Ron Lugbill Whitewater Slalom Racing Blog

the imaginary boat

The Imaginary Boat

                        

Before you make a run, try to visualize how the perfect boater would do it.  The Olympic or World Champion- how would they do this course.  By implanting that mental imagery in your mind, you will start to become more like the ideal boater.

Watching videos of top boaters is also a way to start having good mental images in your mind.  There are many videos of top boaters available on the internet and you tube.  This should be incorporated into your training- video analysis.

Instead of just thinking of yourself, you can try to visualize yourself becoming a top boater.  Think of how the best boater in the world would do this move, then try it yourself.

In 1992, this is how 1992 Olympic gold medalists Joe Jacobi and Scott Strausbaugh would train.    They would imagine how the ideal boat would perform the move.  This changes the paradigm so that even if training alone, you had something to compare your run to.  Or, if you are training with others, you aren't just trying to do better than their runs, you are trying to have the ultimate run.

That should be your goal in training and racing anyway.  Instead of thinking about how the other boaters are doing, something that you have no control over, think about how you can be the imaginary boater, doing the best you can.

going through the motions in practice

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

how to race well

How To Race Well

                        

Many paddlers wonder about what their race results will be.  Will I win?  How fast will I be?

Rather than concentrating on the outcome, the focus should be on the process.  How should I do this gate?  Where should my boat be at this point of the course?  Even if you pick up a penalty or make a mistake, keep thinking of the course, not on your score.

It's like trying to play basketball when you are looking at the scoreboard- you are taking your eyes off the ball.  It's not a good strategy for racing.  Just keep on going and don't worry about the result.  Don't think about the gate you just hit or whether or not the gate judge saw it.  Stay in the moment.

Anyway, I can tell you how you will do in the race.  You will do about the same as you do in practice.  You won't magically become someone different on race day.  Your race run will be about the same as your practice runs are.

So, the way to make your race runs better is to make your practice runs better.  Every run in training should be well-planned and thought-out with a lot of focus and attention.  Training is not about working muscles or a specific energy system- aerobic, anaerobic or whatever.  Training is about getting highly focused, quality runs.  Train fast and clean and then you will do the same in the race.

On the other hand, if you train without studying the course ahead of time, or if you are too tired or sloppy or in a bad mood, you are training to do poorly.  You would be better off not training that day if you won't have a high quality session.  Doing low quality sessions leads to low quality in your race runs.

Also, on your race runs, your competitor is the river, not the other boaters.  Concentrate on the things you have control over.  You have absolutely no control over the other boaters.  You also have no control over the race organizers or the gate judges.  The only thing you can control is yourself.  That is what you need to concentrate on- your run on the course.   Take the run just as a run in training- no special effort is necessary if you have been training correctly.

Doing lots of race simulations will help you race well.  Rather than never doing full-lengths in practice, seek out opportunities to do full-lenths in practice.  On weekends, go to a place where there is a full length gate course to practice full lengths.  Try to take the full lengths like a race as much as possible. 

There are a lot of skills you need for full-lengths that you don't need if you are just doing short courses.  Memorizing a full-length course is an important skill.  Course study from the bank is also an important skill.  Being able to look at a course and planning out every move is an important skill that takes a lot of practice to develop.    Doing quality full-lengths in practice will help you with these skills.

how many small differences does it take to make a big difference?

How Many Small Differences Does It Take to Make a Big Difference?

                        

Most of the training suggestions I make in this blog will only make a small difference in your results.  So, why bother?  Why not just train like I am used to?  Why not just do like everyone else?

It's the cumulative effect of several small changes that will make a big difference in your results.  Just increasing the quality of your workouts by getting coached probably won't make you world champion.  But add on the increased quality by taking each run like a serious race run and you will start to see a difference in your results.

Do some weight training and you probably won't see any immediate changes in your performance.  But if you keep with a quality program (such as the triphasic training program) that improves your strength, power and speed over many months or a year, and you will see some significant improvement if you combine it with high-quality slalom training.

If you just do some speed training, you won't immediately get faster.  But after doing quality speed work consistently for months, plus higher quality practices, plus resistance training, plus coaching, plus focused workouts, you will see a difference in your results.

If you do some active recovery, you probably won't notice any difference in your results at races.  It's another small difference.  But, if you combine it with several of the other factors, the cumulative effect will be big.

I would say that if you just make one or two changes in your training, you might not see any difference.  The only exception I can think of is if you don't have a lot of quality race experience and you start training on a good quality race site regularly.  That does make a significant difference in and of itself if you have such a site available on a regular basis.  Most other interventions only make a small difference in your race results.

