How To Manage Your Time To Get The Most Out Of Your Training

With the lockdown finally coming to an end and life becoming busier and a little more normal, you might find that other commitments begin to take over and you lose the freedom to train as freely as before. However don’t let the possibility of returning to normal and regaining a social life become a hindrance to your goals. Contrary to the popular saying, you actually can have it all – you just need to be clever about organising your time. 

Non-Negotiables

When you sit down to play your week. Write a list of the things that you MUST do with your week that you can’t get out off. This might include work or school commitments, chores, training sessions with club, fixtures, social time (yes that counts) or anything else. These are times that are all blocked out in your calendar and cannot be altered. 

Doing this with give you a visual representation of your week and you will be able to see where you can fit in your training sessions. If your serious about improving your performance on court, there will always be time. You just need to find it. 

Plan your timings

Gone are the days where you have the whole day to fit in your session; and procrastinating on your phone during a session really isn’t going to effect the rest of your day. But now, your timing is going to be limited. If you’ve been here for a while, you know ’m a big fan of planning your training each week but this doesn’t just mean planning when your training sessions will be – oh no! It even means panning the time it take to complete a warm up, a session and even the length of the breaks you will take in between. 

Planning like this might seem military but trust me, it will help you to stay on track, fit your training into your day and keep smashing your goals. 

Train Smart

With your clubs and leagues hopefully staring back up, you will most definitely be getting your netball fix and fair share of court work. This is a blessing as it gives you the opportunity to focus down your training and train smart. 

With the match play and fitness possibly taken care of, you can now look to better other areas of your game. Such as your strength, reducing injury, your speed, your shooting or anything else you feel needs a little care and attention. 

It’s a good idea to dedicate at least 1-2 sessions a week to strength specific training and injury prevention. The other session could be some conditioning runs, a mixture of agility and ball work training, shooting session etc. Create a routine, track your progress and stick to it! 

Stop Neglecting Sleep

With life getting busier, your early nights are most definitely going to be the thing that is going to be pushed aside to make way for your newfound social life. But don’t underestimate the power of sleep. 

Lots of physical activity puts more demand on muscles and tissues, and the body repairs itself during slumber. Sleep not only helps your body recover, it’s also a performance booster.

You should be looking to get 7-8 hours a sleep a night to make sure you get full recovery. I always count back from my wake-up time and put a reminder on my phone to remind me to get some shut eye (especially midweek). Being strict with your sleep might mean you get some stick from your friends – but they’ll soon be in awe of your better performance. Who’s the real winner?