Competition Care: A Wellness Guide for Teenage Athletes

BY ANNABEL GORDON

Especially at a young age, taking care of ourselves as athletes is vital.

We are all still developing, both mentally and physically. If we don't prioritise our health and wellbeing before our performances, we won't be able to reach our full athletic potential in the future. Being successful in the sport is not only about personal bests and performing well, but it is also about physical and mental health, as well as all the factors associated with them.

Why is self-care important in athletics?

This season has been a turning point for me in understanding the importance of athlete self-care and injury prevention. 

Last November, I developed a serious back injury, which impacted most of my winter training in throws. This consequently had a knock-on effect on my season.

We never knew the main cause of the injury, but we eventually understood it was a combination of competing and gym training over time. However, I believe exams also contributed to this, as I sat at desks a lot more and felt more pressured to perform well in school and athletics.

I began to become quite frustrated when my throwing performances inevitably worsened, and I started losing sight of what good technique looked like, as I had developed bad throwing habits that needed serious correcting.

After chatting with other athletes, I found out there were plenty of others who took exams this year and are in the same position as I am, frustrated with their performances. In hindsight, if I had been more aware of how much I was overworking myself and what I was doing wrong, I might not have been in the position I was in when I developed the injury in the first place. 

With the above being said, if you're a student-athlete who has just finished your exams and is now focusing heavily on athletics again, I think this blog will be perfect for you!

What is good athlete self-care?

Good athlete self-care involves various factors, depending on the individual's strengths and events.

It involves things such as eating healthily, listening to your body, inspecting signs of injury and doing good warm-ups and cool-downs. These are all things (as well as many more) that create an athlete who is healthy physically and mentally. When one or more of these factors get worse, the injury risk increases and athleticism decreases, so it is equally important to take care of yourself off the track as well.

Having good athlete self-care not only increases performance and directly contributes to injury prevention, but also helps with personal development, such as being a more organised and confident athlete. This makes competing and training a lot easier. However, it needs to be improved over time and embedded from a young age.

How can you improve as a rising athlete?

Something I recommend doing, after being inspired by an England Athletics workshop, is making a list of five different things you think you could do better as an athlete.

These could be things like remembering to stretch after a session or changing your spikes regularly. Now that you are conscious of these things, each time you train or compete, you can make sure you have done those things. This made me feel more organised and, therefore, more confident in my performance. This is an easy and effective way to boost your athlete self-care more efficiently.

Mental health and life balance strategies

It is critical (especially as student-athletes) to have a positive mindset during training or competitions. 

Being a student athlete involves some of the hardest years of competing as it requires high levels of commitment, organisation and dedication due to the immense workload both on and off the track. 

I know athletes who haven’t had support dealing with this pressure during their student-athlete years and have stopped competing or left athletics altogether. Where possible, you should talk to people and develop a support network to ensure the same doesn't happen to you. 

Utilising the nearby resources you have can also be beneficial to your overall health. My club organised a few sports psychology workshops that taught us methods of staying calm in competitions, for example, which I found very useful. 

Your mindset is just as important as your physical abilities. If you don’t believe you are capable of throwing another metre or jumping a few more centimetres, then it's not going to happen. Most athletes don’t reach their full potential until they are much older, so it is important to enjoy the early development years of athletics and minimise the pressure you feel. For example, javelin throwers don’t reach their full potential until they are around 28 years old.

Prioritising your welfare as an athlete

Some professional athletes take years out of athletics to recover and focus on other priorities, such as raising a family or focusing on their jobs. Laura Muir is a prime example of this. She ultimately decided not to compete in the Commonwealth Games to focus more on her veterinary studies.

While some of our performances this year may not be what we hoped for, that doesn’t mean they won't improve. This setback is temporary, and we can still aspire to be the top athlete we've always dreamed of becoming.

Being a young athlete is all about development, enjoying other sports, taking up new hobbies and focusing on your studies throughout the process. If anything, I think that prioritising welfare is arguably more important than getting a PB and injuring yourself in the process.

People peak and incur injuries at different times, but it is about managing expectations and celebrating both the small and large wins in your athletics journey. I found that changing my perspective when I did a bad throw this year, to thinking about how far I had come from not being able to tie my shoelaces, really helped me understand how hard I had worked.

However, it's tricky to do this by yourself, and if you feel like you aren’t reaching your goals, you must ask for help. This is why it is essential to talk to coaches and, in some cases, healthcare professionals. My coaches guided me through my recovery and created a training plan to help me power through.

Athlete self-care treatments

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, we should use what we have around us to enhance our overall self-care regimen.

My back injury would have never been properly diagnosed if I hadn't attended an England Athletics injury prevention workshop and been advised to book an MRI, which I hadn’t even thought about beforehand. If something is wrong physically or mentally, you need to speak up and reach out to the practices and other tools available to you if you want to get better quickly.

These tools might include doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists, therapists or osteopaths. The first thing you should do if you're lucky enough to spot an early sign of injury or you feel extremely under pressure is to contact your coach and ask their advice. Then, they can also tailor your training programme and do what they can to support you, because overtraining will make it worse.

Even though it can be frustrating having to take time out, it is necessary for your recovery, which I have learnt during mine. It's crucial (in my opinion) to have a good support network around you and talk to people. Otherwise, the issue won't be resolved as quickly and can lead to further complications. I was very close to having surgery, and if I hadn't got the MRI done, that may have been the case, as I was still training with the injury.

Be self-aware as an athlete

The main message of this blog is to prioritise your health and wellbeing, listen to your body and seek help and advice from those who support you (coaches, parents or healthcare professionals) if you feel that something is wrong.

The quicker you respond to niggles, injuries or high stress levels in your athlete lifestyle, the easier it is to fix and the faster you can continue to fulfil your potential as a young athlete and progress onwards in your athletic journey.

About Annabel Gordon

Annabel is an U17 athlete who specialises in javelin throw, but also competes in multi-events and discus throw from time to time!

As part of her role with us as a blogger, Annabel's content will largely be for other athletes around her age who are in school or are just starting to think about other opportunities alongside their athletics, such as college or sixth form!

Instagram: @annabel.athletics