Understanding the Purpose of August Training Cycles
August is when the real work happens for elite athletes. Most people think peak training season arrives in September or October, but that’s backwards. The athletes who dominate fall competition aren’t grinding harder in September, they’re strategically building the right qualities in August when it actually matters.
If you’ve been training consistently through spring and summer, you’ve built your aerobic base. You’ve got work capacity. You’ve established movement patterns. But base fitness alone won’t win competitions. August is where you translate months of preparation into the specific adaptations your sport demands. It’s the difference between showing up fit and showing up ready.
This section covers why August training blocks are non-negotiable for elite performance, the physiological shifts that happen during this critical window, and how to harness those changes without burning out before your season even starts.
Why August is the critical bridge between summer base work and fall competition
Think of August as your final act of preparation before the competitive landscape changes entirely. From January through July, your training follows a straightforward arc: build work capacity, improve movement quality, accumulate volume, and layer in sport-specific elements gradually. It works because there’s minimal external pressure. You can experiment, fail, recover, adjust.
August flips that script. You’re moving into a phase where competition stress begins ramping up. Your nervous system needs to adapt to higher intensities.
Your body needs to experience what competition-pace demands feel like. Your confidence needs to solidify. But here’s the catch, you can’t just hammer intensity for a month and hope it sticks.
That’s how athletes get injured or burnt out before September even arrives.
The athletes who get this right use August to build strategic resilience. They increase specific competition demands while maintaining recovery quality. They test what they’ve built all year under realistic conditions. They identify weaknesses they can still address before competition season locks in. Using our favourite functional that directly transfer to your sport, you build sport-specific power without sacrificing the foundation you’ve already earned.
This is the bridge period. Summer base work gets you fit. August training blocks get you competition-ready.
The physiological adaptations that happen during mid-summer periodization
Your body is remarkably responsive to what you demand of it, and August creates a unique window for specific adaptations that didn’t fully develop during base-building phases.
First, there’s nervous system refinement. You’re training your central nervous system to recruit muscle fibers more efficiently at higher velocities. This doesn’t happen from steady-state work. It happens through repeated exposure to near-competition intensities in structured blocks. Your nervous system learns to coordinate muscle firing patterns faster and more synchronously. You move with greater economy.
Second is metabolic shift. Summer base work emphasized aerobic capacity and work capacity. August training blocks push you into higher lactate thresholds and better lactate clearance. Your body becomes more efficient at sustaining hard efforts and recovering between efforts. This is critical for sports with multiple heats, rounds, or matches. Rest days make during this phase because adaptation happens in recovery, not in the session.
Third is structural resilience. Tendons, ligaments, and joints adapt to higher loads over several weeks. This doesn’t happen overnight. You need sustained exposure to competition-intensity demands to bulletproof your movement system. When you rush this phase or skip it entirely, you get injuries in September when competition heat actually turns up.
All three adaptations require strategic stress combined with smart recovery. Push too hard and you’re overtrained. Back off too much and you lose the adaptation window.
How elite athletes use August to build sport-specific power without overtraining
The secret isn’t doing more. It’s doing the right work at the right intensity with enough recovery to actually adapt.
Elite athletes structure August around controlled intensity blocks. They identify 2-3 key qualities their sport demands at peak performance. Maybe that’s repeated sprint ability, change-of-direction speed, or sustained power output. They isolate those qualities, train them directly but not excessively, and measure response through wearable technology and performance metrics.
They also respect recovery architecture. Hard training days are genuinely hard. But the days between are structured recovery, not light training. Best recovery tips often include active mobility, sleep prioritization, and nutritional strategy, not additional conditioning sessions.
And critically, they monitor readiness and fatigue markers. HRV, sleep quality, subjective soreness, and movement quality all inform whether to push harder or back off. Staying injury-free depends entirely on reading your body’s signals and respecting what they tell you.
This approach builds specific power without the overtraining trap. You’re stronger, faster, and fresher when September arrives.
Designing Your August Conditioning Framework
Transitioning from general fitness to competition-ready conditioning
By August, your base work is established. You’ve built the aerobic foundation and worked on general strength throughout the summer months. Now comes the shift that separates athletes who peak in September from those who flame out by October: moving from broad conditioning into sport-specific, competition-ready work.
