The Week Of

Within the FCS, the last seven days before the competition are referred to as The Final Mile. It is a moment of truth, where both students and coaches need to tighten up everything in their routines. They can get away with a certain degree of sloppiness in the Training Camp phase, but once they reach the Final Mile, they have no choice but to do better—or face a much higher chance of a poor outcome.

Respect Your Body

Training camps are long and competitors tend to push themselves hard to improve. That sometimes translates into situations where competitors build unhealthy habits leading up to a competition that hurt their results. Based on experience, the primary variables that need to be reigned in prior to a competition are:

• Sleep/Rest: A lack of sleep is always a bad thing, but it's especially disastrous when you go into a competition. The Final Mile is your last chance to get it in order so that you can think and act as clearly as possible on the day of. You may also be overall exhausted and in need of some rest. Don't be afraid to take that rest in the Final Mile so you walk onto the mats feeling physically refreshed.

• Diet: Given that weight classes are an intrinsic feature of all martial arts competition, students simply cannot ignore this unless they're significantly underweight. Even then, eating poorly can impact your performance and should not happen in the Final Mile. You can eat to your heart's desire after you've won your gold medal (which is one of the best parts of competing).

• Injuries: Injuries happen, even when you're doing your best to avoid them. Sometimes minor ones happen and you simply train through them. It's not a great idea, but we all do it. The Final Mile is your chance to give those injuries a rest and heal as much as possible before you put your body under extra stress.

Training in the Final Mile

A big mistake competitors make is training hard until the day of, which accomplishes little. In seven days, you are not going to make any meaningful gains in skill, cardiovascular endurance, strength or any other factor that will impact your performance. By training hard, you simply put yourself in the position to embarrass yourself by suffering a serious injury just a few days out from a competition. This is nothing short of tragic when you've been in the Training Camp phase for an extended period of time.

Final Mile training sessions are low-impact and focus on maintenance above all else. There's an emphasis on tweaking, building individualized strategies for competitors, and walking/talking through specific elements of the competition. There aren't any competition rounds in the Final Mile.

The number of sessions is cut down, as is the length of each one. Coaches should advise their athletes to not train on the day before the competition. A better use of time on that last day is to do something that puts the student in a happy, relaxed state. What that means is unique for each competitor, but it's important that they learn to be present in their normal lives even when there's a nerve-wracking event in the near future.

It's important coaches do a final review of the ruleset, talk about any opponents they might be familiar with ahead of time, and ask students about logistics for getting to and from the event so there's minimal stress about that beforehand. Beyond that, the work of both students and coaches is effectively done—it's now about facing the day of with confidence.