Dr. Tony Rice discusses his expertise in sports science with Rowing Australia and the ETS system. Insights on breathing techniques for optimal rowing performance, race week tapering, and body activation. Learn from the world's best rowers and training strategies for different distances. Exploring influential coaches, core strength exercises, and personal growth in rowing.
Dr. Tony Rice emphasizes inspriatory muscle training for efficient breathing in rowing.
Tapering techniques for master's athletes involve gradual reduction in volume while maintaining intensity.
Structured warm-up routine before a race enhances energy supply through aerobic pathways.
Deep dives
Role of Performance Support at Broke Australia
Performance support at Broke Australia involves overseeing various disciplines like biomechanics, physiology, strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, and nutrition to enhance performance. The speaker, Dr. Tony Rice, heads this support team, focusing on optimizing the support for different disciplines, excluding clinical areas but focusing on performance improvement.
Transformation of Rowing Training Philosophies
The lengthy experience of Dr. Tony Rice in rowing training elucidates a shift towards a hybrid training model incorporating aspects from cycling and running philosophies. His in-depth involvement with rowing, despite no personal rowing experience, led to a deep understanding of the sport's intricacies and challenges, highlighting a steady evolution of rowing training practices.
Breathing Techniques and Training for Rowers
Breathing patterns in rowing pose significant challenges due to mechanical constraints during the stroke cycle. Rowers often underventilate, limiting oxygen intake and increasing blood lactate levels. Dr. Tony Rice emphasizes the role of training inspiratory muscles to enable efficient breathing through full lung volume, enhancing oxygen exchange and improving performance.
Tapering Strategies and Race Preparation for Masters Athletes
Tapering techniques for master's athletes necessitate balancing fitness retention and fatigue dissipation leading up to multi-day rowing events. The strategy involves a gradual reduction in training load, emphasizing drop tapering with a 50% reduction in training volume 10 days before the primary competition. Dr. Tony Rice advocates maintaining training intensity and frequency while reducing volume to ensure optimal performance readiness.
Importance of Warm-Up for Optimal Performance
Adequate warm-up is crucial for optimizing performance in sports. Without a proper warm-up, the VO2 system's oxygen kinetics can be slow, leading to reliance on anaerobic pathways early in the race. Insufficient warm-up can deplete anaerobic capacity, affecting energy supply during the event. A structured warm-up routine 60 to 70 seconds before the race at race pace enhances aerobic pathways' energy supply.
Training Strategies for Improving Aerobic Power and Performance
Building aerobic power is essential for performance, focusing on utilizing a high percentage of the VO2 max consistently during a race. The ability to use a significant fraction of the VO2 max efficiently determines performance success. Training to enhance aerobic efficiency and lowering lactate levels at high percentages of VO2 max can be key to improving endurance. Structured workouts incorporating varying intensity levels help in building both aerobic and anaerobic capacities effectively.
Dr Tony Rice is a legend in sports science and has been involved in sports science with Rowing Australia for more than two decades. Tony is the Head of Performance Support at Rowing Australia. Tony and I cover many topics, yet I was really curious to understand more about the Endurance Training Score (ETS) system that he developed, to quantify the specific training loads in rowing.
Tony covers in detail his thinking on how to breath in rowing for optimal performance. His experiments with the best race week taper, dynamic warm-ups and how to best activate the body to be ready to race.
Some fantastic insights into how the world's very best prepare to race, and what we can learn and adapt from these insights.
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