The science of stress has greatly influenced sport training. The formative works in the field from the early 20th century, particularly those by Walter Canon and Hans Selye, are frequently cited as the basis for the understanding of how humans adapt to training-imposed stress. However, key cornerstones of the conventional understanding have shifted in recent decades. In addition to its physiological aspects, stress is now seen to have important psychological and emotional components, making the body's response to imposed stress more individualised and difficult to predict. Although the evidence and logical rationale supporting the new perspective seem incontrovertible, it has as yet failed to spark the revolution in the commonly held training planning and prescription, or recovery and regeneration, paradigms it may warrant. The author provides a history of stress theory, culminating with the current understanding and its relationship to training theory. Although how the new awareness will be used to better design training and recovery processes remains to be fully explored, he suggests that gains are most likely to be realised when both training environment and coach-athlete interactions are designed to moderate rather than escalate non-physical training stressors.
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