Having an injury in any sport is not all too shocking. All sports usually requires an athlete to excel in one particular movement. In rowing, the athlete is doing exactly one motion over and over again. Think of it this way, one stroke equals about ten meters. That means if you go for a “light” paddle row for about six thousand meters, you’ll being doing the same motion six hundred times. It is not a surprise to see many rowers have back, hip and knee problems. One side is completely developed while the other side is neglected. This past week I read an article on strengthcoach.com, about how a coach, Blake Gourley, did the opposite of what is considered to be the norm when it comes to training a rowing team. Coach Gourley, saw three possible places where injuries can occur; over-use, technical error and muscle imbalances. Coach Gourley, then went on cap the amount of volume the team could preform (emphasizing quality over quantity), focused a lot on anti-rotation core drills, and did unilateral training only. Now this article was about rowing specifically, but I believe that these rules can be used on an endurance sport and athlete.
Endurance athletes’ brains usually tell them the more the better. Their only concern is to rack as many miles or meters that they can because that’s how they have been trained to think. They are not concerned with getting stronger, or better yet don’t see the value in spending the necessary time in the weight room, to keep them from getting injured. And I think that is how you need to sell this type of athlete. Our goals as strength and conditioning coaches are to get them stronger but not in the way of bulking them up. Our objective is to strengthen muscles that will fatigue during competition or practice, so that there is a lesser chance of being hurt. This article talks about how important technique is. When you go out for a row or a long run, your form will start off great but then probably weakens over time. When this happens the athlete is relying on muscles that shouldn’t be working. Or maybe their form is great but without knowing it, the athlete favors one leg or arm over another. Creating a muscle imbalance and could then later cause an injury. Rowers for example, always want to get stronger to their side. But they are already plenty strong to their side. To truly make them stronger, a coach should focus on balancing their body so they potentially are at less risk to get hurt. If the athlete is practicing more than they are treating injuries, then in my mind the athlete is stronger. Endurance athletes are definitely a group where their technique is key. They need to “respect the process” and learn how to properly move. Getting a rower to do a simple hip hinge or a runner to lunge the same weight on both legs is not as easy as it sounds. In both cases, you are trying to stop years of muscle memory. Overuse is also a huge problem. This type of athlete thinks that they need to do certain exercises for many repetitions in order to get better. But because they already do that during practice, the quality of the work should be the message not the quantity. Athletes need to understand it is better to do something perfect once then wrong ten times.
Now at the end of the article Coach Gourley, did say that it could quite possibly be that he was lucky. But he did show that most of his athletes were injury free and did not in anyway lose their ability to compete. I think this a great way to approach any athlete, but with endurance athletes it is even more important because of the repetitive movement patterns. Injury prevention should be priority number one, and with some types of athletes and teams, coaches should take the time to go over the basics, like technique. This will make your athletes stronger.