Using Video to Help your SUP Technique

Video is a very powerful tool for athletes and coaches to use in the development and maintenance of effective technique. There's a lot to be said for actually being able to see what you're doing, and there are visual learners who really understand what they can see much better than what they are told.

The first time I was videoed in C1 was when I made the National Team in 1979. Until that point I had no idea what I looked like when paddling. I hoped that I looked like John Wood, Olympic silver medalist in C1 500m in 1976, and a guy who was my hero when I started paddling, but I really had no way of knowing. I used to spend countless hours looking at still photos of John in his C1, most of them in the set up or catch part of the stroke, and I remember when my first coach, Bill Collins, gave me a level 1 coaches manual that had a sequence of frame-by-frame photos of John's stroke I was mesmerized by it. I used to use a broom and get in front of the full-length mirror at my parents' house and try to get into the same positions I saw John in in the photos. And any photos anyone took of me in C1 I'd analyze carefully to see whether I was doing things properly like John was. However all that said, I never saw myself actually paddle till Florida training camp in March 1979.

My first reaction was disgust. It didn't look like John! Then I pretty quickly realized it was because it was me, not John, in the video. I tried to look more closely at what I was doing to see if I was doing anything similar to what I'd identified John doing, and what, if anything I was missing in my stroke. And of course I had a coach watching the video with me as well who was trying to help me through that process. It was incredibly valuable.

The problem with video in that era was that the technology was awkward and, in the age before lap top computers, tablets and smart phones, you couldn't take the video with you. You'd watch the video, get a great mental image of what you were doing and what you needed to work on, and then you'd get up and leave the room where you'd viewed the video and everything you'd just seen would, invariably, start to get blurry. It was almost as if that great mental image you had in your head would start to disappear in a cloud of static. In contrast, today we live in a video universe. Almost everyone can take quality video and watch it at their leisure. So why not take advantage of that to help us with our SUP paddling?

Using video to help understand and develop good technique and make yourself go faster begins with what seems a simple first step: acquiring the video.

Acquiring the Video

You're going to need someone to film for you while you're paddling, and may need someone to drive the motorboat for you as well if you are lucky enough to have one to film from. Make sure the people driving and filming know exactly what you expect of them and what you are looking for so you can be sure you are going to get the video you want. What follows are a list of things I've found useful to do (or at least consider) when having video taken.

• Point of reference: Give some thought to the point of reference from which you are going to have your video taken. Although it is not always possible, without question the best way to take video is to follow the paddler from a motorboat. You'll get way more useful video of good paddling strokes than if you get someone to take video of you paddling by them on some stationary dock or point on shore. Generally videos taken from shore provide a good, straight on look at the paddler's technique for a stroke or two at most. Video taken from a following motorboat provides a consistent stroke-by-stroke view of what you are doing and provides a much more accurate picture of your technique.
•  Have the video taken with the sun behind the camera: Make sure the person filming you isn't filming into the sun. If they are all they'll get is a shadowy silhouette of you paddling and you won't be able to see some useful details in how you're moving when you look at it.
• Film at least 30 frames per second: If the video is taken at a setting that captures fewer than 30 frames/second you might get some useful video to look at in slow motion or frame-by-frame. Then again, you might not. There will be dropped frames that make the video you're looking at look choppy and jerky. Capturing 30 frames/second should give you lots of frames in each stroke to analyze in slow motion or frame-by-frame. You'll be able to see exactly what you're doing every stroke without something important being missed because it was in a dropped frame. Most cameras, tablets and smartphones take video at this rate on normal settings.
•  Don't use the HD setting: HD settings aren't necessary and are just going to produce huge files that may make your play back run slower, be difficult to email or download if you want or need to do that, and just aren't necessary. I usually film at 640x480 and 30 or 60 frames/second.
•  Decide what type of equipment you are going to take the video with: There are lots of different options. If you are going to look at it on the water or as soon as you get off the water then the way to go is to capture your video with an i-pad or similar tablet. The capture quality is very good, you can play it back immediately, and the screen is large enough to allow you to actually see details in your technique with a considerable level of clarity. While smart phones might take good quality video you won't be able to make much of what you see on playback until you put it on a tablet or a computer.
  When I am coaching canoe/kayak now and I want to show the guys the video immediately, I use an i-pad. It works perfectly and the guys can look at it on the water, get the feedback they need and then go and do another piece of work and apply what they've just seen/learned with maximal benefit.
  If you are planning to look at the video later you should send it to a laptop or desktop computer. You'll see a lot more and be able to use the cursor keys to make frame-by-frame, slow motion and reverse motion viewing very easy which will make your analysis easier.
  If I am going to show an athlete their video later, I always make sure I load it on my laptop. Then I email it to the athlete or upload it to a drop box where they can pick it up. I find the easiest way to do that is to capture video using a video camera that uses a memory card. I can just pop the card out of the camera, slip it into my laptop and immediately transfer the video file/files. I then can keep a video library for each athlete so I can track how their technique evolves and each athlete, once they get their video can add it to their own video library.
•  Give some thought to the type of paddling you want to analyze: If you are looking at basic technique and are working at learning or refining an element of the stroke then film slower paddling. If you want to see if you are executing drills properly then film the drills. If you are interested in analyzing sprint speed, then sprint. If you want to look at your 10 mile pace, then paddle at that speed for the video. You'd be surprised at how many paddlers and coaches take video at speeds that are actually random without having given any of this some thought.
  Also make sure that the paddling technique is representative of what you want to look at. If you are curious as to what you look like when you normally paddle, then paddle normally. Don't over focus on your technique and paddle better than you normally do, as the video you end up watching will not be representative of your normal stroke. If you want to look at a certain element of technique or something that you're trying to change then you should put extreme focus into it and try to do it perfectly so you can see exactly where your technical skill is at that moment.
• Be sure to get video from both sides, back and front: There are important things to see from each angle. In sprint canoe I like to get video of both the paddling and non-paddling sides so I can get a thorough picture of what is going on. So if you want to be really thorough you'll need to do that for both your left and right paddling sides.

Analyzing the Video

So you''ve got your video now. You've done the easy part. Now you need to assess what you see. This is the hard part. I think the first thing you need to do if you are going to analyze the video yourself is make sure you have a good knowledge of basic technique.

