Fitness & Off Water Training

The off-season is a perfect time to work on general fitness. Progress made on general fitness from October through April will pay big dividends during the on-season. This can not be stressed enough. Increasing your strength and overall fitness will increase your performance.

track your progress
There are many categories of fitness. Keeping a fitness journal is a great way to document your growth and measure present fitness level. This will also help you repeat tests to show how your training plan is working over time. Write goals in the front, a plan of attack, difficulties or problem areas, and add in some goal dates to help achieve you program.


categories
There are a several fitness categories athletes are encouraged or should train (commonly called “general fitness”). Good general fitness is needed to have good paddling specific fitness. An athlete must develop in all these categories.
cardiovascular fitness – the ability to feed muscle’s oxygen over a longer time period

anaerobic fitness - the ability to recover after sprints and to repeat the output again and again

mental toughness – developing a “never give up (even for a stroke) attitude”

core strength – developing muscles in the body (versus the arm/legs) so they can work together. A strong core is needed to maintain balance when working.

nerve system and fine motor control development – working to hone the ability for the nerve system to talk to muscles groups. Essential for separating the muscles that are working from those that should be relaxed.
Note: Paddlers need to have good strength to weight ratios. If you carry weight (muscle or fat) that does not participate in pushing the boat forward than this is not optimal.

overall strength – developing sport specific and sport non-specific strength helps with injury prevention.

As an athlete, own your development. Trust in your plan. You and you alone know if you have put everything into a workout. Progress is not made in a linear fashion; you must apply yourself over time and you will see progress. Do not expect immediate results. Continue to follow through even when progress seems halted. Working on these fitness categories is not easy. Working with a coach to develop a plan along with your personal commitment can be crucial to success.

coach as partner
Every athlete should work with a coach to help optimize their development. Coaches must learn how to develop athletes by building a relationship that is centered in trust. Every athlete will need a different training plan, different workouts with different focuses. Managing athlete's training plans is an important task and can be a delicate balance based on individual's abilities. Moreover, in team situations highlighting all the above categories during training is a skill that requires patience and experience. Coaches need to continually learn and advance themselves to be a strong coach partner.

How much training an athlete can tolerate changes over time (measured by years, not months). A well trained athlete can tolerate much more than an untrained athlete. Understand who you are working with and what their goals are. Plan on a year or two or more in order for an athlete to “step to the next level” depending on the starting level of general fitness. This relationship will continue to grow as each of you learn what the athlete is capable of.

most important
Lastly but not of least importance is ** sport specific fitness – training your specific muscles to perform optimally - e.g. paddling muscles**.

Fitness Seminar Saturday Nov, 8

1:00pm - 4:00pm
See sidebar details & sign up to come
Join us for this lecture and discussion about fitness; cardiovascular, anaerobic, mental toughness, core strength and motor control development. Come with thoughts on your own goals for the winter and where you see yourself in 5 months.

Introduction

Hello paddlers!

Over this past season, I have been approached by several paddlers who want to take their paddling/coaching to the “next level”. These paddlers ranged from dragon boaters, outrigger paddlers, to kayakers and the coaches that contacted me target the same groups. Every discussion I have had has made me more excited about encouraging paddlers to continue their efforts throughout the winter and strive for their goals of bettering themselves on and off the water. I began to realize that with the help of other local professionals, we could begin a forum for paddlers that would help maximize paddlers goals and fulfill needs in areas they might not yet realize are essential to what they want to accomplish. This blog will be half of that equation. The other half will be a seminar series detailed below.

This post is the first of a four part series sharing opportunities for anyone to move to the next level with their paddling. By continuing the conversation throughout the winter and working together to better understand what it takes to develop as an athlete we’ll keep up individual momentum on specific goals you set for yourself. Over the next five months health and fitness professionals will be holding off water seminars geared towards specific paddling focuses. These sessions will be local and affordable and are meant to add dimension to the goals you are structuring for yourself.

Seminar Focus Topics:

Fitness - November 8, 1:00pm - 4:00pm ~ See Sidebar Details
Off water fitness training & its benefits
Develop your core fitness in several categories
Expand your general fitness level to increase your overall performance
Widen your never-quit threshold

On water fitness training
Paddling
Paddling
Paddling

Technique
Water/boat awareness
Boat specific technique

Mental training
How to optimize daily training
Setting yourself up for success
Learn how to stop negative self talk
Be more confident inside and out
Learn how your thinking affects your daily performance

Nutrition
Pre/post racing
Athletic training

One thing that must be stressed regardless of the boat you are paddling is that if you want to perform you must PADDLE. There is no other activity that will make you a better paddler than to paddle on the water. This style of training is called ‘specificity training’. Taking time off during the winter season and beefing up on fitness off the water is only a small portion of the total equation of taking yourself to the next level. If you want to compete with those above you, you have to guarantee yourself consistent water time to build your endurance, strength, and overall wherewithal for the sport you have dedicated yourself to. When you are thinking about upping your level of performance you have to step up across the board. This means stepping up on all the stages listed above not just one.


The fall is a perfect time to get a jump start on next year! Specific training plans should be worked with your coach and targeted to your needs. My expectations on the athletes I coach who want to compete at the highest level vary with the season. The focus for our fall training is base miles and strength mixed with an effort to re-introduce technique lost during race season. For the competitive athlete nine hours on the water a week is the least amount I recommend for the fall. Time doing off the water fitness is also expected additional to these hours. Athletes need to have a plan – coaches must learn how to work with athletes to devise optimal strategies to achieve these objectives. Flexibility is key and setting realistic goals is imperative. Even if the bar is set above your reach with a solid support system we can all achieve more than we initially envision.

Technique will be discussed in an upcoming blog post, however, to touch base on it now lets remember that your coach knows best. To develop is to adapt and to adapt is to have trust in your coach. Coaches must be able to support their technique and execute by example. Athletes must be able to adjust and change, sometimes breaking habits that feel more powerful, but can quickly lead to injury or bad boat blending.

These posts and focus groups are meant to bring us all up together by building the strength in our paddling community and representing the Pacific Northwest to the standard you set for yourself.

We look forward to developing this blog and continuing to bring you quality information that will help you take yourself to the next level!

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Peter H