During my visit to the USOC in Lake Placid a few years ago I was privileged to watch training sessions and competitions in two sports I hadn’t really paid much attention to in the past — ski jumping and aerial freestyle skiing.
The aerial freestyle team were actually jumping into an aerated pool – the coaches/researchers have found that the number of practice jumps an athlete could make each session, was actually only limited by how many landings the athlete’s body could take. So – during summer (off season) training they land in a pool which is “bubbled” to soften the impact of landing. This allows them to increase the volume of jumps, while actually decreasing the amount of landings.
The ski jumping competition was pretty amazing. That’s the jump towers pictured to the left – one of them being 120m high.
As I was there – two of the coaches were asking me what type of strength training program I’d suggest for their athletes — based on what I’d seen so far.
So how do you design a strength program for a sport that you haven’t experienced much ? Imagine an aerial freestyle skier comes to you tomorrow and asks for your help in determining their needs? What do you do?
Here’s a good way to go about it:
1) Evaluate the athlete.
For example – regardless of sport – generally males are faster/better than females. Therefore strength training will obviously be valuable. If your athlete can’t do a single chin up or a good set of push-ups – you really don’t need to over-think the rest of the program.
This is also where you’d look for range of motion issues or other imbalances specific to the athlete. My go-to tool in this area is the functional movement screen.
2) Understand the specific requirements of the sport itself — look at the strength requirements/movement patterns and energy system requirements of the sport. Consider the time periods of work and the work to rest ratios.
Then compare your athletes current level to the levels needed for their success. Obviously an Olympic hopeful would need a higher level of strength (for example) than a junior regional athlete.
3) Look at anything specifically unique to the sport (joint angles etc).
For example – the ski jumpers ski down a ramp (takes about 6s) in a quarter-to-half squat position, explode off the end of the ramp – hold a very straight body position in the air — and then land – a telemark position (a slightly staggered stance) scores more points – and obviously to control the landing forces we need to go to a squat position again.
That’s a very specific strength and movement requirement – to go from a bilateral isometric contraction to an explosive contraction and return to an isometric position in a split stance.
Put those three steps together in that hierarchy and you’ll be on the right track.
