I am a night owl and have wondered for a while why I play so much better after being awake 8-10 hours vs after just waking up (most of the time at least). We are talking a big difference here like C level or worse at wake up time vs B+/A- level after being awake 8-10 hours. This is so consistent that I can pretty much predict to the hour when I will start playing well.
I found an article today about a study of athletic performance and circadian rhythm ( https://www.insidescience.org/news/time-day-could-impact-athletes-performance-peak ). This is pretty much a summary of what the study and what it found:
In the new research, Brandstaetter and a colleague, Elise Facer-Childs, asked a collection of accomplished field hockey and squash players with different chronotypes to complete general fitness tests at six different times of the day. They found that each chronotype had a different pattern of performance, with the best and worst performances coming at different times. Most strikingly, night owls performed very poorly in the early morning, on average about 26 percent worse than their peak level.
I think my pool performance is affected more than 26 percent. More like 30-40% on the average day. Most of the time in the morning I feel like I have no hand eye coordination at all. I also feel like I have no speed control at all. There are days that are exceptions but they are rare.
Its probably also worth noting that I used to play high school football and my best games were the ones after school and the ones in the morning I almost never played well. Im guessing this could very well be why.
I found an article today about a study of athletic performance and circadian rhythm ( https://www.insidescience.org/news/time-day-could-impact-athletes-performance-peak ). This is pretty much a summary of what the study and what it found:
In the new research, Brandstaetter and a colleague, Elise Facer-Childs, asked a collection of accomplished field hockey and squash players with different chronotypes to complete general fitness tests at six different times of the day. They found that each chronotype had a different pattern of performance, with the best and worst performances coming at different times. Most strikingly, night owls performed very poorly in the early morning, on average about 26 percent worse than their peak level.
I think my pool performance is affected more than 26 percent. More like 30-40% on the average day. Most of the time in the morning I feel like I have no hand eye coordination at all. I also feel like I have no speed control at all. There are days that are exceptions but they are rare.
Its probably also worth noting that I used to play high school football and my best games were the ones after school and the ones in the morning I almost never played well. Im guessing this could very well be why.
Seems to be changing with age. Couple years ago a guy agreed to coach me on Sat. mornings. I didn't think it would work. 45 min drive even before arriving when i would barely be awake at home. (Yeah, ok, mid-morning) But i found there was something about it & i was more unconsciously sharper. & less stressed, too. Hard to tell, though. Might have just been the novelty.
