Ron Lugbill Whitewater Slalom Racing Blog

http://rlugbill.typepad.com/my-blog/

Inverted Periodization

Here is a link to an article about inverted periodization for triathletes:

http://www.sdxtraining.com/new/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=212:inverted-c

Rather than concentrate on building an aerobic base during the off-season, with inverted periodization, you work on motor skills, technique, speed and strength.  Then, when you get closer to race season, you add in more endurance training, but maintain some speed training year-round.

This contrasts to traditional periodization, where you do a lot of long endurance training during the off-season, then start more aerobic training during the pre-competition season.  Traditional periodization developed during the 60s and 70s, but since then, there has been more research that has shown it to be ineffective.

Periodization is nothing more than planning.  Planning is a good thing.  You need to plan out your training.  However, you also need to listen to your own body.

The author of the article lists many physical problems resulting from the common application of aerobic base training with high volumes of training.  Many athletes develop physical and medical issues as a result of this excessive volume of endurance training and would be better served by less volume and a more balanced approach.

This article is about an endurance sport- triathlon.  If traditional periodization is not effective for a very long distance, endurance-oriented sport like triathlon, it certainly does not work for whitewater slalom racing where the emphasis is on technique, precision, power and speed.

Instead of spending hours paddling slow on flatwater during the off-season, work on technique, speed and strength.  Get faster first, then work on being able to maintain that speed during the pre-competitive season.  In other words, do more short courses in the fall and winter and more full-lengths during the spring and summer.

Here is the link to the article on inverted periodization:

http://www.sdxtraining.com/new/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=212:inverted-c

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Going Through the Motions in Practice

You want to have high-quality, focused practice sessions.  You don't want to just be "going through the motions", lacking intensity and enthusiasm in practice.  Every practice should be focused.

Here is an article about the issue of athletes just going through the motions in practice:

http://www.educ.msu.edu/ysi/articles/lauerpracticeintensity.pdf

The going through the motions syndrome has various causes.  Sometimes the athlete is tired.  Sometimes the athlete is uninterested.  Sometimes there is something else going on in the athlete's life that is distracting and lowers the focus.  Often, the athlete is over-trained and tired.

In order to avoid going through the motions syndrome, try to do practice races as often as possible.  Also, vary the workouts- don't just do the same thing every time.  Try to get feedback in your workouts, such as having a coach, getting timed and scored, and getting videoed.

And avoid over-training.  Do active recovery training.  Get a good night's rest. 

It is better to skip a day of training than to do a low-focus, poor quality workout.  Because your practices establish habits.  You don't want to establish poor habits by having poor quality workouts.  Practicing bad technique does so much harm that it is better to just skip the workout altogether and get a good night's rest and come back tomorrow with a better attitude towards training.

Sometimes coaches unwittingly foster conditions under which the athletes are more likely to be just going through the motions.  Coaches should emphasize the focus of the workouts, rather than emphasizing telling the athletes about a particular energy system that is being developed during the workout.  Coaches should hold frequent race simulations.  And coaches should keep the workouts varied to keep the interest levels high. 

If you keep moving from one type of training to another during the workout, it helps keep the athletes focused and interested.  For example, do 10 minutes of stroke technique, followed by 10 minutes of gate technique, followed by a timed and scored short course for 15 minutes, followed by a timed and scored 60 second course for 20 minutes.  This is more interesting than just doing one hour of all stroke drills or one hour of all sprints, for example.

Having a group to train with also helps avoid the going through the motions syndrome.  It is much more interesting to train with a group than to train alone.  The social support of the group helps keep people motivated and enthusiastic about training.  And you learn from others- you watch their runs and figure out how to do your own run better.

The best athletes have the best practices.  They bring a high focus to practice sessions.  The practice sessions are well-planned to keep the interest high.  Then, the best athletes simply use the good habits they have developed in practice on race day.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.educ.msu.edu/ysi/articles/lauerpracticeintensity.pdf

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Basic Principles of Slalom Racing

Many beginning racers make mistakes regarding boat placement and their lines on the course.  When you get to a race, boat placement is everything.  Almost all of my other posts are worthless at this point, because most of my prior posts have to do with training, not with your lines on the course at a race. 

It is hard to over-emphasize how important it is to have your boat precisely on the right track throughout the course.  Most people don't understand this.  Your speed, power and endurace will come from your training, so there isn't much you can do about them at this point.  Thinking about stroke technique at a race is probably not the best point to emphasize on race day.  That should already be ingrained as a habit from your training.

On race day, it is time to place the emphasis on where the boat is at all times.  Many boaters mistakenly believe that simply memorizing the 20 gates is sufficient.  It isn't.  You need to know not only precisely how the boat should be angled through each gate, but where the boat goes between gates.

On offset gates, the boat generally needs to be already turned before the gate and travelling cross-stream towards a point above the next offset gate (not merely aimed at the next gate).  If you turn in the gate, rather than before it, you will be late for the next gate.  If you aim directly at the next gate, you will end up turning in the gate, not before it, so it is vital that your boat be angled across and already be moving in that direction before you go through the gate.