This transition isn’t about suddenly abandoning what you’ve built. Instead, it’s about narrowing your focus and increasing the specificity of every session. An elite athlete in August should be asking themselves: “Does this workout directly prepare me for the demands I’ll face in competition?” If the answer is no, it’s probably not earning its place in your week.
The shift happens through three key mechanisms. First, reduce the number of energy systems you’re training in parallel. Early summer training develops multiple qualities simultaneously (that’s the point).
August training develops the two or three qualities most critical for your sport. Second, increase the proximity of your training stress to actual competition intensity and duration. Your intervals get shorter and sharper, or longer and more sustained, depending on your sport.
Third, introduce tactical and strategic elements that mirror what you’ll face in real competition.
What does this look like practically? A rugby player spending July on general conditioning might shift to explosive ruck simulation drills and metabolic protocols that replicate 80-minute match intensity. A distance runner transitions from building base miles to tempo runs and race-pace work. A field sport athlete moves from circuit-style conditioning to repeated sprints with directional changes that match actual game demands.
Balancing aerobic capacity work with anaerobic power development
Here’s where most athletes get it wrong: they either abandon aerobic work completely or fail to build anaerobic power with enough intensity. The truth is more nuanced than choosing one or the other.
August training blocks require maintaining aerobic capacity while building or refining anaerobic power. Think of it as dual emphasis rather than replacement. Your aerobic base is your insurance policy. It allows you to recover between high-intensity efforts, sustains performance in the final minutes of competition, and keeps your central nervous system fresh for technical work.
The balance depends on your sport. An endurance athlete keeps aerobic work at 50-60% of volume while layering in anaerobic efforts. A team sport athlete flips that ratio, hitting 60-70% of training time on explosive, repeated high-intensity efforts while maintaining aerobic fitness through active recovery and lower-intensity sessions. Seasonal fitness demands require this deliberate balance rather than extreme specialization.
Practically, this means your weekly microcycle includes at least one dedicated aerobic session (long, steady, or threshold-based) and 2-3 anaerobic-focused sessions. The aerobic work doesn’t disappear; it just becomes less central to your competitive preparation. Your intensity distribution shifts toward more time at very high or very low intensities, with less time in the moderate “grey zone.”
Managing training volume while maintaining intensity for peak performance
One of the most dangerous myths about elite training is that more volume always equals better results. August performance requires something different: strategic reduction in overall volume paired with maintained or increased intensity.
As you move closer to competition, total training volume typically drops 15-30% from peak summer levels. This isn’t laziness; it’s physiology. Your nervous system needs greater recovery between high-intensity efforts. Your structural tissues need time to adapt to the more demanding stimulus. And honestly, you need mental freshness heading into competition season.
The volume reduction happens through fewer sessions or shorter sessions, never through reduced intensity. If anything, your intensity metrics go up while your total duration decreases. You’re doing fewer reps at higher effort, shorter intervals at faster speeds, more explosive movements with adequate rest between efforts.
Monitoring becomes critical here. Without proper personal training fareham support or coaching oversight, athletes often miscalculate this balance and either crash from overtraining or detrain by reducing intensity too much. Track your perceived exertion, monitor your readiness scores, and adjust based on how your body responds.
Structuring weekly microcycles for progressive advancement
Your August week should follow a clear pattern: high-intensity stimulus, recovery, maintenance of other qualities, and a lighter day before your next peak effort.
A typical elite microcycle looks like this. Monday: competition-intensity session (your main nervous system demand). Tuesday: aerobic work or recovery. Wednesday: secondary power or capacity work. Thursday: complete recovery or very light active work. Friday: final lower-intensity session. Saturday and Sunday: sport-specific practice or complete rest depending on your competition schedule.
The beauty of this structure is progression within the block. Your intensity in week one might hit 95% effort. Week two refinement brings better movement quality at that same intensity. Week three adds complexity or duration. By week four, you’re slightly backing off volume while maintaining all the fitness gains, stepping into competition feeling fresh and sharp.
This approach ensures your fall performance comes from deliberate, progressive advancement rather than last-minute cramming.
Sport-Specific Movement Patterns and Technique Work
Integrating technical drills into conditioning blocks for efficiency
Here’s where August becomes a turning point for elite athletes. Rather than treating technique work and conditioning as separate buckets, the smartest programs blend them together. This approach saves time while maintaining the quality of both adaptations your body needs heading into fall competition.
