletes
Knows how to keep training fun
Understands sports injury and how to prevent it
Practices excellent communication

Keep reading to find out more about each trait.

“I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you’re doing. You have to be a salesman, and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you’re trying to accomplish on the basketball floor.” — Phil Jackson.

Listens to the needs of their athletes

A good leader coaches a team, while a great coach coaches their athletes.

For example, some athletes respond better to lower-intensity training than others — if they train too hard too often, they’re more likely to become injured. Likewise, other athletes require more intensity to reach their peak and are less likely to encounter injury.

Athletes and coaches should have a communicative relationship — coaching shouldn’t be a dictatorship; it should be more of a democracy.

Great coaches listen to the needs of their athletes and adapt the training to best suit them.

Knows how to keep training fun

We’ve covered the topic of athlete burnout a ton on the Rewire blog — it’s so important. Therefore, coaches should have an awareness of burnout, including the risk factors and how to prevent it.

You can have the most talented and hard-working athlete in the world, but if they succumb to burnout, they may never set foot in the pool, on the court, or on the track again.

Dr. Ralph Richards, former swim coach at the Australian Institute of Sport, states the importance of variety in training — helping to combat mental fatigue and burnout [2].

For example, you could include some kind of fun competition into training once in a while. You should also mix up the sessions so you’re not repeating the same workout week in and week out.

Variety is key here — a great coach has a mix of key sessions and knows when their athletes need a break from their training with something a little more relaxed and fun.

Understands sports injury and how to prevent it

The number of sports injuries is increasing. For example, one study from 2021 investigating the epidemiology of sports-related injuries in 498 amateur and professional adolescent athletes found a staggering 40.4% of athletes experienced an injury in 2019 [1]. That’s almost half of the athletes in the study.

Higher injury rates were associated with a mix of factors, such as increased hours spent training, not performing warm-ups, using inadequate sports facilities, and performing improper technique without the supervision of a coach.

A great coach teaches their athletes the importance of warm-ups and cooldowns and reinforces proper technique. While some risk factors cannot be eliminated entirely, a great coach knows how to minimise these.

Moreover, any great coach should have an excellent understanding of sports injuries and how to prevent them. This includes preventive exercises, proper warmups and cooldowns, and knowing how to listen to their athlete’s concerns, and respond appropriately, e.g. prescribing rest and not encouraging the athlete to push through the pain (again, advice I’ve heard other coaches tell their athletes).

A great coach practices excellent communication

Excellent communication between coaches and athletes is fundamental.

A great coach knows how to talk to their athletes, understand their needs, and adapt the training to best suit them.

While communication is a two-way street, a great coach is easy to talk to and offers exceptional advice to athletes who need it most.

“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.” — John Crosby.

Coaches can use Rewire to help their athletes reach peak performance

If you’re a coach, you can use Rewire to gain a better holistic understanding of your athletes. You can measure their daily readiness, identify trends in performance, recovery and fatigue states, and even understand factors impacting their performance across physiological, cognitive, and emotional domains. Rewire for Teams allows coaches to make informed coaching recommendations and support a culture of health and wellness amongst athletes.

Rewire is the ultimate tool for coaches and practitioners — allowing great coaches to do exceptional work.

Book a free consultation today to learn more about how Rewire can help your team.

References:

Prieto-González, P., Martínez-Castillo, J.L., Fernández-Galván, L.M., Casado, A., Soporki, S. and Sánchez-Infante, J., 2021. Epidemiology of sports-related injuries and associated risk factors in adolescent athletes: An injury surveillance. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(9), p.4857.
https://memberdesq.sportstg.com/assets/console/customitem/attachments/burnout-rrichards.pdf

Individualisation and Modification of Training Based on Readiness and Individual Responses to Stimulus With Rewire

October 31, 2022/in App Content, Guides, Science /by David Lipman

With each passing month there is more and more evidence in support of the use of HRV guided training for athletes. Part of this is driven by the increasing interest in HRV as a measure in health and performance, but part of it is also probably due to the intrinsic ‘sense’ it makes. That is; not everyone adapts to the same stimulus the same way and everyone deals with life stressors differently. In fact, if you speak to most coaches these phenomena are deeply ingrained in their understanding of adaptation, the challenge has been how to quantify this and adapt as a result.

