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The Corner: Long Term Athletic Development – Lessons from the pool.
By Alan Couzens
3/4/2009 |
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As many of you know, I built my athletic ‘chops’ by spending my early mornings and afternoons breathing the over-chlorinated air and walking the damp decks of a number of Aussie aquatic centers. The swimming world is an interesting one. It’s participant’s aren’t subject to the same intrinsic motivation that comes along with the more social team sports or even the inherent challenges in skill sports. No, the motivation for squad training comes from one word – habit. Every morning, parents around the country are dropping their kids off at the pool and every afternoon, rather than getting into the usual adolescent mischief, thousands of kids are making the trek from school to the pool purely because they need something to fill the time in between school ending and their parents getting home from work. Eventually, if kids keep the habit through their school years they become good. Pure and simple. Maybe not world record breaking good, but good enough to keep moving through the squads at the same rate as their friends. First the technique squads (a glorified learn to swim program), then the fun focused junior squads, then the developmental squads, then the State squad, the National Squad and, for a select few, the Aussie team.
When I got to the point that my own early morning habit wore out, I moved into a very different world, the world of personal training. The difference between the inherent (blissfully ignorant) patience of my aquatic friends and the “I want it now” attitude of my clients was stark. So stark that it all became a bit too much. Day after day I would hear very concrete, definite, crazily ambitious goals and yet despite these goals, the difference between my squads and my clientele came down to one thing; my squad (the folks with the process focus) showed up! Every day. Rain, hail or shine, despite more loosely formed outcome goals, my swimmers were involved in the process for a long period of time.
And so, this brings me to my third incarnation as a triathlon coach and true to pattern, I have found a range of mindsets from those committed to the process irrespective of the outcome (generally lifelong athletes) and those who state a commitment to a given outcome and who, I guess, will complete the necessary work - if they absolutely have to to reach their goal. Hopefully you can see the difference in these mindsets and can guess which one is more likely to wind up reaching a high level of performance. I believe Gordo calls this the performance paradox: A high level of performance only stems from a commitment & focus on the process, not the end result.
The foremost guru of long term athletic development – Mr Istvan Balyi is fond of quoting the 10,000 hour rule:
“It takes 10,000 hours (or 3hrs a day for 10 years) of deliberate practice to become a world class athlete.”
This ‘theory of deliberate practice’, initially coined by K. Anders Ericsson is described as follows:
“Expert performance is the end result of individuals prolonged efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints…Individual differences, even among elite performers are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning.”
Incidentally, if you are looking to fulfill your potential in any field, I highly recommend checking out Ericsson’s study. It provides a detailed blueprint for achieving world class performance in any field.
Ericsson studied the deliberate practice of experts in elite musicians and found the following developmental patterns for the professionals, the best students, the good students and the teachers.
Some clear trends are evident from Ericsson’s research. Namely:
- Those who did the most work over a long period of time reached the highest level (Duh! :))
- The professionals didn’t get ‘serious’ until their 5th year of practice, as opposed to the second tier musicians (who were probably experiencing a good amount of burn-out by the time they were in their key developmental years)
- The professionals put in the most work during the key developmental years.
The theory of deliberate practice has also been validated in the sporting world. In the case of ultra-endurance triathlon by Baker et al (2005). Joseph Baker and colleagues did a comparative study of cumulative training volumes of elite Ironmen, MOP Ironmen and BOPers. They found that the crucial distinguishing factor was training volume, with the guys in the 9hr range accumulating 12,500 hours of training over the course of their athletic development, compared to 6,500 hours for the 12hr athletes and 4,100 hours for the ‘Back of the pack’ group.
Or, put much more succinctly by the great Scott Molina – “It takes a long time to get good”.
As mentioned above, just as ‘pacing’ becomes more important in an Ironman versus a sprint tri, pacing 12,000 hours of athletic development is an important, distinguishing, skill. A skill that is based largely on patience, and as such is largely missing in the repertoire of highly motivated, impatient, Type A Ironman triathletes. In this sense, I believe we can learn a lot from our more patient aquatic cousins.
Below I’ve outlined a typical developmental pattern for an age-group swimmer (along the lines of Balyi’s suggested phases) and how we may replicate them in an Ironman context to ensure we stay in the sport long enough, and ‘hit our straps’ at the right time to discover our potential as Ironman triathletes.