Think about it this way: if you’re running a high-intensity interval session anyway, why not embed your sport’s key movement patterns into those intervals? A rugby player performing explosive footwork drills between sprint blocks, or a tennis athlete working directional changes during cardio blocks. You’re hitting conditioning stress while reinforcing the exact patterns you’ll execute when fatigued during matches.
The efficiency gains are real. Most elite athletes in August are balancing multiple demands on their schedule. Rather than banking separate 45-minute technical sessions plus 60-minute conditioning blocks, integrating them means one 75-minute session covers both. This creates the stress stimulus your physiological systems require without extending training duration unnecessarily.
One practical example: a field sport athlete might perform a timed circuit where they execute 8 sport-specific technical movements (cutting patterns, passing accuracy drills, positional footwork) at near-maximal intensity for 40 seconds, then recover for 20 seconds. The conditioning effect is undeniable, but the technical reps are accumulating at higher intensity than a non-fatigued environment would allow.
Using movement complexity as a training stimulus during August
Movement complexity itself is a training stimulus, and August is the perfect month to leverage it. By increasing the cognitive and coordinative demands on your nervous system, you’re building capacity that translates directly to performance when actual competition arrives with all its complexity and chaos.
Elite athletes understand that more stimulus doesn’t always mean more load. You can maintain or even reduce absolute strength volume in August while increasing complexity. Imagine a barbell back squat progression versus a single-leg pistol squat variation with directional trunk rotation, or a clean versus a power clean with a pause at the knee. Same physiological stress on the leg musculature, but dramatically higher neural demand.
This approach builds what we call movement resilience. Your body learns to maintain technique and efficiency when the cognitive load increases. During fall competition, when you’re reading play, making tactical decisions, and dealing with fatigue simultaneously, this adaptability becomes invaluable.
Programming complex movements during August conditioning blocks also has another benefit: it prevents the accommodation effect. If you’ve been running the same strength protocols since April, your nervous system has adapted. Introducing complexity creates a fresh stimulus without necessarily requiring new equipment or dramatically different training sessions.
Refining sport mechanics under fatigue to build resilience
One of the biggest mistakes less experienced coaches make is separating technique work from fatigued states. They drill perfect form fresh, then run conditioning separately. Reality doesn’t work that way. Competition requires executing your best mechanics when you’re already tired, already stressed, already dealing with opponent pressure.
August is when elite athletes begin practicing this specific adaptation. You’re intentionally moving into technical work when your central nervous system is already taxed. A basketball player shooting free throws after high-intensity sprints, a swimmer executing race-pace turns at the end of threshold sets, a rugby player practicing line breaks in the final minutes of session when glycogen is depleted.
This builds two critical qualities simultaneously: physical conditioning and movement resilience. Your body learns to maintain coordination, timing, and accuracy even when the nervous system is fatigued. More importantly, you build confidence. You’ve proven to yourself in training that technical execution doesn’t collapse when conditions are hard.
The protocols require careful monitoring. You’re walking a line between building this adaptation and risking injury through accumulated fatigue-driven technique breakdown. Using strength and conditioning ensures you’re pushing hard enough to create the adaptation without crossing into recklessness.
Programming position-specific or discipline-specific demands
August provides the perfect window to emphasize the specific demands of your position or discipline. A soccer goalkeeper needs different August preparation than an outfield player. A sprinter requires entirely different August focus than a distance runner. Generic August blocks miss these nuances.
Position-specific demands mean designing conditioning blocks around movements and patterns your sport actually requires. A wicket-keeper in cricket performs explosive lateral movements and frequent directional changes. A prop in rugby carries significant load under anaerobic conditions. These aren’t generic conditioning adaptations; they’re specific physiological stresses your position demands.
Building this specificity into August training ensures that when fall competition starts, your conditioning isn’t just general fitness. It’s targeted preparation for the exact demands you’ll face. Programs like competition prep programmes integrate these position-specific demands systematically, rather than hoping general conditioning transfers to sport performance.
The August training block becomes your laboratory for refining these patterns at higher intensity, higher volume, and higher complexity than early-season work allows. You’re building the specific conditioning base that fall performance is built upon.