There are lots of resources available to help you get a handle on what good technique looks like. If you haven't taken a clinic and had a chance to talk technique with a good technician like Jimmy Terrell or Dave Kalama you can still find lots written on the internet about it, including stuff from Jimmy and Dave themselves. There's also a lot of video available of most of the top paddlers. Even if you've never taken a clinic or can't find detailed written descriptions of good technique you can learn a ton by watching some of the top paddlers. Recall what I mentioned about what I learned from just looking at still photos of John Wood. If you're smart about it, you can learn a lot about your own technique by comparing what you see yourself doing in your video to what others are doing.

Here are some suggestions:

•  Look at a selection of the top paddlers, not just one.
•  Try to identify trends in what the top paddlers are doing. Don't get lost or confused by a particular paddlers style (their interpretation of basic paddling technique) but rather focus on how they execute the fundamentals of good paddling technique and how their boards respond.
• Remember the main fundamentals of good technique. I've included an example of a checklist you can use for your video analysis or as the basis for developing your own technique checklist. Click here to download it(Excel Format).
• Look at your technique in the video you've taken. In my opinion the best way to view it is using Quicktime. Quicktime allows you to use the cursor keys in the bottom right corner of your keyboard to advance the video forward or in reverse frame-by-frame or in slow motion. This tells you a lot. Tap the right key (forward) or left key (reverse) once to advance it or back it up one frame at a time. Hold the appropriate key down to move it forwards or backwards in slow motion. Run it a real speed first to get a feel for your stroke and how your technique compares to the pro paddlers you've been looking at. Then start to explore your stroke at a deeper level using frame-by-frame and slow mo.
• Don't be disappointed if you don't look exactly like your favorite paddler. You don't want to look exactly like anyone else. You can't. You're you, not them. But you can look to see if you are executing elements of the stroke in a similar manner to top paddlers.
• Don't get hung up on minor things. Check for the main things first:

	-	Are you pulling yourself to the paddle and pushing yourself by it?
	-	Are you entering the water near the point of your maximum reach?
	-	Is your blade getting buried quickly?
	-	Are you maintaining a positive blade angle as long as possible?
	-	Do you have a nearly vertical blade at the deepest part of your stroke in the pull?
	-	Are you maximizing the use of big muscles and minimizing the use of smaller muscles?
	-	Are you relaxing muscles that are not actively involved in pulling yourself to the paddle?
	-	Are you maintaining pressure on the blade (directed down the paddle shaft from your top hand) throughout the stroke?
	-	Does your weight get off of the board and onto the paddle during the stroke?

• Try to ascertain how the board is responding in relation to what your paddle is doing. Your board should be accelerating from the catch through the pull. It will be decelerating as you exit and while you are in the air. How well do you appear to minimize deceleration and maintain board speed during the air work?
• Do your body movements appear dynamic and forceful and connected to the paddle?
• Do you look comfortable on your board? Do balance issues appear to limit the effectiveness of your stroke and ability to load the paddle (find connection to the water) and work dynamically against the connection you establish?

SUP Technique Checklist

        Download Technique Checklist(Excel Spreadsheet) - click here

Following this process and answering these questions should give you a pretty good idea of the effectiveness of your technique. Where you see what appear to be shortcomings with your technique you need to consider how you might be able to adjust your motion to address these shortcomings. This is where advancing and reversing your video one frame at a time is really useful. Can you identify what you should be doing more or less of? Can you identify how you can execute part of your motion more quickly to improve your technique?

Most people who have technique troubles usually miss, or are late with, a movement at one point in their stroke that subsequently messes up the rest of the stroke. It's like a chain reaction. Some people have trouble right from the catch and pay for that through the entire rest of the stroke. Try to identify where your stroke breaks down. What can you do differently/better/more quickly at that point to fix that break down and increase the likelihood of the rest of your stroke becoming better as well?

Think things through for yourself and don''t jump to hasty conclusions. Go for a paddle and experiment with your technique after you've viewed your video and then go back and look at it again. Did your experimenting give you any better insight into what you see in your video?

Once you've got a firm idea of what you're doing and what you need to adjust or change, it's time to devise a plan on how to implement those changes. I'd strongly suggest giving some thought to whether or not there are some drills you can do that will help you make, and consolidate, those changes. Remember drills are exaggerated executions of particular elements of technique that help accelerate learning and refinement of those elements. Your drills should address one element of technique at a time, be repeated for no more than a minute and then you should allow yourself to paddle normally for a minute or so before repeating the drill or moving onto a new one.

Give yourself some time to make the adjustments to your technique that you're trying to make. You aren't going to make any meaningful changes in a week unless you're a very talented and experienced paddler. More likely, you're going to have to work at it for a while. Paddlers that I coach at the canoe club are often working on technical adjustments for entire training cycles.

If you've taken your time and given your video lots of thought and still aren't sure about what you've seen then it may be time to ask some questions or get someone else to look at it. Think carefully about who you ask. There are lots of people who know their stuff and can give you some really good insight into your technique. There are also places where you can send your video to get it analyzed, which will cost you some money but may be worth it (buyer beware). What I strongly suggest you NOT do is post your video to one of the SUP forums and ask for advice. There is absolutely no guarantee that the people who respond know any more about technique, or are any better able to analyze a video, than you.


Establishing a Video Library

Obviously if video is a powerful tool it makes sense to use it on a regular basis. If you''re trying to implement changes or adjustments to your technique you can use video to help you assess your progress in making those changes. I strongly encourage you to keep a library of your videos, with the date of each video in the file name, so that you have a record of how your technique evolves over time.

Your technique most certainly will evolve, even if you are not consciously trying to implement changes. That''s another reason you should periodically use video. As much as it can be a tool to identify and implement changes to your technique, it is also a powerful tool for making sure good technique that you are satisfied with doesn't deteriorate, which can happen for a variety of reasons if you don't stay on top of it.

You don't need to be an expert to use video to monitor and improve your technique. Hopefully this post will encourage you to give analyzing your own video a shot. I'm certain you'll find the process interesting, and if you are the type of person who is curious and likes solving puzzles then I think you'll enjoy it and find a good deal of satisfaction in doing it.

It's been a while since I've been videoed myself, and my web site is in woeful need of some new video as the one currently on it is from fall 2011, so in an upcoming post I'll analyze a new video of myself and we can see how my technique has evolved over the last three years. I also have access to some pretty powerful tools that we are using with the National Team so I'm going to try to use some of them to look at the acceleration profile of my stroke, stroke rate, velocity, distance per stroke etc. It should be interesting so stay tuned!

