The Secret Weapon of Champions

How sleep maximizes your performance

The Secret Weapon of Champions

This month, I want to discuss a secret weapon. This secret weapon is critical to performing at your optimal best, yet few people take it seriously. Rather, this area is neglected, ignored or unrecognized as important. This secret weapon is how long you sleep. Research has revealed that extra prolonged sleep can improve athletic performance in a significant manner, while sleep deprivation is detrimental to performance.

Adults require an average of eight hours of sleep, whereas children and young people in their twenties physiologically need up to ten hours of sleep per night. When getting less than this amount, an individual builds a cumulative sleep debt. This sleep debt can impact short-term memory, reaction time and other important factors detrimentally. On a more serious note, sleep debt has been linked to heart and stomach problems, high blood pressure, cancer, pregnancy problems, obesity, anxiety, depression and even an increased risk of death.

I’d like to explore the importance of sleep on maximizing performance on the lanes. With a focus on sleep extension, getting more sleep than normal, you can prepare yourself to be at your best in tournament play. After reading this article, it is my hope that you approach your pre-tournament plan differently, and seriously focus on the amount of sleep that you get leading up to an important tournament.

Extra sleep improves performance

Research on sleep has found that athletes benefit greatly from getting more sleep than normal. Specifically, sleep extension research findings demonstrate the importance of sleep in the pre-performance phase of preparing for peaking for competition.

In a study of the Stanford University Women’s Tennis Team, participants improved their athletic performance after a period of extended sleep. Specifically, researchers were studying the impact of getting extra sleep on performance. Initial testing was completed over a baseline period of three to four weeks. Players slept during their normal time over this period. Then, during the next five to six weeks, they made an effort to sleep close to ten hours each night.

After the sleep extension period, athletes improved their sprinting speed as well as their hitting and serve accuracy. Sleep extension was associated with a faster sprinting drill (19.12 seconds at baseline compared to 17.56 seconds after sleep extension), increased accuracy including valid serves (12.6 serves ...



Joe Slowinski

About Joe Slowinski

Joe Slowinski, a USBC Gold Coach, is a freelance bowling coach who works with bowlers around the globe. He is currently on assignment with the Philippines. Slowinski is the former Director of Bowling at Lincoln Memorial University, where he served as Program Administrator and Head USBC Collegiate Men’s and NCAA Women’s Coach. The Portland, Maine native has served as the Administrative and Men's Head Coach at Webber International University and served for four years as a Master Teaching Professional at the Kegel Training Center. Slowinski is also the former Director of Coaching and Coach Certification for the National Sports Council of Malaysia. He has coached international teams at the World Championships, Pan American Games, South American Games, and European Championships, helping Belgium win a Gold medal at the 2022 EBF Championship of Champions and coaching Brazil to Gold medals at the 2015 Pam American Games and the 2014 South American Games. He was the 2018 NTCA DII/III Coach of the Year and the 2010 NCBCA Men’s College Coach of the Year.