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When I swam in High School something that my coach would talk about somewhat frequently was the concept of "peaking" at the right time. He relayed the story of one Olympic Swimmer who would frequently train very hard and start to perform very well just before the Olympics started-- however by the time the Olympics had started he was too burnt out and had already given it his all in the earlier events and was unable to even match his past performances. While he was still a top performer, he never made it to the pedestal.
He advised us that over the season we would slowly rev up intensity, not worrying too much about our performances at the 1v1 meets but focusing on learning from them and practicing as hard as we could during the whole season. By the time the Championships with every school in the district rolled around we were ready to do our best.
As I was thinking about this today I thought about how it could be applied to Starcraft. Often people talking about trying to get better all the time but it is obviously not a strictly linear progression. Many people go up and down in the level of their play beyond just the luck of the matches. Although Starcraft is not as physically demanding as swimming so it may be of less benefit to not reach full intensity until your biggest event I still think that some thought should be put into this. What event is the player really looking to win? What is his biggest goal at the time? Am I going all out for the win this time or am I just going to go in and learn as much as I can and prepare for the championship?
Does anyone else think this might be a good thing for players to consider when designing their practice regimen?
 
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I think it does.
It also completely applies to weightlifting, yet most people are not aware of it and wonder why their bench has been the same for years.
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No, not at all. I swam for six years and peak planning and taper is almost exclusively based on a basic physical fact.
Training at maximum intensity is designed to break down and fatigue your body's muscles and energy systems, which are then rebuilt during rest periods stronger than before. If you leave out these rest periods then your body does not have the time to rebuild muscular micro-tears and replenish in-muscle ATP-CP stores (especially if your races are anaerobic). Starcraft has none of these factors. Its far more important to maintain top level gamesense and timing which is acquired through constant practice.
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On August 27 2011 08:48 sob3k wrote:
No, not at all. I swam for six years and peak planning and taper is almost exclusively based on a basic physical fact.
Training at maximum intensity is designed to break down and fatigue your body's muscles and energy systems, which are then rebuilt during rest periods stronger than before. If you leave out these rest periods then your body does not have the time to rebuild muscular micro-tears and replenish in-muscle ATP-CP stores (especially if your races are anaerobic). Starcraft has none of these factors. Its far more important to maintain top level gamesense and timing which is acquired through constant practice.
I agree that happens in swimming. But how about powerlifting? Doing deadlift singles causes 0 hipertrophy, yet u can't do 90%++ singles every day if you are a strong lifter, just because of mental fatigue.
Cycling is based on mental fatigue as much as the physical part. Therefore it could have some application to starcraft, prolly not as hardcore though.
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The mechanics of StarCraft can go up and down and you can suddenly find things making a lot more sense in that aspect of the game, but a lot of StarCraft is just a brain game which is something that you can always improve every game. The decisions you make in 5 seconds can usually be analysed after the game over a few minutes to see what would have been much smarter in that position, and that in itself is improvement even if it doesn't come up again for awhile.
Your wrists will hurt if you play your hardest and getting faster at this game is definitely very gradual, so I'd say there's wisdom to not pushing yourself to max unless the game is very important. It's funnest to play at your max, but it's also not particularly constructive.
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On August 27 2011 08:56 GoTuNk! wrote:Show nested quote +On August 27 2011 08:48 sob3k wrote:
No, not at all. I swam for six years and peak planning and taper is almost exclusively based on a basic physical fact.
Training at maximum intensity is designed to break down and fatigue your body's muscles and energy systems, which are then rebuilt during rest periods stronger than before. If you leave out these rest periods then your body does not have the time to rebuild muscular micro-tears and replenish in-muscle ATP-CP stores (especially if your races are anaerobic). Starcraft has none of these factors. Its far more important to maintain top level gamesense and timing which is acquired through constant practice. I agree that happens in swimming. But how about powerlifting? Doing deadlift singles causes 0 hipertrophy, yet u can't do 90%++ singles every day if you are a strong lifter, just because of mental fatigue. Cycling is based on mental fatigue as much as the physical part. Therefore it could have some application to starcraft, prolly not as hardcore though.
Muscular microtrauma is certainly a factor even in small sets, but the ATP-CP is the huge one in powerlifting. When you do very intense short term exercise like 90% singles your body is using an anaerobic energy system that burns the small amount ATP-CP stored in your muscles. It provides great power and explosiveness but is depleted very fast (~10sec). While they partially recover in a few minutes, it can take quite a while for these stores to be replenished to maximum , which provides a very physical explanation for the issues with max set singles every day. Although of course the mental aspect plays a huge part.
Its not just muscle growth behind strength gains, there are several chemical and energy-systems that also deplete and become more efficient.
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Well for powerlifting you can deadlift for your "daily max". As a weightlifter, I have read plenty of programs that go for daily maxes (back/front squat, snatch and clean and jerk) everyday for multiple sessions. Weights will fluctuate, but you can definitely progress by attacking max weights all the time.
In a totally different sport, the Kenyans dominate distance running by exactly the same ways as weightlifters attacking maxes everyday. In their program they run hard and there are no "easy/recover " days.
Of course there is a taper when competition comes close, but if you give yourself "easy" days when you train, imo you are selling yourself short.
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yes, wise words from your teacher. there is no point in using your peak times (hot streaks) for situations where it doesn't matter much.
i think it needs quite a bit of self-analyze to know when your personal high times hit
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EPT