Training for SUP Part 6 – The General Preparatory Phase

As you’ll recall from parts 4 and 5 of the Training for SUP series, the second macrocyle in the periodized yearlong training plan is the General Preparatory Phase.  This is a 12 to 16 week phase that runs from approximately December 1st to March 1st, although it can be adjusted to fit within your personal race schedule.  Remember, as with the description of the Specific Base Development Phase in part 5, what follows is a guideline for the type of training you should consider doing and the rationale for doing it.  You need to consider your own goals and objectives, strengths and weaknesses, time available to train and level of experience, and develop your own plan that works for you.   I’ll outline the types of training you should think about doing in each mesocycle of this phase, and then summarize things and give you some suggestions on how to put it all together.

The main focus of this training phase is the maximization of the general (non specific or dry-land) fitness abilities required to support successful high level competition in stand up paddling.  As such the vast majority of the work should be done off the board and on land.  If you have the ability to paddle everyday I honestly believe it is worth staying away from the board to a degree and focusing on this fitness work for at least part of this period.  It allows you to refresh and recharge mentally while addressing crucial components of fitness that too often go ignored.    It also allows you time to address paddling specific injuries you may have incurred during your racing season.  In general I think it is safe to say that it is a long paddling season and without careful planning the potential for burnout is high.  Taking time off the water or periods of reduced paddling volume helps to reduce this risk.
 
In an ideal world I think paddling a couple of times a week through the entire General Preparatory Phase would be optimal, so if you live in a warm climate you can paddle throughout, but limit yourself to a couple of times/week.  Those paddles should be low level, technical sessions with the objective being to maintain feel for the water and to consolidate changes or adjustments made to technique during the Specific Base Development Phase.  If you are a cold climate paddler you are likely frozen off the water for much of this time anyway.  Don’t lament that.  There’s still lots that you can do that will make you a better racer!

The two main focuses of this phase are the development of strength/power and aerobic endurance.  Since you laid the groundwork for intense training in these areas in the Specific Base Development Phase you should be ready to train at a high level from the beginning of the cycle. 

The objectives of this phase are:
• Development of muscle size (where necessary)
• Development of max strength
• Development of max power
• Development of strength endurance
• Development of power endurance
• Development of general aerobic endurance
• Development of aerobic power
• Increased anaerobic threshold
• Development (where necessary) or maintenance of flexibility
• Consolidation of technique (if possible) 2x/week

The first thing I would do in this cycle is test.  You’ll want to establish your current level of fitness and use the data collected as baselines you can measure your progress against as you proceed though the rest of the phase.  I’ll cover testing thoroughly in a future post, but for now you can look at the section on Assessing Performance in Part 3 of the Training for SUP series to get some idea of the tests you should be considering.  Basically you’ll want information about max strength, power, power endurance, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness.

Strength Development
In the Specific Base Development Phase you were doing basic strength weights – typical body-building types of exercises of 15 repetitions performed with good control at a moderate pace.  This serves to prepare muscles and connective tissue for the intense load they’ll face in the General Preparatory Phase, so if you did the training in the previous phase properly you should be ready to train intensively from the beginning of this phase without fear of injury and with maximal benefit.  I’ll describe each type of training and the rationale for it below.   As everybody has different goals, training backgrounds and time available, I’ll refrain from commenting on how many times per week you should be training.  Instead what I’ll do is summarize everything in a chart that provides suggested training loads for novice, intermediate and advanced trainers and you can place yourself at the level that works best for you.

 If you are a strong athlete with considerable background in strength training you may decide to go directly into max strength training.  However if you lack background in strength training or feel that you need to make considerable strength gains I would begin with a three-week cycle of hypertrophy training.  In fact what I usually do is train a hypertrophy cycle while still on the water towards the end of the Specific Base Development Phase.

 The goal of hypertrophy training is to increase muscle size by increasing cross sectional area of individual muscle fibers.  Stand up paddlers should not be huge with large bulky muscles.  Though I believe strength is extremely important for SUP paddlers, we don’t want to be big.  High strength relative to body weight is what we’re after.  We don’t want to be carrying extra weight on our boards and the reality is that large muscles require a lot of oxygen just to maintain them.  When we’re racing in an endurance event we don’t want to be diverting any blood to large, non-essential muscles from the essential ones we require most.  However if we are interested in improving and developing strength it is beneficial for most people to spend a little time doing hypertrophy training.  Increasing muscle fiber size by the small degree that will be accomplished in one or two 3 week cycles will allow you greater capacity to build maximum strength, power and power endurance in later cycles.  Think of this cycle as building a strong foundation upon which you can build a really awesome house.

In this hypertrophy phase I’d continue to do the general body building exercises you were doing in the last phase but I would slow the speed of contraction considerably to 2-3 seconds in the concentric (up) phase and 4-5 seconds in the eccentric (down) phase.  The idea is to maximize the time the muscle is under tension.  The weights you use will be lighter than what you used in the basic strength weights of the last cycle due to the slower speed of contraction and you’ll want to do 10-12 repetitions.  Your technique should be controlled (as you’d expect with the slow speed of contraction) and flawless.  Do 6 to 8 exercises per workout for 3 sets and be sure to touch upon pushing, pulling, core and leg muscles in each session.  These workouts will be long due to the time it takes to complete each set so don’t feel bad if you only complete 6 exercises.

Following this mesocycle of hypertrophy work, you should move into max strength training.  Your max strength training can involve anywhere from as many as 6 repetitions to as few as one.  If you’re older I’d probably stay on the high side and if you’re younger, with a greater capacity to respond to this stimulus and develop strength I wouldn’t hesitate to do sets of as few as 3 reps in your workouts.  I honestly don’t see the need to go lower for a SUP paddler.  At the age of 51, with an extensive training background, I never go below 6 reps except when testing.  Speed of contraction for max strength is moderate speed, but as you are often flirting with failure it isn’t unusual for reps to take 2-3 seconds to complete towards the end of a set.  For max strength I do mostly major pushing (bench press, dumbbell press, incline press, dips) and pulling exercises (bench pull, seated rowing, chin ups, lat pulldown), squats and deadlifts.  To maximize the hormonal response to your training you shouldn’t be lifting for more than 45 minutes to one hour so as few as 6 exercises is okay.  You’ll also want substantial recovery between sets so don’t rush from set to set.  I’d suggest starting a set every 2 to 4 minutes.  I frequently fill time between sets with a set of a core exercise, and sometimes will alternate sets of a pushing and pulling exercise on less rest to fit more work into a given chunk of time.  The important thing is to allow adequate recovery of the muscle groups being used between sets.

