When an athlete grows older he/she has to decide what level of commitment he/she is prepared to dedicate for his/her sport. This age of “decision making” varies according to the sport which the individual practises. Although not a sine-qua-non, some sports would benefit immensely from intensive training from an early age.

If it is decided to try and become a top athlete then the services of a professional coach are needed.

The coach knows how difficult is the road the athlete has chosen to face and should try to make the athlete aware of the adversity that might lie ahead but, at the same time, keeps reassuring him/her that experiencing the joy of success is worth the sacrifice.

At this level the athlete/coach relation is not only reserved for the duration of the actual training period. The coach becomes also the athlete’s mentor and keeps up the daily encouragement especially in the “off” days which are bound to happen!

This does not mean at all a lack of discipline or accepting lessening of targeted standards to be reached but the coach must put himself in a position that he feels his athlete’s emotions and when these are negative the training is still carried out albeit changed accordingly. Afterwards the coach turns into a “friend psychologist” and tries to find out the real crux of his athlete’s problem which is causing the emotional disturbance.

Eventually, high intensity training will take its toll on the athlete and sometimes an apparent regression is recorded. It is at such a time that an athlete’s morale is at a low ebb and the coach should wisely change the training schedule in a way that an improvement is recorded and as such will encourage the athlete not to give up and finally reach his well deserved goal!