Showing posts with label mental training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mental training. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Mental Training & Nutrition Seminar
Mental Training is one of the biggest tools a paddler can use to gain an edge over competition and oneself (at times we are the mental block).
How would it feel to:
· Have an edge where you can be immersed in the present so that you are totally unaware of distractions?
· Increase the rate at which your technique improves where you are feeling the catch and grabbing the water powerfully with your blade?
· Compete in the zone more frequently?
· Stop the negative self-talk and have an unstoppable attitude?
· Visualize the movie of that great performance and the movie comes true – you experience that great performance?
The above are just some of the things that mental training can help you with in your paddling adventures.
Please contact Lori Jorgenson or ways to enhance your mental training specific to paddling.
Nutrition and Your Race Season
Treat your body like a machine you want to perform at it's best and you'll reach goals yets to be realized beforehand. Your body is the ajoining half of your mental game advancing you through competition and into recovery.
Refreshed, energized, quick, comfortable, clean and powerful - all of these reflect your nutrition as an athlete.
Please contact Holly Heaver for Nutritional Tips that span:
Early in the season
Sprint Regattas
Distance
Irons
Hydration
Recovery
Everyday eating for performance: You’ve heard it all before…….lots ‘o carbs, adequate protein, moderate fat, a variety of fruits and vegetables, emphasize whole grains, stay hydrated…….
Monday, March 30, 2009
Nutrition for Sprint Regattas
During sprint regattas, you will have opportunities to eat and drink between races. Avoid doing so too close to race time to prevent anything from “talking back!”
What works for one person, might not for another so go with what you know will settle well.
Consider snacking every 1.5 to 2 hours on carbohydrate-rich foods which include some lower fat protein. Pasta salad with some meat or cheese, ½ a turkey sandwich, yogurt and fruit, milk and a muffin are just a few examples. And of course, stay hydrated!
What works for one person, might not for another so go with what you know will settle well.
Consider snacking every 1.5 to 2 hours on carbohydrate-rich foods which include some lower fat protein. Pasta salad with some meat or cheese, ½ a turkey sandwich, yogurt and fruit, milk and a muffin are just a few examples. And of course, stay hydrated!
Spring Tune-Up
It’s already April and racing season is just around the corner. Are you ready? In addition to being prepared physically and mentally, is your nutrition plan ready to help you perform at your best?Use your training time NOW to help prepare you for races to come. Consider what you will eat prior to the race. Will you need an energy boost during the race? How will you hydrate? All these questions should have well-defined answers long before race day. And remember the athlete’s adage, ”NEVER try anything new on race day!” There’s a reason for that! Try out your new strategies well before racing season to find out what works for you. Pre-race meals, sports beverages, drinking systems etc. – they all need to be tested.
Early in the season, most races will either be sprint regattas or iron distance leaving longer irons and change-out races for later in the summer. In any case, starting race day with a well-tolerated meal (avoid potential irritants such as coffee, high fiber or high fat foods IF they are known to bother you) is a must. A high-carb breakfast which includes some protein 3-4 hours before the race will provide enough calories and protein to get you fueled and ready to go. A few choices include: rolled oats with nuts and fruit and low fat or soy milk OR a bagel with peanut butter and banana and low fat yogurt.Practice your strategies as best you can during training. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Keep searching to find your own magic bullet which gives you plenty of energy to complete the race and recover quickly so you can resume training soon after. Good nutrition will not assure you of a podium-finish. But, fueling up in the days and hours before and after your race will help you feel your best, perform your best and get you ready for what’s to come in your training plan.
Stay tuned for nutritional tips for:Early in the season
Sprint Regattas
Distance and Irons
Hydration
Recovery
Everyday eating for performance: You’ve heard it all before…….lots ‘o carbs, adequate protein, moderate fat, a variety of fruits and vegetables, emphasize whole grains, stay hydrated…….
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Mental Training
The mind-body connection is powerful. For everything you think in your mind, your body has a reaction. All athletes can improve and one way to improve is to become well-versed in performance enhancement techniques.
Athletes spend so much time physically practicing to get an edge on the competition. Yet what teams and athletes can really do to get an edge is right in front of their nose, or more accurately, right above their shoulders!
You hear the same thing all the time, "Sports are 90-95% mental." Athletes and coaches at all levels say it, but how many of them do something about it? What teams and athletes can do to get an edge is develop this aspect as common practice. Our most powerful resource is the mind and most of us are not utilizing this influential resource. Training your mind is just as important as training your body and the athletes that have realized this have excelled. Keep in mind that mental training is equally as important as effective technique. Giving both the same amount of attention is the ideal approach.
Mental Training can take on different forms.
Visualization – You can do this as you commute on the train/bus. Close your eyes and walk through different areas of training. Take yourself all the way through a start envisioning every stroke, catch, rotation, and return. Envision paddling behind different people and see yourself doing different things to follow or blend with them. Envision a weakness in your stroke that you want to improve and make it better in your mind’s eye.
Meditation – Again this can be done anywhere you can stop and focus inwardly. Center yourself and concentrate on calmness equaling power. Focus on something that makes you feel strong and breath that image into every ounce of your body. Take deep breaths and expand your lungs. Breathe in the image that brings you strength and feel how it energizes you from head to toe allowing you to feel calm and focused. Explore through meditation how to convert this image to actual power application.
Mental Training will develop your toughness as an athlete. It can give you the greatest confidence, compose you under pressure, assist in teamwork, and benefit your communication skills if you put your mind to it. Work towards incorporating mental training into your active training by dialing in these methods while you practice. If you put your mind towards incorporating mental training into your program your overall performance will benefit.