Recovery and Monitoring Strategies for August Training
Implementing objective tracking metrics for readiness and fatigue
Elite athletes don’t guess at their readiness. They measure it. August training blocks generate enormous physiological stress, and knowing where your athletes actually stand separates smart programming from reckless overreach. Objective metrics remove the guesswork that costs performance.
Heart rate variability (HRV) stands out as the most practical tool for daily monitoring. A simple morning HRV reading shows your nervous system’s capacity to handle training stress. When HRV drops 20 percent below baseline, that’s a signal to dial back intensity, even if the athlete feels fine. This happens more often than coaches expect around week three of heavy August blocks.
Grip strength testing offers another quick, equipment-light assessment. Declining grip performance often precedes visible fatigue signs. Test grip strength twice weekly, same time each morning. A 5-7 percent drop suggests accumulated fatigue that needs addressing before it becomes a real problem.
Jump performance metrics work brilliantly for power-based sports. Countermovement jump height, particularly when measured three times weekly, reveals whether adaptations are happening or if the athlete is just getting hammered. Consistency matters more than absolute numbers. A sudden 8-10 percent dip means recovery needs shift immediately.
Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) paired with session duration gives you load data. An athlete completing 90 minutes at RPE 8 generates different stress than 45 minutes at RPE 9. Many coaches ignore this because it seems too simple, but systematic RPE tracking prevents the common mistake of running athletes into the ground.
Strategic deload timing within the August training block
Deloads aren’t rest days. They’re intentional reduction of training stress designed to allow adaptation. August typically spans 4-5 weeks, and most elite programs benefit from a structured deload during week two or three. Timing this correctly determines whether athletes peak for fall competition or limp into September exhausted.
A proper deload maintains movement quality while dropping volume by 40-60 percent. Athletes continue practicing sport-specific technique but at lighter intensities. Think of it as maintenance work rather than development work. This preserves movement patterns while giving the nervous system space to recover.
The deload week usually sits after the heaviest accumulation phase. If your first two weeks emphasize building aerobic capacity and strength, week three drops intensity and volume. This creates a wave structure that prevents the monotonic fatigue that crushes late-August performance.
Many coaches make the mistake of deloading when athletes feel good, which almost guarantees they’ll be fried by August’s end. Instead, use objective metrics to guide deload placement. When HRV drops or grip strength declines despite adequate sleep, that’s your signal. The athlete might feel fine, but their physiology knows better.
Sleep, nutrition, and regeneration protocols for peak adaptation
Training stress is only half the equation. Adaptation happens during recovery, and sleep quality directly impacts whether your body builds resilience or breaks down. Elite athletes in August should prioritize 8-9 hours of sleep. Non-negotiable. This isn’t luxury; it’s physiological requirement during heavy training blocks.
Nutrition timing matters considerably during August stress. Post-training carbohydrate intake needs to exceed what works during lighter training periods. We’re talking 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight in the 30 minutes post-training, then complete protein-carbohydrate meals within two hours. Protein intake should stay consistent at 1.6-2.2 grams per kilogram daily.
Hydration tracking gets overlooked despite being foundational. Many athletes in Fareham, particularly those working outdoors during August’s warm weather, underestimate fluid needs. Pre-training hydration status directly impacts thermoregulation and performance.
Simple approach: weigh yourself before and after training. Losing more than 2 percent body weight means you need better hydration strategy.
Active recovery modalities support adaptation between hard sessions. Foam rolling, mobility work, and light movement improve circulation and reduce muscle soreness without generating new stress. 15-20 minutes of structured recovery work on non-competition days pays genuine dividends by week four.
Recognizing early warning signs of overtraining and adjusting accordingly
Overtraining sneaks up gradually. Early warning signs often feel subtle. Elevated resting heart rate (5-10 beats per minute above baseline) is one of the first indicators. Persistent irritability, difficulty concentrating, and loss of motivation follow closely. These aren’t mental weakness; they’re physiological signals your system is overwhelmed.
Sleep disruption despite fatigue is another classic sign. The athlete sleeps fitfully, wakes multiple times, or can’t fall asleep despite exhaustion. This paradox happens when cortisol remains elevated from overtraining.
Illness frequency spikes during overtraining because immune function suppresses under sustained excessive stress. Two minor infections within an August block suggests recovery isn’t matching stress. This is when adjustment becomes non-negotiable. Using training principles helps avoid these mistakes entirely.
