SURF FIT NEWS – No.11 by Clive Rodell
Clive on Tour November 2018
Personal training / Surf Fitness
Firstly let me apologize for the gap in articles. I have been on a 7 week tour away from Oz. It’s been an interesting journey, I’m currently sitting in accommodation overlooking Soup Bowl in Barbados. Because I’m still away and have no access to my data bank of images etc, this is more of a chronicle and some food for thought observations. Observations that should still help with training matters in many ways.
Unfortunately, from an in the water personal surfing perspective, it’s been extremely lack-lustre. The best waves to date counted on only a few fingers. Some fun ones at St Agnes, an sensational surf late September at Fistral and a great fun surf, just up from Supertubos, whilst the contest was on.
The journey took me to the UK, I lectured on beginner to Elite Surfing Programmes in Newquay (with some esteemed guests in the audience). I gave 6 workshops at the Sports Medicine International Conference (held at the beautiful Headland Hotel at Fistral). Those went really well, but if you’ve been following my articles, not quite what they expected! A practical workshop, teaching correct exercise technique, to degree Strength and Conditioning students in Plymouth University (thanks to Ian Davis). Jeremy Shepard (ex Head of the HPC at Casuarina) suggested a couple of years ago, he thought that was one avenue I should pursue, as he knew my passion and attention to detail with movement patterning and technique. Since the early 90s I have developed cueing and movement guidance teaching protocols.
The most prestigious planned gig on the ‘tour’, being an invite from N.S.C.A. board member Ian Jeffreys. A lecture to final year S&C students at the University of South Wales. This lecture was a high end Elite Athlete/Surfer conditioning lecture.
This lecture also included my view on published/written research and data from clinical trials versus long term experiential non-written data (usually in the coaches head).
To give you a simple analogy of what I am saying;
You have been surfing 20+ years, had many types of surfboard shapes and design. You have fine tuned this information and now are pretty sure what type of board you want to order from a shaper.
The shaper can approach this in many ways, however there are two extremes he can take;
1. give you respect and credit and go along with what you want, perhaps exploring it a little more and making the odd suggestion, but overall aligning with your wishes.
Or;
2. Ask you, well you SAY you want that board, but where’s your written data to back that up? He refuses to give you any credit and treats you like a generic being…. I think for you, at your age (!) you need a 13.1/2 nose, not the 11.3/4 etc etc
Exercise is no different. There are amazing practitioners and coaches who have unbelievable knowledge from the coal face, not from sitting in a lab type environment sampling x number of people over 3 months. As I keep saying NO two people are ever the same. So no two exercise prescriptions can ever be the same.
If I am looking at a successful athlete, then he is NOT the normal person from the clinical trials in the majority of cases.Yes, I can consider the normal research, but my job is then to decide to what might, if anything be applicable to the outcome required.
These On-line programmes that people buy, are really at best only going to give you an AVERAGE outcome. The injury potential of ‘TRAINING BY CORRESPONDENCE’ is extremely high. Most people I see trying to train off their phone look completely lost and often incompetent. It’s not their fault generally, because they know no different. Training for the Sport is way different to training to be a winner!
Let’s go to some other observations from my travels;
France, Quiksilver Pro.
In the early part of this year, I watched Ryan Callinan in the Nudie Teams challenge destroy 3 ‘skins’ in a row… if after 90 plus minutes he could have kept his legs from becoming ‘jelly’, he possibly would have won more. At the Quiksilver he went from Wildcard to almost knocking over Julian Wilson in the final. In fact the mist may have separated the scores a little more than the view from the beach… but who am I? Another amazing result from Ryan and not a nicer guy could you meet. Endurance plus, so training Ryan involves a delicate mix, maintenance etc. Ryan is training with an S&C from Newcastle (Adam Trypas). Having spoken to Adam, I know we’re very much on a similar path with our philosophies.
Portugal, Meo Pro.
The unfortunate Adriano de Souza, got trashed in the nasty shorebreak of Supertubos. Possible ACL/PCL/MCL? I have not seen a definitive report on the injury, I’ll hazard a guess (but no oney on it!) to say Medial Ligament. Now, does he weight train for joint integrity? If so, would that have helped? Certainly it would not have hindered. Weight training for surfing is a delicate balance of what’s needed, NOT producing another Arnold Schwarzenenegger! I don’t push any surfer to have MAX strength, I think it can be counter productive. I see Elite surfer programmes with heavy shoulder regimes… really? Don’t surfers get a lot of shoulder work? Shoulder integrity, yes, but a totally different kettle of fish.
John John;
A return to Pipe.. sensational.
Let’s look at a chain of events though. These are general thoughts not taken from any direct feedback re John John. Let’s just look at some of the known injuries and call the man in question Dave Dave. 🙂
An ankle injury in 2013, a knee injury in 2016. Prior to that possibly no training regime on land for injury prevention. Did the ankle injury cause movement patterning changes that became relearned movement, as opposed to correct movement? To explain the last bit…if you limp for a while does this ‘limp now stay permanently or variations there-of. Did this lead, through a bio-mechanical change, to the knee injury in 2016? Did the knee injury in 2016 ever quite heal? (personally I don’t think so from watching footage). Did the 2016 knee issue lead to the 2018 issue? Correct rehab is paramount.
Ok, I’ll leave it there, raising more questions than answers perhaps? But questions are good, next time a trainer tells you to do an exercise you’re not quite sure about, ask the trainer ‘why’. if they cannot answer….choose another trainer
Recent Comments