Athlete readiness questionnaire

Daily versus weekly

A daily check-in exists to detect change. It has to be short enough to survive being asked every single morning, which caps it at about four questions.

A weekly questionnaire exists to gather context the daily one cannot carry: how the block is landing, what is happening outside training, whether anything has been quietly getting worse. It can afford to be longer because it is asked far less often.

Run both and each does its job. Merge them and you get a daily form nobody completes and a weekly one that tells you nothing you did not already know.

Weekly readiness questionnaire

Once a week, same day, ideally before you write the following week.

WEEKLY READINESS — [athlete name] — week ending [date]

Rate 1-5 (1 = very poor, 5 = very good)

Overall energy this week:        _
Sleep quality this week:         _
Motivation to train:             _
Confidence in the current block: _
Life stress outside training:    _   (1 = very high, 5 = very low)

Which session felt hardest, and why?
> 

Anything niggling or not clearing as fast as usual?
> 

Anything coming up next week I should plan around?
> 

Reading the answers

Watch the gap between energy and motivation

High energy with falling motivation is usually a programme or psychological issue rather than a recovery one. Low energy with intact motivation is more often physical. The pair tells you more than either alone.

Take the niggle question seriously

It is the highest-value line on the form. Athletes routinely under-report anything they think will get their session changed, so an athlete who volunteers something has usually been sitting on it a while. Note that this is information for a conversation, not a diagnosis — anything persistent belongs with a medical professional.

Life stress is not noise

It is often the cleanest explanation for a physiology change that would otherwise look like a training response.

Compare to their own answers

Some athletes rate everything a 4. What matters is that this week is a 3 when it has been a 4 for a month.

Frequently asked

Should this replace a daily check-in?

No — they answer different questions. Weekly sampling is too coarse to detect change, which is what daily is for; daily is too short to carry context, which is what weekly is for.

Is a subjective questionnaire as good as wearable data?

It is different rather than worse. Athletes know things no sensor can infer — illness, work stress, that a session felt far harder than it should have. Self-report frequently moves before physiology does.

What if an athlete always answers the same?

Common, and not useless — a flat responder's occasional deviation is a strong signal precisely because they never move. If it is genuinely constant, ask the open questions verbally instead; some athletes give far more in conversation than on a form.