Peaking for Paris Perspective and staying in present are vital to athletes' Olympic planning

I remember friends asking me before the 2004 Athens Games if I was really digging in and putting in extra miles now the Olympics were just round the corner.

- Cath Bishop

I wondered what they thought I'd been doing for the previous three and a half years. I also realised it's hard to know what goes on behind the scenes and how athletes prepare for an Olympics. There are some persistent myths to dispel and new insights into how you can become the best you can be as advances in sports science challenge more traditional approaches.

There are five key areas for our athletes to hone their physical, mental and spiritual skills to thrive this summer. These themes may not always feature in Hollywood scripts, though you might find some of them in Ted Lasso. Psychological insights are increasingly challenging conventional orthodoxy. As a bonus, these approaches will work well for the rest of us too, regardless of the size of our ambitions.

First, focus on the present. Concentrate on the session you're in. Projecting into the future distracts from improvements that can be made today. However much we want to win, we shouldn't do more today than is on the training programme. There is a definite science-backed move away from the old macho "more must be good" approach which isn't going "soft" but avoids burnout, injuries and poor-quality training. Invest in the small yet vital things that nurture your body, mind and spirit: a daily mindfulness practice to stay grounded; warm-ups and warm-downs to look after your body; and self-compassion to accept the foibles and idiosyncrasies that confirm you're human, whatever the performance levels you're close to.