Swimming. (Photo: Inigo Mujika)
A few months ago I wrote an article for issue number 5 of the triathlon magazine Trisense. Here you can read the first part, which represents an introduction about the need to look for alternatives to the traditional models of training program design:
Read and comment Block periodization and polarized training: a new challenge for coaches (I)
World record holder Rafa Munoz, training in South Africa. (Photo: Inigo Mujika)
2012. Olympic Year. Like every four years the dreams of millions of athletes from all over the world will come true or vanish in less than 200 days. I have my own Olympic dreams and aspirations too: that the athletes I work with make it to the Olympic Games, and that they perform at their best once they get there.
I have started this Olympic year at a training camp with the Spanish swimmers in South Africa. It has been a very intense camp, both in terms of training and also emotionally. During one of the team-building activities in the program, I have shared with the group that for years I have had a passion for films and travelling. This is nothing new for those of you who know me personally, but it may come as a bit of a surprise for those who thought that sport is my only passion. In reality, and no matter how different these three passions of mine may seem, there are common aspects to the three of them. Like most travelers I usually get on the way to reach a destination, but I have learnt over the years to also enjoy the journey. As a spectator, I like to see the end of a film, but watching and enjoying the whole story is necessary to understand and appreciate the end of it.
Feast. (Photo: user Sillydog in Flickr)
Christmas time is here, and for those of us living in the wealthier parts of the world, these days are characterised by a lot of eating, most often way too much eating. Here is what can be read about that in Hitchcock & Hitchcock’ 1860 book Elementary Anatomy and Physiology for Colleges, Academies and Other Schools.
“334. Danger of eating too much.-2. We see that there is a great danger of eating too much. Large quantities of food distend the coats of the stomach, and give too much labor for them to perform. As a natural consequence the gastric glands are weakened from excessive action, and then indigestión or some other diseased action is sure to follow. And in how much better health would multitudes in the higher clases of society be kept, if some of the numerous dishes they use were omitted! And in this country the remark applies to nearly all classes.”
"Elementary Anatomy and Physiology", by Hitchcock & Hitchcock (Photo: Iñigo Mujika).
A few years ago my dear friend Heather from Hemet, California was working at an antique bookshop. When the shop closed down, the owner told her she could grab some books in compensation for the salary he owed her. Heather found an 1860 textbook on anatomy and physiology and sent it to me as a gift, thinking that I could be interested in comparing what was known back then with today’s knowledge. What a wonderful present you sent me, Heather!
Recently, I grabbed the book again and found some extremely interesting material that I would like to share with you. There is plenty of good material in the book, and I intend to reproduce it in several posts. Some of the contents I agree with, some I don’t, but the latter are interesting nonetheless.
Inigo Mujika, carrying out a performance test. (Photo: Inigo Mujika)
You have mostly worked with endurance athletes. What basic differences do you find with respect to working with speed or strength athletes?
It is true that I have worked with triathletes, cyclists, runners, rowers and other endurance athletes, but I have also worked a lot with footballers, water polo players, and even tennis players and motocross riders, all intermittent type of activities requiring a specific preparation very different to that of endurance athletes. It is also true that I have never worked directly with sprinters, so I am not in a position to evaluate the differences in working with them. In any case, not all endurance athletes are equal, nor are all sprinters or team sport athletes. I think the particular characteristics of each athlete are much more determinant than those of the sport itself when establishing the way to work with them.
With Hektor Llanos at Zarautz Triathlon 2011. (Photo: Amaia Casado)
Ten years ago now Hektor Llanos gave me the opportunity to enter the world of triathlon through the front door by becoming his coach, nothing less, at a time when I barely knew that the sport consisted on swimming, cycling and then running. “It doesn’t matter” he said, “I trust you”. His brother Eneko also decided to place the same confidence in me. After I dedicated a couple of months to study the available scientific literature on various aspects of triathlon, to evaluate their competition results, their qualities and limitations, and to watch videos of both Olympic distance and Ironman races, we started working together in January 2002. Two years later Ainhoa came onboard, and in 2005 Virginia, but Hektor was the one who opened the doors of triathlon wide for me.
Joseba Beloki, in the Col de Peyresourde (Photo: French Saint. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons)
It was hard for you to get to the elite level. You had to overcome a lot of adversities. Does having to overcome problems at a young age help shaping the character to be a great champion?
I don’t consider myself a great champion, just someone who was fortunate to reach the elite of the sport he loves. It is true that it was difficult for me to get there and my career was full of adversities, but overcoming all that helped me become a much stronger person and to value what I achieved even more.
Did you ever go to the Tour believing that you could beat Lance Armstrong or did you always think that for that to happen you had to be at your best and he had to fail?
I have no doubt that both Armstrong and Ullrich were better cyclists than I was physiologically speaking, so I always worked very hard to get as close as possible to them and reach the key stages in better shape. After the surprise of the year 2000 my confidence grew and I planned the Tour better and better each year, until I reached my best form in 2003, but luck also counts and it was not in my side that year.
