Tournament Preparation and Recovery with Ray Ure
WPH Instructional, Tucson, AZ, 1/7/25
WPH Tournament Preparation Series home HERE
The WPH is thrilled to continue the WPH Tournament Preparation Series, taking you inside the professional tournament preparation required to achieve optimal performance. In the WPH Tournament Preparation Series, you will learn what it takes for the game’s best to condition themselves for the physical and mental challenges of pro level competition.
In this edition of the WPH Tournament Preparation Series, 2024 Race 4 Eight Breakthrough Player of the Year and 2024 Race 4 Eight Portland Classic finalist Ray Ure takes us through his rigorous tournament preparation and post-tournament recovery.
Tournament Preparation
Ray Ure’s tournament preparation is not meant for most, or even most elite athletes, as Ure’s stamina and conditioning is nearly unmatched due to his preparation and training. Starting four week before an event, Ray takes us through his handball tournament preparation.
Four Weeks
Get my legs and body back up to speed for intense handball matches. Because of the running that I do (between fifty to sixty miles per week), my legs will feel sluggish at times if I have not been consistently on the court playing matches. I will continue to run to keep my cardio up and then get on the court once a week in addition to any matches to work on areas of weakness or inconsistency on my own.
Three Weeks
Three weeks out will look very similar. The main difference here is that I will start to play some matches that involve using my left hand mainly. I’ll use rules where I can only shoot the ball with my left hand against some of my teammates, while my right hand can only hit defensive shots or pass shots.
Two Weeks
Two weeks out will look very similar again, there isn’t much that changes. I’ll play more pick-up matches ideally to get a pre-tournament feel on the body while still giving my body time to recover. I’ll continue with left-handed work on my own one more time to make sure it feels strong before the tournament.
The Week of the Tournament
The week of the tournament the two things that I change is that when I am in the court on my own, I’ll focus on more hot shots of mine. Rather than focusing on weakness, I’ll cue in on my favorite shots to make sure that I am putting the ball away when given the opportunity to as well. I’ll also work on my serves briefly at the end of my practice. My running usually tapers off at the end of the week so that they do not feel any fatigue from that training come tournament time.
Running Training
For running, my training will vary from week to week, usually hitting between 45-55 miles a week, and having done as much as 67 miles in a week before. Each day looks a little bit different in terms of length and pace. Tuesdays and Fridays are my workout days of the week where I do interval work at race pace or faster than race pace, or tempo runs which are usually between three to eight miles at a little slower than 10k race pace. The rest of the days of the week I usually just run at whatever my body is feeling, some days an easy run might be 6:30 per mile while other days are 8:20 per mile. Usually, I run around 7:20 per mile though. My long run takes place on Sundays where I’ll run between 12 and 15 miles.
Daily Routine
I lift weights twice a week with my cross-country/track team.
Practice matches 2-3 times a week
Practice by myself 1-2 times a week
Stretching ideally before each practice session but after is more important.
Recovery
Ray takes us through his post-tournament recovery to minimize soreness and maintain his fitness.
Day After a Tournament
Ray: The day after a tournament is usually doing something lowkey and not moving around too much depending on the length and intensity of a tournament.
After Day One
Ray: After day one, recovery is just getting back to running and practicing handball for me. After big training blocks of handball, I like to take a couple of weeks off to let my body fully recover, while still running to keep the aerobic base up.
Thank you to Ray Ure for sharing his strategies on how he prepares and recovers from tournaments.
Stay tuned for upcoming WPH Tournament Preparation Series features.
Read more of WPH Tournament Preparation Series HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer