The long road to peak performance, with Tristan Knowles and Anabelle Smith

ARTICLE

01 March 2024

6 mins read

What does it take to perform at the pinnacle of sport, against the best of the best? And are there lessons for anyone chasing a big dream? Two of Australia’s top athletes share their perspectives, experiences, and advice about preparing to be at the top of their game.

Relentless training. A healthy diet. A strong mind and an unwavering determination to succeed. We can imagine what it might take for a top athlete to reach the highest levels of their sporting career, but what does working towards a long-term performance goal actually look like? What do they need to do today, next week, or next year to be at their best years down the track?

We asked Paralympic wheelchair basketballer Tristan Knowles and Olympic diver Anabelle Smith to share what their hard yards look like as they prepare to reach peak performance.

Peak performance is a process, not a moment

The idea of ‘peak performance’ has changed its meaning for Tristan throughout his career. “Early on, I would’ve said that peak performance means winning. It means being the best. But now, at 40, it means making sure I’ve got no regrets. In those moments when I’ve got to ask myself, ‘Hey, have I honestly prepared as well as I could for this?’ I want to make sure the answer is ‘yes’ so I can hold my head high.” As a competitive person, he used to think it was always possible to win, “but now I realise the thing that’s actually always possible is being able to do everything I said I would do to prepare”.

Anabelle shares a similar view. “Peak performance is being able to use all of my training when it counts,” she says. “We can’t stay at peak performance for an entire year, so figuring out what you need to have in place to have it line up at the right moment is what matters.”

Like Tristan, Anabelle’s experience has helped her see peak performance as more than just standing on top of the dais: “In the middle of my career, I was focused purely on the result. I may have dived well, but I didn’t feel happy. Now I know that being at my peak means looking at the result as well as how we got there, and how I’m feeling. I’m not performing at my peak if I dive well but I’m not sticking to my values of hard work and resilience.”

Long-term performance needs short-term checkpoints – and check-ins

For both athletes, planning out the road to peak performance requires a balance of seeing the finish line and taking smaller steps. “Four years is a hell of a long time. You can’t have a goal like that with no checkpoints along the way,” Tristan says. “I know from experience that I won’t reach the end goal if I don’t tick off the short-term goals.”

Anabelle agrees. “A long-term goal is not going to be linear,” she says. “I always use the analogy of a staircase: if I’ve just competed at an Olympic Games and I want to compete at the next ones, I’m starting at the bottom of a staircase looking up at the top. To get there, I’m going to take small steps that add up over weeks, months, years, and I might go down a step every so often as well. But with a long-term goal like this, I’ve got time. If something goes a little bit wrong for a week or a month, that’s a setback, but it’s not going to derail me from trying to reach the top in the long run.”

While the short-term steps look different for every athlete, the common denominator is a plan. Tristan breaks down his long-term goal into six-week blocks that include world championships, qualifying tournaments, and other events that keep him accountable. “I’m a nerd when it comes to my training spreadsheets. But it’s important: when I look at the top four or five athletes, everyone’s fit, everyone’s strong, everyone’s fast. For me, the difference between 1, 2, and 3 comes down to what’s going on between the ears and how your preparation helps you mentally approach the competition. The way I see it, every single thing I tick off in my spreadsheets gives me an edge.”

For Anabelle, a plan starts with a brain dump of notes, challenges, and support. “I open my diary and just let all my thoughts out. What do I want to do? Who do I need in my support team? What challenges do I need to overcome? Then I meet with my team, plan our check-in points, and confirm who’s responsible for what day to day.” Regular communication is crucial for Anabelle and her support system: “I love locking in a plan that lets me focus on what I need to do day to day, but sometimes I might feel like something’s not working or my coach might want to throw a different idea in. So we need to be able to trust that we can strive towards the goal together and also easily adapt when we need to.”

Body and mind go hand in hand

Knowing that he’s put in the work and challenged himself helps Tristan perform at his strongest, mentally and physically. “When I’m pushing onto court, I like to be able to look at the five players I’m about to compete against and have that internal conversation with myself that I’ve trained harder than they have. I’ve made myself uncomfortable enough in training, challenged myself to quicker drills, to benefit from that and bring it out onto the court today.”