Phase 1: Fun/Skill
Training Age: 1-3 (7-10 yo for swimmers)
A potentially elite age-group swimmer will typically begin squad work at 7-10 years of age. For the first 2-3 years of ‘training’ the focus is on fun and multi-lateral development. The volume is kept very light (2-3 sessions per week) and the emphasis of the session is skill practice. Despite the very low volume, the steep learning curve results in a considerable rate of improvement. The athlete is encouraged to establish a wide fitness base with traditional ‘weekend sports’ – soccer, cricket etc. No structured competitions are planned, but regular ‘race skill practice’ sessions give the swimmer competitive experience.
As triathletes, we can learn a lot from this first phase. How often do we see athletes busting out a 4000m set in the pool when they would be better served doing 2000 with perfect technique? How often do we see athletes who are 30lbs overweight pushing through a 20 mile long run? The first 1-3 years in the sport represent the greatest chance for burnout and the most upside from non volume oriented methods. So, the message is, get yourself in good general shape, have fun learning new skills. Maybe do a few fun runs, but just enjoy your fitness & don’t be in a hurry to race (let alone race an Ironman!)
Phase 2: Learning to Train
Training Age: 3-5 (10-12 yo for swimmers)
When improvement from basic fitness and skill development starts to slow, it is time to begin setting the scene for improving physiology by progressively increasing training volume. In swimming terms, at age 10-12, the swimmer begins real squad training. This means daily training with a focus on consistency. Training volume and intensity are progressively increased but not at the expense of consistency. The focus is on showing up (on time) and developing good training habits. Each session will include a mix of skill work & training paces but the emphasis is hitting (and slowly building) training volume week after week. Competitions are included but not specifically prepared for or tapered for. No one session is hard but showing up day after day represents a challenge in itself.
This is an important, but tough phase of development for working athletes. It is very easy to rationalize hitting a session ‘hard’ if you know that your schedule won’t permit you to train much the following day. However, if an athlete does this too many times it represents the start of a very destructive pattern. As Lydiard said back in the day, it is important that the athlete finishes every session ‘pleasantly tired’ but not so tired that it compromises tomorrows training. This is an essential skill for the developing athlete to grasp.
Phase 3: Training to Train
Training Age: 5-8 (12-16 yo for swimmers)
Once good training habits are in place and the athlete has proven the ability to consistently ‘show up’, the next challenge is a pretty marked increase in training volume. This is when ‘serious’ squad training and a progression to ‘two-a-days’ begins. Over the course of 3-4 years of development, the aspiring champion will move from 10-20+ hrs of high quality training per week, with the introduction of traditionally periodized training and practice peaking for events.
In my opinion, this is the absolute earliest that serious Ironman training should be contemplated. By this stage an athlete is resilient, skillful and in possession of a strong, smart work ethic. Now is the time to experiment with competition across the duration spectrum while putting in the work that will ensure their potential is reached in their best event in the coming 5 years.
Phase 4: Training to Compete:
Training Age: 8-10 (16-18yo for swimmers)
Once the majority of physiological gains are in place, the swimmer identifies and begins training specifically for their best event. The ‘breakpoint’ volume of training is maintained (or slightly increased for distance swimmers) and the focus moves to gaining race fitness and experience.
In the course of Ironman training, with older athletes, most will notice a progressive decline in ‘top end’ abilities while aerobic abilities are maintained. This is the prime time to focus on achieving your Ironman potential.
Phase 5: Training to Win:
Swimmers typically peak in their early 20’s. At this point, their developmental physiology is in the best spot for a lifetime best performance.
Ironman, on the other hand offers the best physiological mix in the 3rd decade of their life. Even for older (AG) athletes, however, the developmental pattern holds. While there is an optimal ‘physiological window’ for inserting the high volume period, even if this window is missed, it is important to realize that all athletes will get the majority of fitness benefits from 5 years of high volume training. An athlete who goes into these 5 years in good general health and fitness and with an established skill set and a strong, smart training habit will arrive at a much higher ultimate level of performance on the tail end of this phase of hard work.
As always, train smart.
AC
Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science), CSCS, PES, is a coach and exercise physiologist who helps athletes over at www.EnduranceCorner.com. He has a passion for performance and has been coaching endurance athletes since 1993.
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