Your response protocol should be immediate: reduce volume 30-40 percent while maintaining intensity, extend the deload window, and reassess nutrition. When caught early, overtraining is correctable within a week. Ignored, it derails your entire fall performance plan.
Injury Prevention and Load Management
Identifying common injury patterns that emerge in August training blocks
August training blocks expose vulnerabilities that earlier preparation phases might have masked. The combination of increased volume, sport-specific intensity, and accumulated fatigue creates predictable injury hot spots across elite athletes.
Overuse injuries dominate this period. Shoulder impingement in overhead athletes, patellar tendonitis in jumpers, and lower back strain in power athletes all spike during August because athletes are pushing cumulative load without sufficient deload windows. The physiological stress compounds weekly, and tissues haven’t adapted fast enough to handle the demand.
Acute injuries also emerge from technique breakdown under fatigue. When athletes are tired, movement quality deteriorates. Poor landing mechanics in basketball players, compromised running form in sprinters, and sloppy lifting patterns in strength-focused sports all increase injury risk exponentially. This isn’t about weakness; it’s about the nervous system’s inability to maintain precision during high-volume blocks.
Non-contact ACL tears, hamstring strains, and rotator cuff issues cluster during August because athletes reach a fatigue threshold where stabilizing muscles fail to protect primary movers. The body prioritizes power production over injury prevention when exhausted.
Progressive overload strategies that reduce injury risk
Smart periodization doesn’t mean avoiding load; it means structuring load intelligently. Elite athletes build August blocks using the 10% rule as a baseline, but context matters more than percentages.
Instead of increasing total volume every week, advanced programming adds volume for two weeks, then drops 15-20% in the third week. This pattern allows tissue adaptation without detraining. Think of it as building resilience in steps rather than a straight climb. Your fast-twitch fibers adapt to power demands, tendons develop stronger collagen crosslinks, and joints stabilize through repeated exposure at manageable intensities.
Movement quality gates progression. If an athlete cannot execute a prescribed lift, distance, or speed with proper mechanics, adding load is counterproductive. Many coaches add external resistance or volume when the real limiting factor is neural control. Resetting the movement foundation for a few sessions prevents months of injury rehab.
Competition training with TraintoAdapt emphasizes monitoring velocity and power output as load indicators. A sprinter who runs 10 x 200m at decreasing speeds has accumulated more physiological stress than one running the same distance at consistent, controlled pace. Coaches managing elite athletes track force production, not just reps and sets, to ensure progression matches adaptation.
Mobility and flexibility work integrated into your conditioning schedule
August blocks require intentional mobility work embedded within training sessions, not relegated to cool-downs. Athletes often skip dedicated mobility because conditioning demands feel urgent, but this approach backfires rapidly.
Pre-activity movement preparation (not static stretching) addresses range-of-motion deficits before they cause compensation patterns. Hip mobility drills before lower-body work, thoracic spine rotations before overhead movements, and ankle mobility circuits before running prevent athletes from forcing movement through restricted joints.
Post-session mobility work accelerates recovery. Performing 8-10 minutes of targeted flexibility after conditioning clears metabolic byproducts, restores parasympathetic tone, and maintains joint health. Elite athletes dedicate this time without negotiation because they understand it reduces injury probability and enhances adaptation between sessions.
Sport-specific mobility matters most. A volleyball player needs different mobility emphasis than a distance runner. Tailoring flexibility work to the demands your sport places on joints prevents restriction in critical movement patterns. Personal training Fareham locations and other specialized facilities recognize that generic stretching routines miss individual needs.
When to scale back or modify based on pain signals and tissue response
Pain is information, not weakness. Distinguishing between productive discomfort (muscle burn, metabolic fatigue) and warning signals (sharp joint pain, localized tissue pain) determines whether an athlete continues or modifies.
Acute sharp pain demands immediate load reduction or movement substitution. Continuing through genuine tissue irritation during August blocks transforms minor inflammation into chronic injury. A three-day pause with active recovery often resolves emerging issues before they sideline athletes.
Persistent dull pain after sessions indicates cumulative load exceeding recovery capacity. This is the moment to reduce volume by 20-30%, increase recovery protocols, and reassess training intensity. Many elite athletes push through this signal thinking toughness matters; instead, intelligent modification preserves long-term performance.
