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.

Nutrition Over the Holidays

Race season is over and we are now in the base-building phase of the paddling year. Use this time to work on your stroke, your fitness level and your goals. Don’t forget the important role nutrition plays in all of these areas. The athlete’s diet can help to improve strength, optimize workouts and increase strength to weight ratio, ultimately improving your paddling performance.

During the next few months, a variety of topics will be touched upon on this site to help keep you on track this winter. Specific questions about Nutrition can be directed to Holly at pdxpaddling@gmail.com. A more detailed discussion of Nutrition will follow at Session #5.

Holiday Eating
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas………ahhhhh, the holidays are upon us! For many, that means parties and gatherings where food and drink is the center of the occasion. The athlete’s diet does not mean treats and delicacies are forbidden. However, remember that you are still fueling your body for optimal performance. Everyday. Try to maintain your usual whole grain-rich, moderate fat, fruit and vegetable laden meals and use these occasions to enjoy favorite foods and sample new dishes and treats in moderation. Go easy on the alcohol. Listen to your body’s hunger cues to stop when you have had enough. (Remember, if you take a break from training through the holidays your calorie consumption should go down too.) For those of you whom it helps, continue tracking your intake to help you stick to your nutritional goals.

Remember, food brings most people great pleasure and should be enjoyed! But, finishing off the leftover Halloween candy before November 1 may not give you the edge you’re striving for!

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