As core strength is of great value to SUP paddlers I try to do some type of core circuit once a week through this phase but do not attempt to make it max strength.  Instead I usually do 15 to 30 reps.  I usually do a three-week max strength cycle and would definitely test at the end of the cycle to measure strength gains.  If you don’t have a big training background and your test results don’t show much improvement I’d even consider doing another 3-week cycle.  Eventually you’ll start to see noticeable strength gains.

Once you’ve completed the max strength mesocycle you’ve got most of the foundational strength you need to begin training the real capabilities you need for SUP – max power and power endurance.  Power is defined as work performed against time so now we are concerned about speed of contraction.  This training develops the power needed to work dynamically with your paddle blade against the water, allowing you to accelerate your board through the stroke.  You’ll want to be performing lifts explosively at high velocity which is very demanding on your neuromuscular system, so you’ll need to be taking a lot of rest between sets.  In max power weights you’ll be using heavy weights that you can still move explosively for 8 – 10 reps.  You’ll want to be doing these in a controlled manner so pay attention to your technique, but the objective is to do the reps as fast as you can in the concentric (up) phase.  You should pause very briefly between each rep to minimize the affect of elastic recoil of your muscles and maximize the load on the muscles themselves.  You should also not be reaching failure as that generally involves some very slow reps at the end of the set.  Remember here we are interested in doing fast, explosive contractions.  Whereas in max strength we were trying to recruit the maximum number of available muscle fibers to the lift, in max power we are trying to get those fibers to contract as explosively as possible.  This explosive speed of contraction mirrors the explosive nature of the SUP stroke required to accelerate the board through the water with speed.

Let’s review where we’re at so far.  If you began with hypertrophy you’ve done 3 weeks of hypertrophy, 3 weeks of max strength and 3 weeks of max power.  If you started immediately with max strength then you’ve done 6 weeks of max strength and 3 weeks of max power.    I’d now do another 3-week cycle combining max power with strength endurance.  We’ll eventually want to convert our max power abilities to power endurance, which allows us to work dynamically against the water for the extended period of time a race takes.  Strength endurance is part of the foundation for power endurance.  In strength endurance I usually do my weights circuit style, moving from station to station rather than completing all the sets at one station before moving to the next.  I try to do at least 10 exercises and include pushing, pulling, core and legs for 3 to 5 rounds or complete circuits.  I take little to no rest between exercises, often taking only as long as it takes to move from one station to the next.  Repetitions in strength endurance are performed at a moderate and continuous speed with good form and you should be doing at least 20-30 reps per exercise.  Be sure to spread the training sessions out.  An example for a four-times/week trainer would be to do max power on Monday, strength endurance on Wednesday, max power on Friday and strength endurance again on Saturday.  If you’re only going to do weights 3x/week or less I’d probably simply alternate between max power and strength endurance from workout to workout.
 
If you’ve structured your program in a similar fashion to what’s outlined here by this point you’ve been training for 12 weeks.  If you aren’t back on the water yet you’ve got 2 to 3 more weeks in this phase to introduce power endurance.  If you’re back on the water you’ll need to be doing your power endurance in the next phase while you are on the water.  It is absolutely essential to address power endurance, as it is the most important strength related ability needed in SUP paddling and if you want to address it while you aren’t yet on the water you can, if necessary, move everything back 3 weeks or more so you are actually starting the strength component of the General Preparatory Phase while you are still on the water in the Specific Base Development Phase.  As I mentioned earlier this is what I do as I start my hypertrophy training towards the end of the Specific Base Development Phase.

Your power endurance cycle should consist of exercises performed explosively for 15 to 20 or more reps.  You need to do these exercises in a controlled yet very dynamic fashion.  Remember to develop power you need to be trying to perform each exercise at maximum velocity in the concentric phase of the lift.  You can do all of the exercises you did throughout some of the other cycles in this phase, but this is a great cycle to introduce some new exercises that are particularly effective at developing power endurance.  Try adding plyometric exercises to your workouts such as frog jumps, skate striding, squat jumps, etc.  Remember in plyometric exercises it isn’t just the explosive acceleration of the jumping which is important, but also the controlled deceleration of smooth, quiet landings.  I make plyometric exercises for my legs a big part of my routines for power endurance.  In this last cycle I do power endurance 2-3 times well spaced out each week.  Since endurance is the focus, rest isn’t as important here as it was in max power so you can cut your rest time down.  I often alternate between push and pull or leg and core sets with minimal rest in between.   One of my favorite workouts is to do 5 sets of 30 reps starting every minute, which is great for power endurance and lactic acid tolerance.  During power endurance workouts choose a weight that is as heavy as you can lift while still maintaining the targeted speed of contraction.

Power and power endurance training should be carried on throughout much of the next two macrocycles – the Specific Preparatory and Competitive phases, with max strength being revisited from time to time to ensure that it doesn’t erode as the volume of work on the water increases.  I’ll talk more about developing and maintaining strength while on the water in Parts 7 and 8 of the Training for SUP series.  For now it is enough to understand that dry-land strength and power training during the paddling season is important for SUP paddlers and that you’ll have to keep addressing it.

In summary, we’ve divided the macrocycle into 5 three-week mesocycles, each with a different strength focus.  Take a look at the chart that summarizes the suggested weekly training for novice, intermediate and advanced racers.

 
Aerobic Endurance Development
In the Specific Base Development Phase I suggested 30-minute runs 2 to 3 times/week.  This served to prepare the trainer for the increased volume and intensity of running work in the General Preparatory Phase.
 
In the first 3-week mesocycle I’d begin to increase the volume of the dry-land aerobic training.   I’d suggest upping the volume of work by increasing training time of each workout to 40 minutes, then 45 minutes, then 50 minutes, etc. from week to week.  Your ability to increase your workload will be determined largely by your training background.  For those that like to swim you can substitute swims for some of the runs and if you are an advanced trainer and elite racer you should probably be adding the swims to the runs rather than replacing them.  Although swimming uses upper body and SUP paddling is largely an upper body sport, I would not recommend replacing all of the runs with swims.  When swimming the water is supporting much of your body weight, which is not the case when you are on a SUP board.
 