But if you add some of the other interventions such as active recovery, coaching, quality runs, timing your runs, counting penalties, watching video, doing a quality resistance training program, and doing speed work, this will add up to a big difference.  If you do 5-6 small things to make you better, it's the same as doing one big thing to improve your racing.  So, find 5 or 6 small things and you will really improve your racing.

speed training should be a priority

Speed Training Should Be A Priority

 

If you are mainly training for endurance, you should switch to emphasizing speed in your training.  You will see results in a month or two.

Basically, to improve, you need to get faster, not be able to go for a longer period of time.  You can already paddle at race pace for 100 seconds or so.  If you have been racing, you know you can go the distance.  The difference is who can go the distance fastest.

But I am tired at the end of the race, so I need to train for endurance.  Everyone is tired at the end of the race.  The world champion is tired at the end of the race.  Something is wrong if you aren't tired at the end of the race.  Being tired at the end of the race is normal.

And yes, technique needs to be emphasized.  But going slow does not improve your technique usually, unless you are first learning a new technique.  You need to be able to do the technique at high speed.  And you will find that if you are fast and strong, you will be able to do moves that you couldn't do before.  Your technique will improve.

How do you get faster?  Mainly by training fast.  Your muscles have to be used to going fast, so that is their normal pace.  If you train slow, your muscles will be used to that pace and will go that pace in the race.  If you have long rests between runs in practice, you will be improving your speed more since you will be able to go faster in practice with complete rest than if you start again when you are still tired.

That is why I do not normally recommend the "lactic tolerance" type workouts where you do a run, then have a short rest, say 10 seconds and repeat.  For one thing, with this type of workout, you aren't going all-out, so you don't increase your speed.  Secondly, you don't have time to evaluate your prior run, get feedback or get psyched for the next run.  The quality of the runs goes down.

I believe it is important to have high-quality runs in practice.  If you have high-quality runs in practice, you will do the same in a race.  If you have low quality runs in practice, it is hard to change that for the race.  So, do what you need to in order to have high quality, focused runs in practice.  Wait until you are fresh and ready.  Don't go if the poles are swinging.  And quit before the quality of the runs goes down.  

 Speed should be trained early in workout, not by doing sprints at the end of a workout.  I suggest doing short courses of 20-30 seconds for time and penalties.  And some workouts where you do shorter courses of 10-20 seconds for time and penalties.  And some workouts without gates for each of these time periods.

And speed should be trained at least once or twice per week.  Some people can do ok with just one speed training session per week, but most people need 2 and some people should be doing 3 per week.  In any case, doing zero speed training per week is a mistake and you will not get faster with such a program.  Practice paddling fast and it will become a habit and your times will improve.

Here is a link to a mixed martial arts article about speed training:

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/speed-training-combat-athletes/

develop paddle power with this workout

Develop Paddle Power With This Workout

  

 

Power is slightly different from strength.  Strength is the ability to perform a hard movement. Power is the ability to perform a hard movement fast.  That's what we are trying to develop in our sport.  Not just being able to lift a heavy weight, but to pull the paddle through the water quickly.

Slow movements won't develop power.  In fact, slow movements could make you slower as your body gets used to the slower movement speed.  Your out of the boat training should also reflect the types of movement speeds that you would use in a race in order for your training to be more specific.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but you can train to move heavy loads at high speed.  You don't have to use light weights to move the bar at high speed.  You can move 75-80% of your 1 rep. max at high speeds. 

You just have to keep the reps low.  With more than 3 reps, the bar speed starts to slow down considerably.  So, rather than doing 3 sets of 5 reps, do 5 sets of 3 reps very fast.  Or, you can do 7 sets of 2 reps.   Or, 10 sets of 1 rep. Then, you are moving heavy weights at high speed and developing power.

Here is a sample workout to develop power:

1. warm-up.  Do a general warm-up, such as easy jogging and alternate toe touches and burpees for 3-4 minutes.   No slow stretching.

2. deadlift.  3 reps and 5 sets. 75% 1 rep. max.  1-2 min. rest between sets, walking around.  Move the bar quickly, keeping the buttocks down and the head up.

3. pull-ups.  3 reps and 5 sets.   1-2 min. rest between sets.  You might not be able to do 5 sets fast at first.  Only do as many sets as you can do at high speed.  If you can't do 3 reps fast, stop and do more the next workout.

