I'll be reporting to Officer Candidate School August 9. The physical test will be the very first week that I get there, although I'm not exactly sure when. I've been training for a while now and so far my plan to peak the week of the test is to stop using weights the week before reporting, and just focusing on cardio, push ups, curl ups and stretching. Anything else I should take into consideration in order to permon at my best the day of the test?
Well usually your work rate should be coming right down before a contest or in this case a physical test. I wouldn't do push ups e.t.c. myslef but I don't know what you are being assessed on...
The pt is 1.5 mile run, 12 minute swim, cadence push ups and curl ups (which are really easy). The most I'm concerned with is the run and the swim. The reason why I wanted to keep doing push ups all the way up to the last week is because it's a bodyweight exercise and I've noticed my numbers really depend on practice. I could easily do 30 cadence push ups and pass, but I want to keep doing 60 (the max) and don't really want to fall short the day of the test.
You're not going to make any gains in a period of a few days or lose anything so don't stress, that's not something that's going to be too taxing. You don't need to peak for something like this, the biggest impact on your performance will be due to psychological factors. You're looking at how to avoid failure, you should be looking forward to showing off and having success. Trying to avoid failure causes anxiety, obsessiveness and overall fatigue. Relax and practice your psychological skills. Do you know how to get yourself energised or calm yourself down to your optimal level? Do you know the mindset you have when you're in 'the zone'? Psychological skills need practice like any other skill. Relax and have faith in yourself, as you say you've been training for a while now. From a physiological point of view you don't lose any sort of fitness in a week from a lack of activity, if you think there's a difference it's due to psychological factors.
:good That sounds like great advice, I've been working out less but still maintaning conditioning in the past few weeks while on vacation, not sure if that has got me a bit insecure about my success but I'll pick up the pace again this week. I don't know how to get myself energized, calm or get the right mindset to be in "the zone", but I'll look it up. I'll also appreciate any other advise.
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor with a private practice and do a great deal of Cognitive work with my clients. Dealt With gave some good advice, the biggest thing to pay attention to is your self talk. Most folks go through life only subconsciously being aware of their own internal voice, and the effects that certain thoughts have on their emotions. Being able to rationalize your fears so that they do not "pick up too much momentum" is key. I was working with a 14 yo client who is trying to get into Julliard School of Music, and we worked a lot on cognition, triggers, performance rituals(both good and bad). As she learned to be more aware of her thoughts and overall mindfulness of them, her performance as well as enjoyment of performance improved drastically. A real quick thing you can do is type into a search engine the top 10 Cognitive Distortions and see how many of them you can detect that you are doing currently, and work on changing your perspective while doing basic physical relaxation stuff, shoulders relaxed, breathe full, and so forth. Good luck!
Thanks I will do. I'll revisit the thread in December (hopefully I'll remember) and share my experience. :thumbsup
Not to sidetrack the thread, but what would be your approach to a boxer with an upcoming fight? Especially dealing with confidence and performance?
All right, I have officially completed OCS and I would like to thank everyone for their input. Two weeks in advanced I stopped all weight lifting, and the week before I only rested. Upon reporting, I did feel rested, but my body didn't have the hardness it usually has, with the exception of my stomach which felt pretty much the same when I flexed it. Performance wise I did really well, maxed out on both push ups and curl ups (push ups are cadence, you can check them out in the OCS coast guard page), did three and a half laps over the minimum in the swim (struggled in training here because the pool at home was closed), but fell of a little short on the run. I was actually physically prepared to pass it on a normal sized track, but having to do it indoors on a track that required 13.5 laps to complete the mile and a half slowed me down around 30 seconds. On the second try, a few months later, I passed it under the minimum requirement.
