MESSAGE FROM THE PERFORMANCE SERVICES MANAGING DIRECTOR By Doug Ingram Every coach at some time in their career will wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what has happened in a competition or practice. The struggle will be how to solve a problem AND how to get back to sleep. We may spend hours at night worrying about things we can’t change—particularly at 3 am. The double edge sword of worry and lack of sleep compounds the next day as we aren’t as sharp as we want to be or need to be. We may be more irritable than normal, less patient with our athletes and staff and make decisions that are not well thought out.

Travel sleep may be a factor for some. The “one-eyed” sleep on a long flight accompanied by sleeping in a different location, maybe in proximity to people that you are not used to, with a lot of stress and stimulation before and during the competition, can make for less sleep than usual. You may not be able to totally avoid having some sleep issues, but this issue has some advice regarding sleep from one of the leading experts in the World -Dr. Mark Rosekind. I know you will enjoy his article. We have included in this edition a self-evaluation for Coaches. It is titled for Head Coaches, but using this as a reflection tool will be valuable for any coach. We have the last in the installment regarding heart rate training with Dr. Krista Austin explaining how to use blood lactates. Kim Sanborn provides insight in how to use Plyometrics in your training and where this type of training fits into your Annual plan. Routines and the value of using them with your athletes’ is discussed in Sean McCann’s Mind Games article. The View from the Top this issue features Mike King . Mike represents the newest Olympic Sport—BMX Cycling. All systems are go at the USOC, as we have less than a 150 days to the beginning of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Preparations are rapidly turning into execution for many teams. Olympic Trials are occurring for some sports as you read this E-Zine. This is an exciting time, for the latest updates visit www.usolympicteam.com. On to Beijing/Amazing Awaits !!