Peaking for fencing competitions

At the H&W competition last weekend, one current Excelsior athlete (Chris Hay) came first, and one alumni (Louise Helyer) came 2nd in their respective categories. 

Well done to both. Other athletes remarked on their own inability to produce results on the day, despite just coming back from a winter training camp in Hungary.

This is a common phenomena, known as peaking for after the championships. If you train for 8 hours a day for 5 days, then spend the 6th day negotiating travel chaos, don’t expect to perform well on the 7th.

Your central nervous system will have been massively overworked, and it will not have been able to recover with disrupted sleep and food patterns.

The best idea would be to do the competition the week after the camp, once your body and CNS has had a chance to recover.

Even better a month afterwards once you have had time to absorb, process and refine the new techniques and tactics you have learnt on the training camp.

• Introducing fitness to fencers
• Winning with your B game