What is quality training?
By Andy Newell
Over the first 4 weeks of the training year we have talked a lot about training adaptation. Our ultimate goal as athletes and coaches is to elicit the best training response from our activity. This is what we refer to as training adaptation. To review the basics check out the Process of Adaptation To Training entry.
Why is it that two athletes can be on the same training plan during the off season, yet they each show very different training responses? Why do some athletes get more out of training sessions than others?
We know our bodies absorb training better when we are well rested and fuel well before and after the workout. Additional life stresses from work, school, relationships, etc. can also affect the way athletes absorb training. These variables are felt by athletes at all levels of sport, from youth skiers to Olympic level athletes.
As athletes develop the ability to control training intensities and build the fitness and strength needed to improve their ski technique, all of a sudden we are faced with new ways for skiers to make better training adaptations. For elite level athletes training intent and quality training can make a world of difference.
In the last year the concept of quality training has become a buzz-worthy topic among coaches and sports physiologist. So much so, that a group of leading physiologists published a paper trying to identify and quantify quality training.
A lot of the principles behind quality training might feel like common sense to most of us, but it doesn't make them less crucial. In the paper quality training is defined as:
- The quality of the holistic training process (including goal setting, gap analysis, application of training principles and methods) expresses the degree to which the training process facilitates long-term development of sport-specific requirements and the desired performance level.
- The quality of the specific training session expresses the ability to optimize processes influencing the execution of training in relation to the intended purpose of the specific session.
While this paper was published by physiologists who often focus on cross-country skiing, the findings were not that sport specific. Historically we use the words 'quality training' a lot here at NTS and aim to continue to further define what this means.
Ideas for higher quality training sessions for skiers:
- Have training intent. What are you working on technically in your skiing. Pick 1-2 things to focus on during the session. If you work closely with a coach on a daily or weekly basis, try to communicate these technique goals.
- Have intensity training intent. Know what intensity you are trying to target. Especially during interval days but also during long easy distance sessions.
- Manage daily and weekly training loads based on subjective feelings. Or simply put, if you feel bad stop, if you feel good consider doing more. A lot of positive training adaptation can be linked to daily adjustments and communicating these adjustments between athlete and coach.
- Slowly increase specificity. We all know cross-training is important for development, especially for younger athletes. As athletes gain fitness and strength we want to transfer these gains to ski specific speed through quality training. This means building up ski-specific base training (easy distance) and slowly increasing the amount of quality rollerski and snow-skiing hours an athlete does in a year. Remember that training MORE and HARDER does not necessarily translate into high quality training unless we prioritize the principles outlined in the image above.