Movement compensation patterns signal that specific muscles or joints are fatigued. When athletes alter their mechanics to maintain intensity (shifting squat depth, changing running stride), load redistribution begins stressing secondary tissues. Scaling back immediately prevents cascade injuries where one dysfunctional pattern overloads multiple structures.
Your Autumn Game Plan: Prep Now for a Strong September depends on making smart August decisions. Pushing through pain that signals tissue damage sabotages fall competition. Elite athletes understand that managing stress now enables peak performance later.
Transitioning from August Training into Competition Season
Tapering protocols in late August to optimize fall readiness
The final week of August is where elite athletes transition from building capacity to sharpening specificity. This isn’t about doing less work, but rather doing smarter work. A proper taper reduces overall training volume by 40-60% while maintaining intensity, allowing your central nervous system to recover and your muscular system to fully adapt to the stress you’ve imposed over the previous weeks.
Most athletes make the mistake of cutting volume too early or dropping intensity entirely. Instead, maintain your competition-pace efforts but reduce the number of repetitions and sets. If you’ve been running 6-8 competition-intensity efforts in a session, dial back to 3-4 while keeping the speed and quality identical. The goal is maintaining the neural patterns you’ve grooved all month without accumulating additional fatigue.
Recovery metrics become absolutely critical during taper phase. Heart rate variability, sleep quality, and subjective readiness scores should all trend upward as you reduce load. If they’re not improving by the Wednesday before competition, you may have cut too much or too little, signaling the need for micro-adjustments in your final training sessions.
Mental preparation and confidence building as competition approaches
Physical readiness means nothing without psychological readiness. As August winds down, your focus should shift toward visualization, self-talk patterns, and competition simulation. Elite athletes don’t hope they perform well; they expect it because they’ve rehearsed the scenario hundreds of times mentally.
During final training blocks, create situations that mirror competition stress. This might mean performing your key movements with spectators present, recording your efforts, or competing against teammates at game pace. These small stressors inoculate your mind against the adrenaline and pressure you’ll face when it matters. You’re essentially teaching your nervous system that high-stakes performance is familiar territory.
Confidence comes from evidence. Review video from your best performances earlier in the season and identify the specific technical cues, pacing strategies, or mental triggers that led to success. Write these down. Commit them to memory. In the days leading into competition, reinforce these positive references repeatedly. Your brain needs concrete proof that you’re ready.
Fine-tuning competition pace and intensity in final training sessions
Your last 2-3 quality sessions before competition should feel like dress rehearsals, not testing grounds. You’re not trying to set personal records; you’re confirming that your body responds correctly at the pace and intensity you’ll demand during actual competition.
Work through your competition plan explicitly. If you’re an athlete preparing for fall performance, nail your pacing strategy in a controlled environment. Know exactly how your body feels at threshold intensity, what your breathing pattern should be, and how to manage surges and tempo changes. This familiarity removes decision-making during the actual event.
Technique quality must remain uncompromised, even as fatigue builds in final sessions. If your movement patterns start breaking down, you’re doing too much. Elite athletes understand that your autumn game, which means every rep in August builds toward flawless form when competition arrives.
Establishing routines and rituals that carry through to game day
The rituals you build in final August training sessions become the scaffolding for competition day. This isn’t superstition; it’s psychology. Consistent routines reduce cognitive load when you’re nervous, allowing you to focus on performance rather than logistics.
Establish your warm-up sequence, nutrition timing, equipment checks, and mental preparation protocol now. Do the same routine in every final training session. When competition arrives, you’ll execute these steps automatically, which frees mental bandwidth for tactical execution and response.
Many athletes benefit from written competition checklists created during late August. Include your warm-up progression, pre-competition nutrition plan, key performance cues, and post-competition recovery steps. This removes guesswork when nerves might otherwise cloud your judgment.
Your August training block isn’t just preparation for one competition; it’s the foundation for consistent excellence throughout fall and beyond. Athletes who structure this transition thoughtfully experience fewer surprises on game day and recover faster into the next training cycle. Whether you’re working with personal training or managing your own programming, treat late August as the bridge between building and performing. Respect the taper, reinforce your mental game, rehearse competition exactly as it will happen, and lock in the routines that will carry you through fall. Your competitive season is already being decided in these final weeks of summer training.