Peaking at the right time!!

Peaking is when a team or an individual is playing to their best potential and dominating their field in every aspect. Peaking is important for any team or individual but peaking at the right times is ever more beneficial. A sprinter would target running at his/her optimum speed at a specific time in their calendar as that time is most likely to be at an important race. This gets a lot harder when it comes to team sports as the manager has to get everyone peaking at the same time which is no easy feat. For major competitions such as the world cup or the IPL some teams can peak too early and by the time it gets to the final stages they will be well out of it therefore it is important teams win throughout the competition.

This doesn't mean that teams have to not perform well at the start but it means they have to peak for a longer period of time which can be the most difficult thing to do. What people normally don't get is that peaking doesn't mean playing exceptionally well, it just means that you get the result you or your team wants. An example would be Holland in the World Cup 2006 when they arguably played the best football in the World Cup but didn't make it through the last 16's as they were a victim of not peaking at the right times. This depends more on the coaching staff or the manager rather than the player/s as the best teams (Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea) don't always play the smoothest football but they get results every week and all these teams have the best managers or the coaching staff. Arsenal undoubtedly play the best football but in the last 5 years they haven't won a trophy because they have come up against teams who have peaked at the right time whilst playing against them or Arsenal haven't been able to peak at those times. Remember that peaking doesn't always mean playing the best, it just means getting the result you want.