Your aerobic training should be periodized as well.  In the first 3 week mesocycle I’d recommend a focus on level 1 endurance base work performed at steady state with heart rate between 140-160 beats/minute for an athlete in their 20s and decreasing by 5 to 10 beats/minute for every decade of age above that.  On a perceived exertion scale of 1-20 you should be training somewhere between 11-15.  In this cycle I’d be aiming at 40 to 50 minutes of work per session.  It could be 40 minutes steady or broken into intervals with short periods of active rest between sets.   An example might be a run workout of 4 x 10 minutes with 1 to 3 minutes of walking or easy jogging between sets.   Swimming workouts, if you choose to do them, should follow the same guidelines.

In the next mesocycle you should still be working on level 1 endurance base but adding volume.  Most SUP races last longer than an hour so you’ll want to increase the work time from mesocycle to mesocycle to more closely resemble the time of your races.  Again, steady state training or long intervals with active rest are in order.  Doing this type of training not only develops the efficiency of your heart and lungs at delivering oxygen to your working muscles but also leads to changes at the level of the individual muscle fibers that improve their ability to use oxygen and produce energy.  As a minimum novice racers should be doing this a couple of times per week, while advanced racers should be doing this type of training 4 to 5 times per week.  This is summarized in the chart summarizing aerobic training for novice, intermediate and advanced racers.  Remember, if you are doing 4 or more workouts/week try to vary your training between steady state and intervals of various lengths.

In this second mesocycle I’d also introduce higher intensity level 2 anaerobic threshold work once each week.  This is performed at a perceived exertion level of 15-17 on a 1-20 scale and a heart rate of 165 to 180 for an athlete in their 20s, decreasing by 5 to 10 beats/minute for each extra decade of age.   Basically this work is performed at the highest level you can perform at without developing lactic acid in your muscles.  You can do this in a steady workout if you wish or with intervals similar to those for level 1 endurance base.  Just be sure to carefully monitor your intensity to ensure you are working in the right range.  Rest between intervals should be active and you should be prepared to adjust your pace to keep within the prescribed training zone.
 
In the third three-week mesocycle you’ll want to start introducing other aspects of aerobic fitness required for high level performance in stand up paddling.  While continuing with your level 1 endurance base work you’ll want to introduce some aerobic power work.  This work is performed at a significantly higher intensity (17-19 on a 1-20 scale of perceived exertion).  Using heart rate as a guideline it should be max HR minus 10-20 beats/minute.  Think of how hard you’d work for a relatively short 10-minute race and this is the level you should be working at.  I’d do this once per week.  Shorter, more intense intervals with 2-3 minutes of active rest are excellent for developing aerobic power and you can do them on the road by time (for example 6 to 8 times 5 minutes) or on the track (1500m to 3000m intervals).  If you’re looking at doing this in the pool you can determine the nature of your intervals by considering the target time and the speed of your swimming. 

Level 1 endurance base work should still dominate your training and at least a couple of your workouts each week should consist of over one hour of work.  I’d also suggest adding one “recovery” workout each week that is performed at a very low level for a relatively short 20 minutes or so.  You can refer to the summary chart for a breakdown of each type of training.

In the fourth mesocycle you’ll want to increase the intensity of your aerobic power workout to what I’d call max aerobic power and do it once per week while still maintaining a focus on level 1 endurance base.  These max aerobic power workouts should be done in interval format at max HR minus 0-10 beats/minute and a perceived exertion of 19-20.  These intervals are very intense and your rest will need to be longer.  The best place to do this work is on the track and 800m to 1500m distances are excellent.  Record the time it takes for each piece you do and stop or adjust your intensity downward if/when you see a 5-10% decrease in performance.  Be sure to take enough rest, allowing your HR to go below 100 beats/minute before starting another piece.  Rest should be active which on the track means you’re walking around the track at the end of each piece.  Don’t overdo this type of training.  The maximum amount of work in the target range that you’ll need to do in a training session is 9 to 12 minutes.
 
In the fifth and last mesocycle I would suggest continuing to maintain your focus on level 1 endurance base work while adding one workout per week that focuses on anaerobic fitness.  In this type of training you will be working at maximal heart rate and perceived exertion.  Track or pool intervals of approximately one-minute duration are excellent for this type of work if they are performed at a very high level.  One of my favorite workouts is repeats of 400m on the track.  Record your time for each piece and monitor your ability to maintain your target speed range.  When your speed begins to drop significantly (5-10%), I’d do one more piece and then stop the workout.  Rest between intervals should be active but very low intensity.  This type of work helps you develop your anaerobic capacity and ability to both tolerate and remove lactic acid from your muscles, which is something that is useful in SUP races and allows you to sprint when necessary without paying too high a price which affects the rest of your race.

You’ll notice that most of the work throughout this phase is done on level 1 endurance base training or at high intensity.   There is very little work done at mid range intensity.  Interestingly, in sprint canoe and most other sports of similar duration (with similar energy system profiles) studies have shown that polarized training programs working at base level and high level zones produce better results than those with the majority of the work in the mid range anaerobic threshold zones.  Unless you are training specifically for 200m racing on your SUP you really can’t go wrong with a focus on endurance base for most of your aerobic training.

 

Putting it all Together

In any training program balance is the key.  When you build your own training program in the General Preparatory Phase be sure to space out your workouts.  Don’t do all your strength workouts on consecutive days and then your cardiovascular workouts.  Alternate strength and cardio and make sure that you are spacing out the most difficult, highest volume workouts or workouts with similar objectives to allow a degree of recovery before the next workout of that type.  Beyond that here are some other things to remember:

