Agility Training

This may be a new concept to some of you- agility training.  Let's look at other sports as examples.  Agility is very important in ball sports, such as basketball and soccer.  It's not so much the athlete's top running speed that is important because you rarely get to top speed.  It's the ability to quickly change direction and accelerate that is important.

With each change of direction, there is a loss of speed and then the body needs to reaccelerate.  That is agility.  It is a little different from your maximum speed.  Your maximum speed is once you have been traveling in the same direction for a period of time, at least a couple of seconds. 

Agility is also a very important factor in slalom racing.  Your boat is constantly turning, losing speed, and changing directions.  A lot of the time in slalom racing is due to your ability to turn quickly and reaccelerate the boat quickly.  Turning strokes such as sweeps and duffeks are at least as important as forward strokes in slalom.

So, agility needs to be trained also.  There is some carry-over from pure speed training to agility, but it's not specific enough.  If you are just training on flatwater, you should included some agility training, not just pure speed and endurance training. 

Doing gate training, rather than just straight-ahead paddling develops agility due to the turning.  If there are no gates, you can do an imaginary course in your mind.  In any case, do not neglect agility training- it is just as important as speed, strength, or endurance training.