Upstreams.  You need to be moving across towards the upstream generally, not going straight downstream and then try to do a 180 degree turn to come back up through the gate.  Try to think of the ideal approach to the up, if there were no other gates on the course.  Then, try to get on this course as soon as you can from the gate before the upstream gate. 

As a general principle, try to anticipate forces on the boat, rather than react to them.  For example, if you are crossing into an eddy but want to continue downstream, have your paddle in place to counteract the turning effect that the boat will experience when part of the boat is in the eddy and the other part of the boat is in the current.  There is a split-second when part of the boat is being pushed downstream and the other part is being pushed upstream.  You need to plan for this by having your paddle in place in advance.   Don't wait until the boat is turned to straighten it out- anticipate the river forces.

Try to keep the boat's momentum going, rather than slowing it down and then having to reaccelerate the boat.  If you have to do a back stroke, rather than a turning stroke (duffek or sweep), it is more likely to slow the boat down.  Not only will you lose time by having to reaccelerate the boat, but you will lose energy because it takes a lot more force to reaccelerate the boat than to keep it gliding at speed.

Another basic principle is not to try to go fast or slow.  Try to go precise.  Aim for precise placement of the boat throughout the course.  Deciding whether you need to go fast and sloppy or slow and clean is a false choice.  You need to go at your speed and you need to keep the boat on course. 

Rather than thinking of running a 20 gate course, you need to think more of your lines between gates- effectively running a 60 gate course if you count the imaginary gates you need to run in- between gates to keep the boat on the proper line throughout the course.

Some people walk the course from finish to start, so that they see first where they need to go after each gate.  Gate exits are crucial.  Every time you go through a gate, you go through it lined up with the next gate in mind. 

 Walk the course several times before you take a run.  Visualize yourself running the course several times before the race.  Watch other boaters so you learn all you can about the course.  The course is a puzzle for you to figure out.  Applying some of these basic principles of slalom racing will help you find the solution to the puzzle.

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Train Smarter

This blog is all about training smarter.  You can do lots of different things to train.  But which methods will be most effective?  Not all training is equal. There are thousands of different types of training you can do.  But only a few of those methods will get you where you want to be.

Many of us tried all kinds of different training methods over the years, both ourselves and by observing other athletes.  We wish we had the kind of knowledge that is available now.  But very few athletes are even using the new information that is available now.  They are using training methods from 20, 30, and 40 years ago.

Old is not necessarily bad.  Some things are tried and true.  However, there are some methods that have been proven to be ineffective.

And there are many training programs that have different goals in mind.  There are lots of fitness programs out there.  But few of them are designed specifically to bring you good results in canoe and kayak slalom racing.

Some programs are designed for overall fitness, or to lose weight, or to make your muscles bigger or to look better.  That's great if that is your goal.  But if you goal is to become a better, faster whitewater slalom racer, you need to have a training program with that as the priority.

So, just working out or just maxing out or going to failure or whatever, even if you are training every day, working very hard won't get you good results unless your training plan is specific to your sport and it is well-planned. 

Here is an example of what I am talking about.  You could do a normal bodybuilding weight program 3 or 4 days per week.  And do cardio for an hour every day.  And paddle daily for an hour.  You train 2 or 3 times per day, dedicate your life to training, and go to failure every day, putting every ounce of your body and soul into your training.   And you wouldn't improve very much.

Here is why.  The bodybuilding program isn't building strength so much as size.  So, you are making your muscles bigger without improving your strength to weight ratio nearly as much as you could.  You will be muscle-bound, rather than just being stronger.

And the paddling isn't high enough quality.  Should be coached often, timed and scored often, on whitewater often, and at or above race pace often.  More technique and less slow paddling.  Just paddling straight on flatwater won't get you anywhere, regardless of how much you do.

The hour of cardio is essentially training for another sport.  Good sometimes as cross-training perhaps, but it won't really make your boat go any faster or cleaner.

This type of training is perhaps popular, and maybe it makes you feel like you are working hard.  However, it won't bring you very good results.  It's not designed to.   It is just a mishmash of various other types of sports that will leave you exhausted but not on the medal stand.

So, rather than just doing standard sort of training, train smarter.  Use the knowledge available now that will help you improve more rapidly.

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Do Explosive Resistance Training and Fast Intervals to Get Faster

Here is a link to a meta-analysis of training research regarding different types of training and their effects on performance.  For short endurance events (less than 2 minutes long), such as ours, the best types of training were explosive resistance training, both specific and non-specific explosive resistance training, and also supra-maximal interval training, fast intervals done all-out for less than 2 minutes.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.sportsci.org/jour/04/cdp.htm

A meta-analysis is a collection of a series of studies that helps develop a consensus from the research.  So, the research here does tend to point towards doing explosive resistance training and short intervals. 