The physically stronger athlete or team doesn’t have to lead to win every time. Rather, the athlete/team with the greatest confidence, composure under pressure, teamwork and communication skills can compete and win across the board with mental toughness as their ace up the sleeve.
Stay tuned for more on Mental Training at our March seminar.
Athletes spend so much time physically practicing to get an edge on the competition. Yet what teams and athletes can really do to get an edge is right in front of their nose, or more accurately, right above their shoulders!
You hear the same thing all the time, "Sports are 90-95% mental." Athletes and coaches at all levels say it, but how many of them do something about it? What teams and athletes can do to get an edge is develop this aspect as common practice. Our most powerful resource is the mind and most of us are not utilizing this influential resource. Training your mind is just as important as training your body and the athletes that have realized this have excelled. Keep in mind that mental training is equally as important as effective technique. Giving both the same amount of attention is the ideal approach.
Mental Training can take on different forms.
Visualization – You can do this as you commute on the train/bus. Close your eyes and walk through different areas of training. Take yourself all the way through a start envisioning every stroke, catch, rotation, and return. Envision paddling behind different people and see yourself doing different things to follow or blend with them. Envision a weakness in your stroke that you want to improve and make it better in your mind’s eye.
Meditation – Again this can be done anywhere you can stop and focus inwardly. Center yourself and concentrate on calmness equaling power. Focus on something that makes you feel strong and breath that image into every ounce of your body. Take deep breaths and expand your lungs. Breathe in the image that brings you strength and feel how it energizes you from head to toe allowing you to feel calm and focused. Explore through meditation how to convert this image to actual power application.
Mental Training will develop your toughness as an athlete. It can give you the greatest confidence, compose you under pressure, assist in teamwork, and benefit your communication skills if you put your mind to it. Work towards incorporating mental training into your active training by dialing in these methods while you practice. If you put your mind towards incorporating mental training into your program your overall performance will benefit.
The physically stronger athlete or team doesn’t have to lead to win every time. Rather, the athlete/team with the greatest confidence, composure under pressure, teamwork and communication skills can compete and win across the board with mental toughness as their ace up the sleeve.
Stay tuned for more on Mental Training at our March seminar.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Feel
As paddlers get comfortable they tend to concentrate less on technique and more on power. If you are trying to develop good technique to optimize your power you must learn good technique first. If you do so you will be stronger than just muscling through the stroke.
Feel your body as it moves through the stroke. Feel the water and the varying conditions that you are paddling in. Feel the people around you and how you are blending together. Feel where the crew is applying power through the stroke. Feeling what you are doing is an aspect of mental training that translate into better technique.
Feel each one of these points of technique as you are performing them.
• Rotation from hip (not just leaning forward).
• Straight bottom arm (not bent like “choo-choo” action of broken arm going in motion of arm on train wheels). Bigger paddlers especially fall into this trap.
• Use whole body (including leg drive, abs and back), not just arms.
• Keep paddle as perpendicular to water on 2 planes (as seen from side and behind) for as long as possible.
• Timing is crucial (look diagonal and in front, take timing from top hand).
• Exit at hip.
• Maximise reach. The longer the blade is in water ahead of your hip, the more you are contributing. Reach farther than you have been without leaning farther forward. Rotate deeply through your core.
• Head up at all times.
Feeling what you are doing while you are doing it is difficult. It requires concentration and separation. Concentrating on what you are feeling in each part of your body. Separation from your need to be powerful and muscle the boat forward. Try to incorporate a concious effort to see yourself. Take the time to realize what you are doing. Don't let habit take over. Stop. Look. Feel.
Feel your body as it moves through the stroke. Feel the water and the varying conditions that you are paddling in. Feel the people around you and how you are blending together. Feel where the crew is applying power through the stroke. Feeling what you are doing is an aspect of mental training that translate into better technique.
Feel each one of these points of technique as you are performing them.
• Rotation from hip (not just leaning forward).
• Straight bottom arm (not bent like “choo-choo” action of broken arm going in motion of arm on train wheels). Bigger paddlers especially fall into this trap.
• Use whole body (including leg drive, abs and back), not just arms.
• Keep paddle as perpendicular to water on 2 planes (as seen from side and behind) for as long as possible.
• Timing is crucial (look diagonal and in front, take timing from top hand).
• Exit at hip.
• Maximise reach. The longer the blade is in water ahead of your hip, the more you are contributing. Reach farther than you have been without leaning farther forward. Rotate deeply through your core.
• Head up at all times.
Feeling what you are doing while you are doing it is difficult. It requires concentration and separation. Concentrating on what you are feeling in each part of your body. Separation from your need to be powerful and muscle the boat forward. Try to incorporate a concious effort to see yourself. Take the time to realize what you are doing. Don't let habit take over. Stop. Look. Feel.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Mental Training for Optimal Performance and Training
Have you experienced a time during practice or competition where you could not focus? Are there times when the chatter in your head is negative? Have you ever heard about athletes doing mental training for their sport and you are not sure how to implement it yourself?
Mental training is a huge component of training and competing.
It is a tool that regardless of your sport, when used consistently, can help you stay focused, stop negative self-talk, improve your technique/skills, increase your confidence, prepare you for certain situations in your sport (like winter training), and much more. For example, Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers, would run his own color movie in his head before hitting a shot, even in practice. His movie was very sharp and in-focus like he had actually performed it. This helped him to become a champion golfer of his time.February Seminar
In February you will learn some tools that will help you take your paddling to a whole new level by implementing mental training into your life. The benefits may even be beyond paddling and expand to your everyday life.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
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
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
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