This was the basis for Rewire’s readiness tracking. It was built on the concept of blending both objective physiological parameters with subjective and emotional factors, which is still quite unique in the industry. As is the appreciation of the two and their impact on eachother, perhaps due to modern culture’s mind-body dissociation.

To this point, a bulk of the research regarding HRV guided training has used HRV as the sole measure to adjust training (either in an acute time frame with acute changes to HRV or a longer term time frame based on longer term trends) and has mostly cut back or reduced training intensity based on this. In reality many coaches would likely integrate subject measures with these sorts of objective measures such as resting heart rate and HRV as well as modify training in more ways than just reducing load on days of poor readiness.

A recent study from Nuuttila Olli-Pekka and colleagues has taken a very coach oriented view on readiness when it comes to HRV guided training.

The basics of the study:

Runners were split into two groups, one followed a set program and one adjusted training around their HRV, heart rate-running speed index (a measure of the relationship of running speed to heart rate) and subjective measures of readiness.
In the group who adjusted training, this was done twice a week and saw either an increase, maintenance or decrease in training based on the measures mentioned.
- This is of specific note given usually HRV guided training studies use only low HRV to reduce training load, not the opposite.
They trained for 15 weeks, with pre and post intervention testing
Top speed on a treadmill and 10km time trial were the outcome measures

What they found:

All runners improved
The magnitude of improvement was greater for the group with modified training in the 10km time trial
The proportion of high responders (those who had significantly larger improvements) was more in the modified training group (50% vs 29%)
The modified training group had fewer low responders (0% vs 21%)

Some thoughts and takeaways:

Generally training improves performance, so the global improvement is expected but the difference in the groups is key
Using modified training had greater upside (high responders) and lower downside (low responders), crucially there were no non-responders

So to summarize, modifying training to match readiness showed increased performance and improved all participants’ performance. This is very rare in any intervention, let alone one that only takes a few minutes!

If this, in combination with the fact that Rewire both tracks these metrics and provides actionable insights around modification of training and preparation for training on different days, doesn’t make you want to use Rewire then the next study will help really cement this.

Jens Voet and colleagues’ 2021 paper showed the disconnect between the training prescription of the coach and the way this was executed by the athletes (in this case, semi-professional cyclists) with respect to RPE. This difference was significant, and importantly, differed between individuals. It likely reflects, at least in part, the disconnect between prescription of external workloads and training responses they induce (internal workloads).

To simplify, the intention of the coach when prescribing sessions was rarely the reality, and the magnitude of this difference was individual between athletes. Again, for most coaches this probably makes some sense upon reflection. But the challenge is quantifying this gap and the bigger challenge is adapting things going forward to the athlete.

Enter Rewire.

The algorithm used in readiness tracking by Rewire adapts to you in that your individual variation is scaled based on your normal ranges, because everyone’s responses differ.

This readiness measurement drives mindset recovery and pre-workout priming recommendations to help you get the most out of training or indeed recover better for the day. That’s right, Rewire provides actions to take based on readiness, not just a readiness score for you to try and understand.

Additionally, the gap between intended session difficulty and actual difficulty is currently tracked when undertaking Neuro-training and is something that is in the roadmap for inclusion at a later date for the coaches dashboard for other training sessions.

So with this in mind, why not start your Elite trial of Rewire today?

Don’t forget, Rewire is about more than just readiness tracking and pre-training preparation! Recovery sessions are prescribed thanks to integrations such as Garmin and Strava because training is about repeated efforts over weeks and months, not just every now and then. This is all without mention of Rewire’s key mental fitness focused Neuro-training, which improves mental endurance.

References:

Olli-Pekka N, Ari N, Elisa K, Keijo H, Heikki K. Individualized Endurance Training Based on Recovery and Training Status in Recreational Runners. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002968. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35975912.

Jens G. Voet, Robert P. Lamberts, Jos J. de Koning, Jelle de Jong, Carl Foster & Teun van Erp (2021) Differences in execution and perception of training sessions as experienced by (semi-) professional cyclists and their coach, European Journal of Sport Science, DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2021.1979102

This indicates that the relationship between RPE and iRPE is unique to each cyclist. Both the different execution and perception of the training programme by the individual cyclists could cause an impaired training adaptation.