[PSS #3] A Secret Weapon For Your Training

You might have heard that proper training is critical for a rower to get fast. A few rowers have stepped up their training and have a secret weapon they use.

The year was 1812 and Napoleon was having his way with Europe. Basically all of it was under his control. Then in April he turned his attention, and armies, towards Russia. As he invaded, the Russian general in charge played a game much different than Napoleon’s.

As the French marched forward the Russians retreated. The Russians destroyed their crops, livestock, and homes as Napoleon advanced because they knew that an integral part of Napoleon’s successes had been having his troops live off the land. As Napoleon prepared to take Moscow the Russians evacuated the city, burned it, and then let him have the city.

The Russians seemingly had just let Napoleon and his troops walk into their country—and then the tide turned. The Winter arrived and the French found, as did Hitler many years later, that the Russian winter is a deadly and unforgiving foe, as are the Russians. Napoleon was forced to retreat and his army was destroyed.

Ellen Langer uses this story in her book Mindfulness to bring home a very specific point—very often, and often in critical times, we act mindless.

Mindfulness and Your Training

According to Langer mindlessness is a human tendency to operate on autopilot, whether by stereotyping; performing mechanically, by rote; or by simply not paying attention. And unfortuantely for Napoleon this is what he did. Being comfortable in easy wins in a different type of war he failed to be mindful about the Russian’s scorched-earth strategy. And he and his army paid dearly.

In competitive sports, especially rowing, many athletes and coaches do the exact same thing with their training—they act mindless.

Granted, today it is often difficult to be anything but mindless in our training. Life is coming at us at 173 miles per hour. It is constantly streamed, beamed, and blasted at us. It is hard to find a moment to stop and think. On top of that many of us do not have any background in exercise physiology or biomechanics. And when we turn to the web, books, and experts for help we find a wealth of information that is either unhelpful, bad, or just plain harmful.

However to be fast you need to be very mindful about your training program. It can be your secret weapon.

Why Be Mindful

Langer defines being mindful as:

[Having a] heightened sense of situational awareness and a conscious control over ones thoughts and behavior relative to the situation. It is not just about paying attention. It is making a conscious effort to be “in the moment” and to not ignore the environment.

I believe strongly that every coach, rower/coxswain can greatly benefit from a training program that is mindful and especially follows those last two points: being in the moment and not ignoring the environment. [Here the term environment is meant to mean the physical and mental surroundings of the athlete and not the common term an area in which something lives.]

Why? Well one obvious reason is decision making. Whether constructing a program for yourself, or a team, or getting ready to participate in an ongoing program there are decisions to be made, such as:

• do I have the time for this
• can I physically and mentally handle this program
• does this training fit in with my vision

Mindless training ignores these important decisions. Mindful training does not.

Another reason to be mindful is too often we follow what others are doing, or what we have done in the past, because, well, because that is the way it is done.

You probably have heard the urban legend of the woman who would cut the end off of the pot roast every time she cooked one. She would put it in the pan and trim off the end. Her daughter asked her why? She had no idea so she asked her mother who had taught her to do it. Her mother did not know why so she asked her mother, who had taught her. The grandmother explained that she cut the end off because the only pan she had when young was too small for the roast, so she cut off the end so it would fit.

The grandmother was being mindful, but her daughter and granddaughter were not.

So What Training Program Do I Use

It is past the scope of this blog to suggest what specific training plan you should use, however, I would like to make a few suggestions about things that can make your training more mindful.

Recommendation #1: The training program, the intensity, and the workload should be geared specifically to you, or to your team. That means consider your fierce vision (step 1) and your rock-star athletes (step 2) and gear the training and program to them.

It would be crazy for a 54 year old who has been rowing for one year, or a junior with 2 years of rowing experience to use the same training program that the US National team uses to prepare for international races. Crazy yes, but it happens quite often.

Recommendation #2: Make sure the program is not based just on what coaches have done before, but instead is based on current research, advances in technology, and best practices.

For example, in her book, Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life, swimmer Dara Torres details how she mindfully adapted her training and program to her age, abilities, restrictions, and environment. Swim coach Terry Laughlin, in his book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier talks about new and quite mindful methods to train swimmers.

Recommendation #3: Get help when building a plan, good help. Unless you have a background in physiology, physical eduction, or biomechanics putting together a sound plan can be daunting. Like building a business from the ground up, some folks will find success doing it on their own but the success-rate greatly increases with good help. This is a case where standing on the shoulders of giants can pay off handsomely.

Take Action Now

If you are in the midst of designing a program, or participating in an established one, find time to be mindful about exactly what you are doing. If you make changes, or realize that your plan and training are right on track, then it will be time well spent.

Coming up next is Step 4.

Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

• Post 1: A Hunt For Speed
• Post 2:  A Cheater’s Guide To Making A Boat Go Fast
• Post 3: Coxswain’s Head Explodes. Too Much Speed The Cause
• Post 4: Step 1 of Your Personal Speed System: Fierce Mindset
• Post 5: Step 2 of Your Personal Speed System: Rock-star Athlete(s)
• Rowing Slow: The Secret For Going Fast And Getting What You Really Want From Rowing