	•Remember the basic principles of periodization. Build volume and intensity from week   to week within each mesocycle and from mesocycle to mesocycle.
	•Remember to cut workload in the last half week of each mesocycle to consolidate gains   and regenerate in preparation for increased volume and/or load in the next mesocycle.
	•If you’re training 2x/day take one day/week off and a half-day off midweek.
	•Stretch! Flexibility is important, especially when you’re doing high volume and high   intensity work. You may not need to do separate, dedicated flexibility sessions, but you   should be doing flexibility at the end of every session and stretching the muscles   you’ve used before they get cold.
	•Nutrition is important and supplementation may be necessary. I’d recommend some   type of electrolyte replacement after aerobic work and protein supplementation after   strength work. Beyond that I’d encourage you to eat a balanced diet of quality food   from each food group. They don’t put low octane gas in Formula 1 cars. If you want to   be a high performance machine you should only be putting the best fuel into your body.
	•Accept the fact that the dry-land training you’re doing in this phase may negatively   impact the paddles you do in this phase. Don’t expect to feel great in an afternoon   paddle after you ran 90 minutes in the morning or did a hard power endurance workout.   Remember that what you’re doing on land now will make you faster on the water   tomorrow.
	•Watch closely for signs of injury and address them as soon as possible by consulting a   professional. Don’t expect an injury to go away on it’s own and missing training time is   not a desirable option. Working with a professional can minimize the impact an injury   has on your training and maximize the speed at which you recover.
	•Remember that everything I’ve suggested here should be considered a guideline.   Training programs need to be personalized to your own strengths, weaknesses, needs   and lifestyle. Hopefully this gives you a good place to start from when developing your   own program.
	•Test at the end of each mesocycle to monitor your progress. Your test protocol should   be standard and repeatable so that you are able to as accurately as possible assess   developments in your fitness.

As always HAVE FUN in your training and stay tuned for a look at the Specific Preparatory and Competitive Phases.

Board width, stability and training your balance

There’s been a lot of discussion in the last year or so about board width. Everyone is going to narrower boards and SUPPA has pushed for board width restrictions. In this post I’d like to stay away from the discussion of board specifications and instead focus on the impact board width is going to have on the average SUP racer. While a guy like Kai Lenny can stand on a narrow board and get the most out of it I believe there are real benefits for most of us in choosing stability before a really skinny board.

The last few SUP races I’ve done have been a lot of fun with lots of good sized waves and some pretty challenging and very technical sections. I’ve come to the beach in each race with a smile on my face because of how much fun it’s been trying to make the most out of whatever the water conditions are offering. To me this is the big thing that makes SUP so much fun. If it’s flat it seems to me like it’s just another running race only on the water. I’ve been doing that type of flat water paddling most of my life, and while there are tactics involved like drafting, it’s still really just a grind when you’re doing a longer race. However when conditions get big enough to make drafting difficult and the water texture starts to provide things that you can use to your advantage suddenly SUP racing is a lot more fun. The key is not only being able to recognize what the water is offering, but knowing how to maneuver your board to use it properly. You’ve got to have a certain level of comfort on your board to do that, and that kind of comfort usually comes as a result of stability. It’s hard to have the comfort necessary to make the board do what you want if you find it a challenge to just stay on it.

In the last couple of years the top racers in the world have moved to progressively narrower boards, and as they’ve done that lots of other racers have followed. Board manufacturers are marketing narrower boards to the average SUP racer and the average SUP racers are buying them. The average racer feels like they need a narrower board or they are giving away an advantage to their competition. The irony is that in many instances they actually give their competition the advantage when they switch to the narrower board! Unfortunately it seems to me that many people are buying boards on which they are so unstable they can’t paddle properly or get them to do what they want. As a result of this their performances are suffering and they are missing all the fun of paddling SUP in waves.

If we’re going to talk about board width and stability we’d first better recognize that just because a board is narrow doesn’t mean it’s unstable. It’s possible to build a narrower board that is surprisingly stable. It also doesn’t mean that it is fast. There are lots of slightly wider boards out there that are faster than some of the narrow ones. The take away point here is to choose your board carefully before you buy it, and the best way to do that is to test drive it, preferably with a GPS so you can get some objective feedback. See how fast it is, how stable it is and get a sense of how well you can control it. Don’t expect it to feel as good under you as the board you’ve been using, but you should have a degree of comfort on it from the first time you step on it. Don’t expect to get used to a board that feels incredibly tippy and unstable the first time you try it, especially if you are middle aged. You’ll also need to consider your weight when you are looking at board width as well, as some narrower boards just aren’t going to have the volume a heavier paddler needs.

If possible I’d also suggest that you test drive the board you’re looking at buying in a variety of conditions – flats, upwind, downwind, in ocean swell and side chop. If you do races in the ocean or on the Great Lakes you’ll want a board that feels stable under you in waves representative of those you’ll likely be racing in. Since such extensive testing may not be practical before purchasing, it’s my opinion that if you aren’t a professional racer you are probably better off erring on the side of stability and playing it safe by staying away from the super narrow board, opting instead for a more sensible, slightly wider one.

When I raced at Key West this past May the conditions were pretty tough. There was a strong onshore wind on the ocean side that was kicking up side chop that was 2 to 3 feet high at the start. By the time we’d circled the island and come back out into the ocean the waves had grown to over 3 feet directly from the left side and this was compounded by bounce backs off the seawall near the Key West airport. I was fortunate to have borrowed Mike Metzger’s 29-inch Bark Custom for the race, which is a very stable board and wider than my own. I enjoyed every stroke of the race and had a ton of fun in all of the constantly changing conditions we faced around the island. In large part this was because I had the right equipment. The stable 29-inch board was absolutely the right choice for those types of conditions. When I hit the beach at the finish I was able to watch the other racers come in. It seems to me that most weren’t having as much fun. People, including many very good racers, were struggling, falling off their boards and many were clearly frustrated. I looked at the boards they were using and wasn’t surprised. Most of them had boards that I believe were clearly too unstable for them in those conditions. What’s the point of having a fast, narrow board if you can’t paddle effectively on it or even stand on it for any length of time? Not only does it negatively affect your performance, it takes the fun out of it.

If you are a recreational elite racer (in other words you race the elite but you don’t have either the skills or the training background of the pro elite racers) then I honestly believe you should choose your board carefully and err on the side of stability. Unless you have the budget and storage space for multiple boards, choose one that you’ll be able to stand on and paddle effectively in most typical ocean racing conditions. Remember that lots of races, like the Carolina Cup and Key West, have both flats and ocean sections. Personally I’d much rather lug around an extra couple of inches of board width in the flats in order to be stable and able to paddle really effectively in the ocean.

If you’ve got multiple boards in your quiver then use the less stable one in the flats and train with it in the ocean as well to try to improve your balance and master that board, but don’t leave your stable one in the garage all the time. I’d want to train on it in the ocean at least half the time so I could do some really top quality ocean paddling in training and not just be doing “trying to stay on the board paddling” (which really isn’t paddling at all).

