PHYSIOLOGY

Words: Dr Mark Homer

What can other sports teach us?

Working within a highly successful international rowing programme, with some of the world’s most decorated coaches taught me a few things about how endurance training can be done. I learnt about the high volume, low intensity ‘periodised’ model of training and how, when applied with relentless consistency, it can improve the performance of pretty much every athlete that does it properly.

On leaving that world, I was lucky enough to experience how things were done in a different sport. Swimming traditionally has a system of training unlike any I had previously seen, and it opened my eyes to alternative methods. Now, with the responsibility to educate the next generation of practitioners – desperate for employment in any sport that will take them – Ifind myself reading more about the training practices of cyclists and runners, which are popular groups for the latest research.

This article discusses a couple of the differences I have observed between the methods of these bigger hitters amongst the world of endurance sport (sorry X-Country skiing, but I’m happy to visit some training camps and learn!). How do these sports differ in their approach to training and preparing athletes for optimal performance?

“In running, the latest developments have been technological. We are now unsure whether performances are due to improved physiology or footwear.”