It seems that many paddlers are training for the World Championships in Loops. They do frequent long continuous paddles of much greater lengths than the slalom courses we race on, which according to ICF rules should be about 90 seconds long.
I'm not serious, of course about the Loops World Championships. There is no such race. But it just seems that given the length of their training distances, it appears that they must be training for much longer races than the 90 second courses that we race on.
But even if they were training for the Loops World Championships, they aren't training properly. Even long distance events require some resistance training, some specific strength training and some speed training.
Regardless of distance, resistance training is important. Resistance training helps strengthen opposing muscles and helps balance your strength which helps prevent injuries and resistance training helps your body produce hormones that are helpful in building muscle.
Also, some sprint training is important even in long distance events. One of the best predictors of how athletes will do in any length event (10k, marathon, etc.) is how fast they are over a 20 meter sprint. If you are very fast, when you back off and go at race pace, your body doesn't have to work as hard as it would if it were working closer to your maximum speed.
And specific power training, where you practice against some resistance, such as having the boat held still while you paddle is also very effective, regardless of the distance. If every stroke you take is very easy because of your specific strength, you won't have to work as hard for every stroke, saving your energy over the length of the race.
Of course, these wouldn't be the bulk of your training for the Loops World Championships, but it would be better if you at least did each of these once/week. So, even if you were training for the mythical Loops World Championship, doing all distance work would not be the most effective training. Even if you want to be the best in the world at loops, you should do some sprints, some resistance training and some sprint training. However, the bulk of your training would be closer to race pace.
In the real slalom world were we live, there is no Loops World Championships. In our world, you need to do resistance training, some short sprints, and some specific power training. Additionally, you should do training that is close to race pace, such as 30 second courses, 60 second courses and full length courses.
I do not recommend training for the Loops World Championships because there is substantial research that shows that you cannot simultaneously train for power and long endurance because you cannot gain any power under such conditions. Power is very important to slalom racing, where you are constantly having to reaccelerate the boat after a turn, upstream, etc. Doing endurance training will prevent you from developing power.
You can simultaneously train for power and short courses, such as 30 or 60 or 90 second courses. There is no problem building power if you are doing short courses, only if you are doing long endurance work. So, it makes more sense to avoid or minimize long endurance training- anything over 2 minutes or so, except as recovery training for short periods at very slow speeds. In any case, train smart and train for a 90 second whitewater slalom race. Don't train for the Loops World Championships.
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