Recovery modalities? Are we missing the bigger picture?

When we think about recovery in team environment’s it has changed radically over the years. With the inclusion of gadgets, systems, protocols and all the performance technology that goes with it we have convinced ourselves as coaches that recovery is occurring because the numbers look good, the technology is expensive, and the athletes schedule on their training app lists the session as “recovery”. If we were to be really honest with ourselves as coaches much of what  is occurring is dramatic theatre. It looks good, it makes us feel important as coaches that we are chasing every percent available, we are stimulating all the correct energy systems, we are deloading the body and providing it with all the necessary tools It needs. Do we truly believe that as coaches or are we just trying to justify our own role with another layer of our ‘expertise’? are we missing the bigger picture?

Every time we as coaches obsess over marginal gains, chasing the famous 1%, the ice baths, the latest and newest foam rollers, the most expensive compression boots or the cryotherapy sessions are we ignoring what athletes actually need and what actually matters to them? Time off. We are over prescribing the 10% and systemically neglecting the 90% that will give us the greatest returns. If we are truly serious about athlete welfare and their physiological and psychological needs we need to stop confusing and blurring the lines between recovery with busyness and workload. We have to as coaches sit back and challenge the systems we have created. Are they working or are just justifying our own role as strength and conditioning coaches. Is this 10% truly important?. If we as coaches are nailing the 90% then of course it is, but in many instances we are putting the cart before the horse and adding another calendar day into our athletes already incredibly busy lives.

Recovery as a tool has become branded. It has now become performative. In many high level environment’s they are carefully structured, orchestrated, and monitored. Athlete’s now have to log sessions on their training app, attend a session at a certain time, roll on a particular brand of foam and be in compression boots for a certain period of time. Is this busyness creating more physiological and psychological load? In a world where we consistently try to optimise load many athletes are already at their threshold and cant physically do any more as every team and system is trying to outdo one another yet we decide as coaches to add more load, stress and fatigue on to an already incredibly taxing calendar.

In recent times we have created a culture where recovery isn’t rest or a reset its compulsory. In turn it ends up being more work for the athlete in disguise under the cloak of recovery. Instead of letting the athlete decompress we give them protocols, instead of autonomy we are prescribing protocols and checklists. The irony of it all is we are providing recovery protocols to protect athletes but in essence we are burning them out under the weight of these recovery “supports”. What often occurs is a non-negotiable “optional” session which is overly structured, mentally fatiguing and they become work. Of course mobility work, hydrotherapy and light movements have benefits but when they are non-negotiable they simply become another form of load for the athlete.

 For athletes who are parents it’s another day spent absent from their  children and family, for older aging athletes its yet another demand on their limited energy reserves and for new budding athlete’s its reinforcing the idea of a highly controlled environment that does not inspire trust or autonomy. We would never schedule consecutive sessions back to back however label it as recovery and suddenly the mental and physical load no longer exists and it is perfectly acceptable to have an athlete doing as many sessions as the coaches suffice.

We consistently track heart rate variability, rate of physical exertion, load, soreness, readiness to train and sleep duration. We are obsessed with plugging data into dashboards to generate readiness to train scores but are we really helping or are we just trying to convince ourselves that recovery is occurring because the dashboard is showing you are in the green and not in the red.

What if the data is good but the athlete still feels exhausted?

Our data tools and technology are incredibly useful and provide really good insightful meaningful key performance indicators but they are often incomplete. No dashboard will ever inform us how it feels to miss your child’s birthday because of a foam rolling session. However more often than not many teams and coaches will take  a compulsory approach to coaching and make optional sessions feel like they are not.

We know what works. We as coaches have always known. More often than not we try to invent new methodologies and forget what has previously worked. The fundamentals are simple, sleep, mental and emotional decompression and the autonomy to do what’s right for each athlete.

Sleep is one of the most prolific recovery tool in the world and it is often affected by late night kick offs, meetings after and before training sessions and overall busy schedules. We often see recovery and debrief sessions the morning after a late night kick off and wonder why we see so many soft tissue injuries frequenting the squad. We should be promoting athlete’s lowering their sleep depth, to have a sleep in and to recuperate and rejuvenate through uninterrupted rest. If we are trying to build our foundation on poor sleep it is the equivalent of building on sand.

Athlete’s need complete mental detachment from the sport they need space to live. Being an athlete is one part of their existence as human beings not their whole identity. Give athlete’s time to switch off, mentally reset, without talk about tactics or set ups and watch them return mentally and emotionally fresh and rejuvenated. We all know how intense a high performance environment is, pressure to win, pressure to perform and pressure to excel. Athletes cannot live in that intense environment constantly. They need to be human beings without expectations or thresholds to meet.

The most important aspect of all. Autonomy. We talk about individualised programming to get the best from athlete’s, meet all of their individual needs as they all differ. Yet, we program recovery as a one shoe fits all. We take away the one thing athlete’s crave the most, choice and autonomy. Recovery should always be individualized not systemic.

So what should we do instead. We need to protect sleep as if its magic. No early morning sessions the day after a late kick off. Educate athlete’s on the importance of sleep, track it, monitor it and promote it. We need to build in complete off days with no hidden optional extras. Encourage athlete’s to spend time with loved ones. Promote them to take part in their own hobbies, mentally recharge, encourage them to live. That is true recovery. The bottom line is are we programming recovery because its effective or is it because as coaches we feel like we have to. Are we trying to promote rest or are we simply trying to control it as another metric?

Sometimes the best recovery isn’t found in a cryo chamber or sitting in a pair of compression boots.

It can be found in a quite morning at home with a coffee in your slippers.

A late lunch and a laugh with friends.

Or simply a quality night’s sleep without having to set an alarm.

Let’s not confuse recovery with work.