How Over-Training Can Lead to Burn Out In Sports With Peter Vidmar And Wendy Lynne
Channel: Mental Toughness Trainer
Date: 20/06/2013

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Over Training Can Lead To Burn Out In Sports Part 4

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Too much of a good thing is bad!  Take it from Olympic Gold Medalist Peter Vidmar who
did not take enough time off from training!

In this video, Peter shares how his relentless gymnastic training schedule led to fatigue and how he got back from a slump.

The low point came around my sophomore year in college. I started gymnastics formally at age eleven.  Kind of late, but that is when I started. It was all out from then on. I loved the sport. I drank it in. I ate it. I breathe it. I slept gymnastics. It was everything to me.

Work outs, as hard as they were, were still fun. I loved learning something new. The thrill of acquiring a new skill and the thrill of having successi in competition just fueled me. Then I remember my sophomore year in college I was on the U.S. National Team, as well as on the UCLA team.

I had to travel for all of our dual meets on the weekends, and I had to intersperse that with travel competing for the United States going to England for a week, going to Germany for a week, going to Japan for a week.

I remember coming back about a week before final exams totally unprepared because I had missed so much of my classes. I felt that burden and that pressure of having to excel academically and still having to maintain really good form for the big and important competitions coming up that all of a sudden everything was crashing down on me.

For the first time in my life, gymnastics wasn't fun. I remember it was a chore to get motivated to go to the gym and that had never happened to me before. I thought there was something wrong with me inside. Have I lost it? Am I ever going to get it back?

I remember going up to my coach, and you got to understand I never took days off. I took one day a week off. That was it. I never went on vacation. I just did gymnastics year round.  I'll talk about that later. I don't know that is wise.

I remember walking up to my coach and saying, "Hey, Marco! I was wondering if after USA Championships if maybe I could take just a few days off?"

I had never asked for that before. We were in this thing together. We were training hard.  He never took a day off, so I didn't feel like I had the right to ask him for a day off for myself. Yet when I asked him that question, I think deep down inside he knew I would have never asked that question if I didn't think I really needed it.

He said, "Sure.  Take a few days off."  I was thrilled so I took three or four days off.  To me, it felt like a month.

I remember my wife, who I was dating at the time; we went to Disneyland one day, I went to the beach for a whole day, no gymnastics.  It was carefree fun for a few days, when all of a sudden it was time to go back to the gym.

I went back and got back into it. It was a slow process. I had to get everything back together, but slowly and steadily all the pressure was gone. Finals were over and I had done well at the U.S. Championships.

I think I had won that year, so I still had some good things to think about and some pressure was off my shoulders.

Then all of a sudden I was back to the routine of loving the sport, learning new skills, and having a fun time.

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If you missed the first part of this series, click this link: http://youtu.be/mB6lKYMg7f8

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