Patagonia (Photo: Inigo Mujika)
How do elite athletes become elite athletes? Are they born with the necessary qualities to get to the top? What is the path they follow? Here is an editorial on this topic that I published a while ago in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance:
The sport science literature dealing with the issue of developing athletes to achieve elite performance has been dominated by the classical dichotomy between an athlete’s genetic endowment (ie, nature) and environmental influences (ie, nurture). In this context, research has clearly established that various physiological characteristics associated with success in specific sports and athletic events have a strong genetic influence. Moreover, it has also been shown that the response to a given training program is, to a large extent, genetically determined.
In view of such evidence, it is naïve to assume a tabula rasa, or blank slate, thesis in the context of developing athletic expertise. Nonetheless, it is well established that environmental factors play a major role in the development of the elite athlete. For instance, a recent grounded theory of psychosocial competencies and environmental conditions associated with success in adolescent football indicates that discipline, resilience, commitment, and social support are necessary to succeed in a highly competitive sport such as professional football. Some geneticists argue, of course, that these psychological characteristics also have a genetic basis. However, the most important of all environmental factors associated with athletic expertise is undoubtedly training and practice. In this respect, two considerably disparate approaches to talent development are favored by different groups of researchers: the deliberate practice framework, characterized by early specialization and repeated and extended exposure to the task domain to develop the skills necessary for successful performance, and the developmental model of sport participation, which supports the notion that early diversification in sport participation and large amounts of deliberate play (as opposed to deliberate practice) are good predictors of elite sport achievement.
Although late specialization associated with the developmental model of sport participation can lead to athletic excellence in some instances, there is little doubt that early specialization and deliberate practice in a given sport are in general the preferred path to elite performance. Indeed, the relationship between engagement in deliberate practice over extended periods of time and elite performance is now well established by sport scientists. A recent popular example is that of Britain’s Tom Daley, who at 13 years of age became Britain’s youngest diving gold medalist by winning the men’s 10-m platform at the European Championships in Eindhoven in March 2008, in addition to qualifying to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Also well known is the case of F.C. Barcelona’s 17-year-old football player Bojan Krkic, who has broken every possible goal-scoring record in the youth ranks and is already a rising star in the super-professional and super-competitive European Champions League.
Extensive exposure to practice induces adaptations to the specific physical, physiological, and psychological demands of sport. In addition, perceptual-cognitive skills that discriminate between elite and nonelite performers are also developed. These include advanced cue utilization, pattern recognition, visual search behaviors, assessment of situational probabilities, and strategic decision making. On the other hand, some experts argue that early specialization may have costly consequences in terms of injuries, dropout rate, and lifelong participation in sport as a recreational and health-promoting activity. The interactions among deliberate practice, growth and maturation, physiological characteristics, and subsequent athletic achievements offer promising areas of investigation.
Both genetic and environmental determinism are reductionist answers to the complex issue of achieving elite sports performance. In his excellent 2003 book Nature via Nurture, Matt Ridley brilliantly argues that, far from being mutually exclusive alternatives, nature and nurture work one through the other, in a constant feedback loop that is responsible for the amazing complexities of life. This could well be the model through which elite athletic performance is attained.
You can read “Which way to the top” editorial here.
Reference
MUJIKA, I. Which way to the top? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 3: 249-250, 2008.
Mikel Garmendia crossing the finish line in the 2011 Duathlon World Championships in Gijon. (Photo: Photodeporte)
Basque triathletes Eneko Llanos and Virginia Berasategui are racing Ironman de Hawaii tomorrow. Triathletes Ainhoa Murua and Zuriñe Rodríguez compete the day after tomorrow in the World Cup event of Huatulco, Mexico.
They all know very well about the effort required to compete in triathlon at international level, and they have been able to prove their athletic value by finishing in top positions at major competitions in the world stage. But they are not our only representatives among the triathlon elite. He is a triathlete too, he also knows about effort and sacrifice, and he has stepped on the podium in races at the highest level. His main goal is to keep growing in the sport and qualify for Rio de Janeiro 2016.
Please meet Mikel Garmendia.
Joseba Beloki (Photo: Ckoelma. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons)
Joseba Beloki is without a doubt one of the major references of professional road cycling of the early years of the XXI century. Joseba was able to compete head to head with the great Lance Armstrong in three consecutive Tour de France, finishing third in 2000 and 2001, and second in 2002. That same year he was also third in the Vuelta a España, race in which we wore the leader jersey for three days the year before. In addition, Joseba’s record includes prestigious victories such as the Vuelta a Asturias in 2000 and the Vuelta a Catalunya in 2001. Nowadays, Joseba writes for cycling magazines, collaborates as a radio commentator during cycling races and has created his own carbon 3G bicycle company: Cosmos. But Joseba is above all an athlete. We can see him training any day alongside a world marathon legend like Martín Fiz in the parks of Vitoria-Gasteiz or riding on the roads of the Basque Country. Last Sunday for instance he took part in the Berlin Marathon, where he finished in a time of 2:47:33.
Joseba has plenty to say about the world of elite sports, and he is ready to respond to the questions of the readers of this blog. You can thus send your questions to Joseba Beloki through the comments section of the blog before october 23rd, and I will forward them to him before publishing them along with his answers.
Conference "Analyse des exigences physiques au football" in Poitiers (France)
Conference "Tapering and Peaking for Optimal Performance" in Ottawa (Canada)
Performing skinfold measurements on Soccer Aces TV contest
Conference: "Performance modelling and tapering" in Manchester (United Kingdom)
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