In the world of elite athletics, the double session is a staple. It is a gruelling yet effective way to condense high volume training and accelerate skill acquisition. As I move through my APC journey I recently applied this same rigor to the sea.
Today was a perfect example of how we can use contrasting environments to drive technical growth. We spent the morning in the ‘Complex’ dynamic water of Rhoscolyn tide race and the evening in the controlled ‘Complex’ stillness of the pool. When driving performance my experience in climbing has taught me a few things:
1. Your body adapts aggressively if fuelled and given the right levels of recovery to recruit the muscle fibre
2. Training Strength or Power (dynamic strength) when fatigued can be more injurious and unproductive (unless controlled intentionally- perhaps through a ‘Dual Factor’ training regime
3. Psychology is 80% of the challenge
4. Don't get injured
5. Don’t get injured!
So when driving increased performance in the context of elite level environments, the goal is weirdly to rinse as much increased productive performance gains in the shortest of time. This facilitates more time for more progression!
However without a cyclical program that allows for both physical and mental burnout, then there is a clear danger of long term performance reduction. Double sessions in Sea Kayaking at a recreational level or even non competitive advanced level could be digested by most if the specific skill acquisition is serviced by attaining muscle memory or deconstruction and reconstruction of a specific skill like rolling perhaps.
The body and mind simply responds to change through adaption and well constructed double sessions can accelerate the performance curve substantially.
Our morning session focused on paddling skills and risk management in complex dynamic water in gully's managing surges and frothy, bumpy water. Conversely my pool session hardly involved a paddle and focussed on my asymmetric issue that I've isolated effecting my offside hipflick using a float supported balance brace. So both my physical and psychological loading were very different between the two sessions and complimentary for performance growth.