The last consideration is that if you like to sell your older boards whenever you buy a new one, you are going to have a more difficult time selling the narrow, unstable one than one that is more stable and more people could paddle comfortably.

Training your Balance

So if you feel tippy in wavy conditions does that mean that I think you should forever be on a wide, stable board? Of course not!

It’s possible to improve your balance and ability to control your board effectively in challenging conditions. You can graduate to a narrower, less stable board. The process takes time and practice on your board in those conditions but doing some dry-land work that aids in balance can enhance it. If you’re a younger racer your capacity to adapt your balance is going to be pretty good. If you are middle aged you’re going to have to work even harder at it as your balance starts to deteriorate with age. In this case I definitely think you’d benefit from doing some dry-land work.

One of the things that we can do on land to enhance our on water stability is work that enhances the proprioception and neural control in the muscles we engage on our boards, particularly in our feet, legs and core. Proprioceptors are specialized sensory receptors found in muscles, joints and connective tissue that are sensitive to things like stretch, tension and pressure. They rapidly gather and relay information about our body position, forces it’s being subjected to, muscle dynamics and limb movements. Proprioceptors in our feet and lower legs, for example, gather and relay information to our brain about how the board is moving under our feet. Our brain can then process the information, dictate an appropriate response and send it back to our muscles via motor neurons so that we can make the adjustments necessary to maintain balance. This happens extremely quickly to the point where, for everyday activities, it seems almost instantaneous. We don’t have to think about how to catch our balance when we slip on a wet floor in our sandals, we just react. Paddling on a board, however, is a much less familiar activity for most people and the proprioception required to detect changes in balance on a board and react to them is much less developed. That’s why people feel clumsy when they first get on a board, even in flat water. In time we develop heightened proprioception in a paddling specific way and balancing on our board becomes more natural.

Obviously this process of developing proprioception for the specific movements of paddling occurs while we are on the board. But what about those that can’t paddle as often as they’d like to, or people from northern climates like me who can’t paddle for weeks at a time in the winter? Is it possible to do things that enhance sensitivity of the proprioceptors in paddling muscles on land as well?

I believe it is. In fact I have tried to incorporate as much training geared at heightening sensitivity of these proprioceptors and neural control of those muscles as possible in my dry-land work. I’ve found that each year I am more comfortable in the ocean at the Carolina Cup than I was at the end of the previous summer, and this is with very limited big water paddling in between. I believe this is a result of non-specific (i.e. not on my board) work that I do for balance on land in the winter, which quickly converts to the specific movement of paddling when I get back on my board in the spring.

I’ll get into a variety of specific exercises in a future post with video and full explanations, but in general here are the types of things you can do on land which increase your ability to balance and control the board underneath you on the water:

Plyometric Training: Plyometric training consists of explosive ballistic leaping, jumping and bounding exercises (for legs) and explosive training with things like medicine balls for the upper body. Not only is this great training for power and power endurance, which are the main types of strength SUP paddlers need, but if you do these exercises properly they present a fantastic opportunity to enhance proprioception and neural control of muscles in your feet and lower legs. When doing these exercises properly it is extremely important to try to land as quietly and softly as possible. The deceleration and cushioning required to land softly and quietly helps build strength by increasing neural recruitment and control of muscles. This has important benefits to balance as well. Not only do you heighten your proprioception by trying to “feel” the floor through your shoes when you land quietly, but the neural control of muscles required to decelerate smoothly means that the muscles of your legs and feet will be more finely tuned to effectively execute any adjustments you need them to make to maintain balance when you get back on the board. You’re not only increasing your body’s ability to detect changes in balance but to respond to them as well.

Do some of your standing exercises on one foot: When I’m doing things like upright rowing, lateral raises, biceps curls, etc. I try to do them standing on one foot and maintain perfect balance. I find this enhances core stability to an extent, but the real benefit for balance for a SUP paddler comes from what happens in your foot, ankle and lower leg from the perspective of enhancing proprioception and motor response. If I’m doing 4 sets of an exercise I’ll do 2 sets on each foot.

Use stability training equipment:  Things like Indo boards are useful but you don’t need to spend a hundred dollars buying equipment like that when any gym has lots of equipment you can use.  I’ll do standing exercises, squats, split squats, etc. on BOSUs (either upright or inverted), wobble boards, and circular balance pads.  Again, exercises on these require greater proprioception and neural control of muscles in your feet and lower legs than if you did them on the floor, and these heightened demands increase sensitivity to changes in balance that are transferrable to the board.  I even like to stand on medicine balls (one under each foot) or a stability ball (both feet) to do squats.  As a rule I never use additional weight on a stability ball as I’ve seen them burst and that can lead to serious injury.

Get creative:  One of my favorite balance training activities (and probably the most useful) is one I borrowed from Chris Hill and then enhanced.  I remember a few years ago he suggested I get an 8 foot 2x4, lay it down on the ground and then cross step up and down it to practice balance and footwork.  I tried it and found it particularly useful, probably more for the agility required to cross step than for balance.  To enhance that I added a circular stability pad under each end of the 2x4 and then tried cross stepping back and forth along the board.  It’s much more difficult and requires me to activate muscles in my upper body and core in addition to my feet and lower legs to maintain balance.  Again, it is a combination of both proprioception and neural control of muscles that you are training when you do this, as well as the coordination of your footwork.  I have found this activity incredibly valuable and usually do 3 sets of 20 to 30 cycles up and down the board starting in both regular and goofy stance (6 sets total) at the end of every gym session.   Over the course of a training cycle you’ll find your ability to do this quickly and still under control increases dramatically.   I’m certain there are other exercises or activities that you can come up with which provide the same training effect.  Use your imagination and have fun!

I cannot emphasize enough how much I think I have gained from training balance on land. I’m 51 years old and my balance should be declining; yet I feel it is better now than it has ever been since I started paddling SUP. Each spring I’ve been amazed to find I have better balance on the board than I did the previous fall. If you are a middle aged SUP paddler struggling with your balance I fully believe you can improve your balance dramatically, but you’ll have to do more work on it than you can do just on the board. Actively train your proprioception and the neural control of muscles, particularly in your feet and lower legs and I think you’ll see a huge improvement in your capacity to balance your board. If you’re from a cold climate like I am and your paddling season is limited you’ll want to incorporate lots of this type of work into your winter training.

Stand up paddling is a ton of fun if you can feel comfortable enough on your board to enjoy it. By combining a sensible choice of board with some easy and fun balance training anybody can find that comfort and have fun in rough water.

