Young athlete Tom Daley has suffered an early disappointment in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 14 year old finished in last placed with his partner Blake Aldridge in the 10m synchronised diving. The disappointment has been emphasised by Aldridge who has since made several negative comments regarding the performance of his young partner.

Blake Aldridge has come out to publicly criticise his young partner accusing him of not being on the top of his game and suffering from nerves throughout the competition. Although a not altogether inaccurate description of Daley’s performance the 26 year old Aldridge must also take his share of the blame and it would be extremely unfair to label their disastrous last place finish as only Daley’s fault.

Daley now has to pick himself up and look ahead to the 10m individual diving competition that takes place on the 22nd August. He is only 14 and despite finishing last place should look at this favourably as important Olympic experience. However as a young teenager thrown into the media spotlight he will inevitably experiencing a feeling of disappointment as well as added pressure to perform in the individual event. The British coaching staff will now have to pick up their diving prodigy not only for his upcoming individual dive but to ensure he is not affected in the longer term.

In professional sport, coaches are under intense pressure to develop young athletes. In some cases coaches have a tendency to tackle poor performance by increasing training load, which may actually exacerbate the problem rather than solving it. Tom Daley’s underperformance could have been caused by a number of factors, including injury, fatigue, loss of confidence/motivation, relationship problems (within or outside the team), and other external stressors, such as exams or financial problems. Daley’s quality is undeniable following his gold medal in the 2008 European Championships but his relationship with partner Blake has come under much scrutiny as it appears that the two had a dispute during the competition. It is also possible that following a number of initially low scoring dives (when compared to his competitors like the Chinese) his confidence suffered and had a detrimental effect on his remaining performances.

At such a young and impressionable age setbacks as big as the defeat Daley suffered, and the criticism that followed, can result in loss of confidence and morale. As a result of an over willingness to make up for disappointment a young athlete can also suffer fatigue. Research has been carried out in measuring and assessing the amount of fatigue associated with training and lifestyles. The results have been used to try to reduce its impact on the players’ performance. Recovery has been highlighted as a key area for young athletes as 30% of those competing in team events and aged 16-20 suffer from staleness. Such athletes face often-conflicting pressures from teachers, parents, coaches, peers, and work/training relationships, which can lead to staleness, burnout and injury. These factors are very much related to Daley but are perhaps intensified by the fact he is competing on the world stage at such a young age. Many rising stars, particularly of Daley’s age, do not have the added burden of dealing with the media limelight and this undoubtedly creates extra pressure for the 14 year old. From being an extremely talented, sporty teenager at school he is now a Great British Olympian with the weight of expectation on his young shoulders.

One such condition Team GB coaches will be keen to avoid Daley incurring is overtraining syndrome. Because of the many potential causes of poor performance, overtraining syndrome (OTS) has recently been redefined as the ‘unexplained underperformance syndrome’ (UPS). Preventing UPS calls for a careful balance of training stimulus and recovery – the latter defined as ‘a well-planned activity that matches the situational needs of an athlete in rest and results in regaining an optimal performance state’. However, training is much easier to manipulate and measure than recovery because of the difficulty of accurately recording and quantifying the latter state. Nevertheless, having an accurate measure of recovery may be useful to a coach because he or she can then identify any problems that may be preventing the athlete from achieving peak performance. Any such measure must also be affordable and easy to use in order to work in the coaching environment. This may be especially true when working with youth athletes, where budgets tend to be more restricted.

Tom Daley has suffered a setback but with the right coaching and support he will be able to turn this into an extremely useful experience and should not be discounted from the 10m individual dive.

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