The explosive resistance training results here seem to contradict another study that found that for acceleration, slower resistance training is more effective, while for maximum speed, faster resistance training is better.  But that may be one factor that the meta-analysis fails to differentiate.  The meta-analysis is looking to lump together studies to find a trend, but there may be important distinctions in a trend. 

For example, a sport that lasts 90 seconds long but is cyclical and has only one start and then you maintain a high speed may have very different physical demands from a sport that lasts 90 seconds, but has many starts and stops and where varied movements and acceleration and agility play a greater role.  The meta-analysis would put both of these sports into the same category when there may be very different requirements for each sport.

In any case, the meta-analysis does tend to show that fast-paced intervals are very effective training methods for events lasting less than 2 minutes.  And they also show that explosive resistance training is also very effective for short endurance events.

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Wheelchair Athletes' Training

In this study, two wheelchair athletes were put on a new training program:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni7a9.htm

Previously, the wheelchair athetes had done high volume training and no resistance training.  For nine weeks, they switched their training to higher intensity training and resistance training.  They were tested both before and after the new training.

 

The new training consisted of strength training, speed, interval, tempo training, and specific resistance training (pulling tires) and overspeed training ( training with a tailwind).   Both athetes had improved body composition and improved performance after the nine weeks of new training.

In looking at research, we are usually interpreting results from other sports because there isn't really enough research on each specific sport.  Wheelchair sports may be useful to compare to whitewater slalom, because it is one of the few sports that mainly involve the upper body.  Most other sports (basketball, soccer, track and field, etc.) have an upper body component, but are mainly lower body sports.

The research we find on wheelchair training is very similar to other sports though.  Resistance training improves performance in wheelchair sports, like other sports.  Training intensity improves performance in wheelchair sports, as it does in other sports.  Speed training is important in wheelchair sports, just as it is in other sports.  Specific resistance training is helpful for wheelchair athletes, just like other athletes.

Like other athletes in other sports, wheelchair athletes often train in ways that have been shown to be less effective.  Many wheelchair athletes don't do any resistance training and do a high volume of training at lower intensity.  This study shows that when they switch to more effective, proven methods of training, their performance improves.

Likewise, many of the athletes in whitewater slalom don't do resistance training and do a high volume of training at lower intensity.  They would benefit from a training program that includes the following:

1. resistance training

2. speed training (short bursts of high speed, followed by complete rest between runs)

3. tempo training (training at around race pace with complete rest between runs)

4. specific strength training (paddling with boat held still with complete rest between repetitions)

5. lower volume of total training

6. less low-intensity training

Here is the link to the article about the study of wheelchair athletes:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni7a9.htm

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Short Courses are Aerobic

There is substantial new research that says that the aerobic energy system is used a great deal even for short courses.  Here is a summary of some of the recent research on this topic:

http://www.zone5endurance.com/

There is a study of flatwater kayak racers that shows that at around 40 seconds into the race, it is half aerobic.  By one minute into a race, it is about 90% aerobic and then it plateaus at around 90%.  And this study just looked at a race.  In training, the first run may be half aerobic at 40 seconds but by the time you are halfway through your workout, it is mainly aerobic if you are doing 40 second courses.

So, this is much shorter than sports physiologists had previously thought.  The take-home for us paddlers is that you don't have to do those long paddles for the training to be considered aerobic.  You can paddle at or near race pace and as long as the distance is 30 seconds or more, it is mainly an aerobic workout.  If you are doing  1 minute intervals, it is about 90% aerobic, yet the pace is specific to your event.

You don't have to paddle long and slow for a workout to be considered aerobic.  Paddling long distances is not specific enough to be effective training.  But, anything from 30 seconds on up is going to be a mainly aerobic workout.  See this article that provides summaries of recent research:

http://www.zone5endurance.com/

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Stop Stretching Before a Race

Could stretching be bad for you?  Well, there is substantial research that shows if you do static stretching (long stretches where you remain still) within 2 hours of an event, it lowers your strength and power.  Here is a recent New York Times article on the subject:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/reasons-not-to-stretch/?src=me&ref=general

So, don't use long stretches as a warm-up.  The best warm-up is movement.  Do jumping jacks or burpees or just run or paddle as a warm-up.  The idea is to get the blood flowing.  Dynamic stretches are ok, where you stretch and then instantly return to your normal position.  But static stretches that are held for more than a few seconds can reduce your power and strength if you do them right before a race.

That doesn't mean that static stretching is all bad.  I think everyone should do static stretching- after a workout.  Or in the evening as a means of developing range of motion and also for recovery. 

I highly recommend active recovery, such as an easy, short run, followed by a hot shower, and then some static stretching.  This works wonders for helping your body to recover.  I recommend doing some type of active recovery after every workout, before you do another workout.  If you first gently warm up the muscles before you do static stretching, such as easy movement or a hot bath and then do static stretching, it enhances the stretching and the recovery.

Just don't do the yoga poses before the race.  Warm-up by moving the body, not by keeping it still.  Here is the New York Times article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/reasons-not-to-stretch/?src=me&ref=general