In my limited experience it’s very situation, athlete, and therapist specific. Much more experienced coaches like Dan Pfaff often point to rehearsing therapy, nutritional interventions etc.. in training and smaller meets to figure out what’s best for the individual athletes situation. Then wise decisions can be made in bigger situations.
Dan would tell you some athletes can get therapy right up until the gun if it’s focused and not screwing up tone. Others discoordinate or come out flat with work the day before or in rare cases even 2 days out without motor reeducation work.
My experience with athletes with a therapist or doing the massage myself. Many of my ideas and thoughts are stolen from therapists (Vaughn, Staker, Hackett) and coaches (Francis, Pfaff, Valle…) much more experienced than myself.
If something is screwing up athlete performance and is likely injurous you have to adress it. (had a female hurdler who won state title on which I did some fairly deep, but very focused massage on adductors and light flushing general massage between runs of state championship meet (300m hurdles)). How would she have done without it… we’ll never know. I had worked on her before between runs in practices and in meets (did so in regionals) where she had 4 events and she had responded ok so I decided it was worth the risk. That said you also have to be careful not to eliminate a “problem” or only part of the problem and end up making them worse.
2 days out most people do great as long as you’re careful to get/maintain tonus to appropiate levels. Quality of the therapist matters as tone is important and you don’t want them bruising the athlete by using elbows or stripping out an IT band right before a meet.
1 day before is more athlete and type of therapy dependant as therapy changes things and is stress itself. Some athletes will discoordinate a bit or come out flat. It also depends on training setup as well as setups with priming work the day before or morning of provide additional oppurtunities to reboot.
For ITbands look to structures that attach like the anteriolateral hip and glutes first then adress the ITband and more distal fascial interactions (vastus lateralis/IT etc..).
Nick I’d consult your coach;)