A New Adventure

So it’s official. I won’t be going back to school this September.

Way back last November I went to lunch with my friends Adam van Koeverden, Mark Oldershaw and their coach and my former National Team teammate, Scott Oldershaw. We chatted and caught up a little as we hadn’t really seen each other much since August and then Adam asked me a question that left me speechless. They wanted to know if I’d take a leave from my teaching job and help them, full-time, prepare for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. If you’re from the sprint canoe/kayak world and reading this I don’t need to explain how flattered and honored I was. Adam and Mark need no introduction. Adam is a 4-time Olympic medalist in K1 (gold and bronze in Athens in 2004, silver in Beijing in 2008 and silver in London in 2012). Mark is a bronze medalist in C1 in London in 2012. That these guys thought my involvement in their day-to-day training could help them perform better in 2016 sort of blew my mind. I mean they both clearly already know what they’re doing and Scott is an excellent coach who has already led them to the podium. I said as much to them and Adam explained it to me as he saw it and as they had discussed it.

  Adam van Koeverden

  Mark Oldershaw

In all likelihood, Rio will be their last Olympics. Adam is 31 and Mark is 30. They’ve both been on the podium before and if they’re going back they both want to do everything they can to win. The top guys that they are racing have surrounded themselves with the best support teams they can put together – coaches, massage and physiotherapists, sports medicine doctors, nutritionists, sport psychologists, sport scientists. They’ve left no stone unturned in trying to create the optimal training environment. While the National Team provides access to much of that for its athletes, the one thing it hasn’t been able to do for Mark and Adam is provide them each with their own coach. With Adam paddling kayak and Mark canoe they can’t effectively train together on the water so Scott has had to divide his time between them. Sometimes they are training in different locations and obviously Scott can’t be in two places at once. And with Scott a “podium coach” in charge of the 1000m programs for the National Team he has responsibilities to athletes beyond Adam and Mark. Adam, Mark and Scott all thought that having someone available all the time for coaching support was an important step in creating an optimal training environment. Beyond that this coach had to be someone they respected, trusted and whose opinion they valued. It needed to be someone who could provide a fresh set of eyes and ideas while respecting and not upsetting the already extremely effective team they had become. They all thought that I was the guy they needed.

I left the lunch on a high, excited about the possibility of working with them and feeling pretty good that three guys I respect so much thought that I could add value to what they were doing. However I honestly didn’t expect it to pan out. I already had a job that I liked and was reluctant to give up. Furthermore the fact that I had a mortgage and other bills to pay meant that I couldn’t take a full-time coaching job at lower pay no matter how much fun and fulfilling it would be. I was also concerned about how it would impact my own paddling. I’d become hooked on SUP, was racing pretty well and getting a lot of requests to do clinics and SUP coaching, which I was really enjoying.

I took some time to think it over and decided to just wait and see if the guys could pull the funding together to make a really cool idea actually become a reality. It took quite a while but eventually by late February it looked like it might all come together. Both CanoeKayak Canada (CKC) and Own the Podium, the major funder of Canadian high performance sport, were on board in principle. I spoke at length on the phone with Scott Logan, the High Performance Director for CKC, and liked what I heard. Through these conversations I think Scott grew more comfortable with the idea and how my involvement would affect not only Adam and Mark but also the environment around the entire National Team. In March I flew to Florida for a week to attend the National Team training camp, touch base with the guys and Scott on the water and meet with Scott Logan and the CEO of CKC, Casey Wade, on land. Everything felt right and this cool opportunity was one step closer.

By late April I’d seen a draft contract and by the end of the school year signed the contract and began working on the water everyday with the guys. It’s been amazing so far. I’ve known Scott for more than 35 years, we were teammates together on the National Team, and he is a ton of fun for me to coach with. He is also one of the smartest guys I know and his record of coaching success speaks for itself. The exchange of ideas and observations while coaching with him on the water is incredible. I’m quite comfortable with being the junior coach in this arrangement and assisting Scott in any way I can not only with Mark and Adam but with the many other outstanding National Team athletes training out of the Burloak Canoe Club.

The initial goal is to help Mark and Adam perform their best at the World Championships in Moscow in early August. From there we’ll sit down as a team, assess where we’re at and plot out a plan leading towards the 2015 Worlds and on to Rio. Both Mark and Adam are currently paddling well and both turned in extremely high level performances at the National Team Selection Trials in Montreal at the end of June. Both were unpushed in their races so their performances there were all the more impressive. I’ll be honest and say that I’m not sure that I’ve made much of a contribution yet as the guys were already so far along in their preparation for this year when I joined them, however I’m there everyday offering everything I can. I’m excited to head to Europe with them for the pre-worlds camp in Lithuania and then on to Moscow. I last raced in Moscow in 1991 so it will be cool to see the course again. Moreover it will be a real privilege to be a member of the Canadian Team again after so many years and a cool experience to be there as a coach. It is something I haven’t yet done at this level. I take very seriously the opportunity to contribute what I can to a positive team environment for the entire Canadian Team.

For all my friends in SUP who might be wondering whether they’ll see me as much now that I’ve taken on this new role, the answer is that I am hoping you’ll actually see me more. I have no intention of giving up SUP or stopping racing or doing clinics. In fact I am hoping this new job will actually provide me with more time and flexibility to take some of the SUP stuff I’ve gotten involved with to the next level. For instance if you’ve followed my blog you’ll note that I’ve managed to get a lot of stuff up during the summer months, but always seemed to disappear once the school year started and I started working from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm or later everyday. I’ve got a lot more time on my hands to blog now and, being a lot more immersed in paddling now, am going to have a lot more inspiration and ideas for cool stuff to blog about. I’m going to have a lot more flexibility to do races and clinics for most of the year, although there will be times during Adam and Mark’s competitive season when I can’t do either. As for my own paddling, I am going to have way more time on my hands to train and opportunities to paddle much more throughout the year in warm climates, as the guys will be training in November and February/March in, most likely, Newport Beach and Florida.

Stay tuned for much more frequent blog posts in the coming months. I’ve got lots coming for SUP from the perspective of both training and technique and I’ll be posting as well about Adam and Mark’s training and racing. Don’t expect anything too detailed, as I don’t want to give away everything we’re doing to the competition, but I’ll certainly try to take everyone along on the ride with me so you can all follow the guys on to Rio!