4. military press.  3 reps and 5 sets.  75% 1 rep. max.  2 min. rest between sets.  Move the bar quickly.

5. planks.  do planks and plank variations.  Do side planks on both sides, reverse planks, and planks with one arm extended forward and one leg elevated, then switch.  Planks with feet elevated.  This develops core strength.

5. running sprints.  50 meters fast.  5 times.  2-3 minute rest between sprints. 

6. warm-down.  walk for 5 minutes and do some easy stretching. 

That's a good all-round power workout.  The fast bar speed will help you develop power.  The planks and sprints are for all-round strength and conditioning.  Remember to keep changing your workouts, so you don't always do the same thing, because then you will plateau and stop making progress.  Change your workout every month or so.

avoid bad habits

Avoid Bad Habits

 

Practice paddling right.  Bring a lot of focus to each run.  Each run should be high quality, fast and clean.  Paddling well is a habit.  If you paddle fast and clean in practice, you will paddle fast and clean in races.  You won’t need to do anything different on race day. 

So, you should never paddle slowly.  It’s a bad habit, just as hitting gates is a bad habit and being off line is a bad habit and using poor technique in practice is a bad habit.  So, if you start getting tired during the workout and can’t do it fast and with perfect technique, stop and come back another day. 

Your muscles will gradually get more used to these higher speeds from practice and that will be the speed you naturally go in races.  It will take some time to re-program the muscles to go fast though. Your muscles will actually undergo changes as they become faster.  Might take months to fully convert.

Rest times are important.  The idea is to have enough rest between runs so that you are fresh and ready and can do another fast, clean run.  If you are so tired that you make a technical error or slow down, it’s time to stop the workout, even if you haven’t done all the runs you planned on taking.

Do not get into bad habits such as slouching, poor forward stroke technique, hitting poles, or going slow.  If you practice using bad habits, you will do them in the race.  If you are so exhausted that you can't use proper technique or you start to paddle slowly, just stop the workout and come back another day when you are fresh and ready to paddle fast and clean.

Training for long distances in your slalom boat teaches the muscles to go slowly, which is a bad habit.  If you use a wildwater or flatwater boat, the muscle speed is faster, so it's not so much of a bad habit, but not really specific to slalom either.  Instead, plan on doing shorter segments of race length or shorter, so that you can go race pace or faster, and you don't ingrain the bad habit of paddling slowly.

over-thinking

Over-thinking

There are a few athletes that I would classify as over-thinkers.  This sport is one of analysis, sort of a thinking person's sport.  So, some people are attracted to this sport because of the level of analysis and thinking that it requires.

Racing at high levels of this sport is a complex task.  It is a long series of physics problems that would be complicated for a PhD in physics to completely evaluate.  Somehow, through years of practice, the athlete has internalized much of this knowledge, so that this calculation can be done more quickly. 

Somehow, your brain and muscles have learned the amount of force that will be needed on a certain stroke to counter-act the force of the current, for example.  And the proper boat angle.  And much of this needs to be figured out from shore and then refined when in the boat.

I like to get athletes to start thinking and analyzing courses.  Sometimes I walk the course with an athlete and ask them questions about the entire course to get them thinking and analyzing how they will do the course.  Some athletes are used to just "winging it", and are under-thinkers.  They need the extra thinking because otherwise, they wouldn't adequately prepare for their runs.

But the over-thinker sometimes over-analyzes things to the point where the mind takes over and the body's instincts from years of paddling are no longer in play.  This can result in paralysis through analysis.  At a recent race, I went to, I noticed that on the offsets, people were spending a lot of time analyzing the drops and waves and holes.  But those features had little real effect on the boat's speed or trajectory. 

The offsets were really not much different than if they were on fast-moving flatwater.  You didn't need to really analyze it so much, just do basic offset technique, which the boaters were all capable of doing.  But if you overthought the holes and drops and waves, you forgot your basic offset techniques and were late on the offsets and got penalties or lost time. 

One world champion I knew never wanted to talk about the course because he felt that in talking about it, it over-simplified the level of analysis that already went on in his mind, and thus was less accurate than the version in his mind.  But with beginning and intermediate boaters, it is good to have them analyze the course aloud so they then learn to do it on their own later.  Young people sometimes benefit from being paired up with older boaters who can show them the level of analysis that they bring to a race course.

Over-thinkers sometimes need to be reminded of the essence of the sport.  You have to just paddle fast and keep the boat on line.  That is it.  Otherwise, they can get lost in the details and fine points and miss the big picture.  Have fun paddling.