MONITORING THE ELITE ATHLETE

Abstract

The application of sports medicine technology to the practical aspect of sport has led to the common belief that the scientific preparation of the athlete is the responsibility of a team -a coach, biomechanist, physician, exercise pysiologist, sport psychologist and others. The advent of sophisticated physiological equipment to determine specific objective measures of performance during activity has allowed the coach to perceive the athlete in precise scientific terms. This monitoring process is a contemporary yet controversial issue. To what extent does applied science impinge of this article is to review the different facets of monitoring with specific emphasis on the overtraining phenomena. The monitoring process can generally be divided into three separate phases: medical, physiological and assessment of overtraining.