While he follows a straightforward training schedule week in, week out – four mornings on court, three evenings and back-to-back Saturday sessions – things heat up as major competitions approach. “The focus shifts from volume to quality so that when you hit the competition, you’re in absolute peak performance,” Tristan says. And it doesn’t hurt that he spends his on-court training sessions connecting with three other top-20 Australian players: “Any athlete who wants to get to the top needs to be prepared to work really hard when no one’s watching. But it certainly makes it far more enjoyable when you can share that journey to what we hope will be the ultimate success of representing our country with other people who are trying to achieve it as well.”

Anabelle’s training follows a similar approach: broad and intense pool and ‘dry land’ workouts (diving-specific skills in foam pits, for example) in pre-season that narrow focus as competitions approach before dropping off to keep the body fresh. “Hopefully by that time all your technique is down pat and you’re just focusing on nailing the performance,” she says. “We have a lot of competitions in the first half of each year and then a major event, like the world championships. If you think about a four-year goal, those early competitions are the stepping stones that help us get ready for the big dance of peak performance.”

With so many big moments on her calendar, Anabelle needs to know how to stay present. “It’s super easy to get carried away with big goals,” she says. “Day to day, I do a lot of mindfulness work to stay present and ground myself. In a competition, when the nerves are shot and emotions start to spiral, just feeling the floor underneath my feet or counting the tiles in the pool brings my mind back into that moment.”

Balance is key to focus and motivation

The ability to keep himself motivated by success and grounded by reality is another thing Tristan has learnt throughout his career. “I’ve been fortunate enough to know what it feels like to win the Holy Grail: a Paralympic gold medal and a world championships gold,” he explains. “It feels really bloody good. I want to keep experiencing that and doing everything perfectly! But there have also been lots of times when I haven’t been able to go all the way. Those losses humble you, as does the fact that there are six or seven teams in wheelchair basketball right now that are equally good enough to come out on top. As a team we need to be perfect, and the reality is that’s hard.”

His experiences with childhood cancer also put things in perspective, he says. “Facing concepts like mortality and death completely changed my outlook on life. I’m really lucky to live this life, and I’m grateful to share that with some pretty special teammates.”

For Anabelle too, balance is about perspective. “I’m just trying to dive at diving competitions. If it doesn’t go to plan, I have enough going for me outside of the diving pool that I know I will still get up the next morning and still be me. I’ll still be able to give back to the younger generations. That stuff fills my cup, which then puts me in a better mindset to work hard in the pool.” Her support system remains essential throughout any highs and lows in her long-term journey, she says. “When you have other things to distract you and people around you to pick you up, it’s far easier to get back on track and keep powering forward.”

Just like Tristan, Anabelle is driven by the memory of competing for her country at the highest level. “If I’m ever not in the mood to train, I remind myself it’s about showing up consistently – even if I can only do 60 or 70 per cent one day, putting one foot in front of the other is going to be better than falling completely off track. I tell myself to remember what it feels like to represent Australia at the Olympics, and I want to get that feeling again.”

Own your goal, and remember why you’re chasing it

For Anabelle, the hard yards of striving for peak performance are about having complete faith in your goal – and rounding out your full self. “Be super ruthless,” she says, “and own the path you’re on. Be super comfortable and confident in your authentic journey. And if you are happy and well and balanced and fulfilled outside of your goal, you’ll be the best version of yourself for that goal.”

Tristan praises clarity, too. “Be really clear on what you want to achieve and why. You’ll get tested along the way, and if your ‘why’ isn’t strong enough, it’ll be easy to make excuses or not make the sacrifices you need to. There’ll be days when things don’t go to plan, or someone might tell you that you can’t achieve what you want to, so it’s important to be able to step back, revisit why you’re doing what you’re doing, and then get back to work.”

Staff Writer

Staff writers come from a range of backgrounds including health, wellbeing, music, tech, culture and the arts. They spend their time researching the latest data and trends in the health market to deliver up-to-date information, helping everyday Australians live healthier lives. This is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances. The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.

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