By Ryan Tehini
Athletic training typically follows a very unidimensional approach. Most practices involve the continued repetition of a task – in order to improve the odds of success in competition. This is typically done through attempts to improve the physical aspects of speed, strength, and flexibility (amongst others). For example, you may spend time in the gym or practising a cardio routine to make yourself fitter and stronger in the saddle. While this is an undeniably critical aspect of any athletic endeavour, recent scientific inquiry has shown that it is a flawed assumption to think that this is the only facet necessary for an effective training routine.
Skill vs. Athletic Capacity
Current trends in athletic training centre around the intention of improving capacity; capacity can be thought of as the physical capability that provides you with more opportunities for action. In other words, capacity focuses on what you are physically capable of by measuring your current and potential output of aspects such as strength, fitness, flexibility, and speed. However, recent findings have indicated that this kind of training is relatively ineffective, as it omits an entire area of performance – skill.
While most coaches and athletes would say that their training does include skills training, this is often not entirely accurate. Skill is vastly different to athletic capacity and cannot be trained through repetition. This is because a skill is a purposeful action that is done in response to an external stimulus. Subsequently, in order to perfect a skill, you need to incorporate external stimuli into your training. For example, skills in showjumping could refer to putting in the correct number of strides to a jump or regaining footing after knocking a pole. Skills typically refer to agility and sport-specific movements, and these improve with experience. However, there are techniques that can be used in training for the purposes of improving skill that will assist in gaining decades of experience in a fraction of the time.
How to train a skill
In order to wholly understand how one can effectively train skill, it is important to first grasp how the mind is trained and how this differs from how the body is trained. Athletic capacity is a stellar example of training the body – in order to get stronger, one must break down the muscle fibres in any given muscle, which are then repaired. Through this process of repairing the muscle, it builds hardier fibres and therefore, you get stronger and more capable, increasing your athletic capacity.
The mind is not dissimilar to this; neural connections form the basis of all mental activity, and the more we repeat a thought process – the better we get at it because the neural connection strengthens. However, the key distinction is that to strengthen a neural connection, we need to actively use the correct connection. For example, you can practice putting in the precise number of strides to a jump, but in the arena, this process involves decision-making and problem solving that was not incorporated into the training. So if something goes wrong, or the first stride is too early, too big, or too late, the act of making a decision to solve this problem has not been trained – and thus, the neural connection has not been strengthened. Therefore, skill training requires more than striving to practise just the ‘ideal scenario.’
The key difference then between skill and athletic capacity is that skill is information-driven, while athletic capacity is not. Therefore, in order to effectively develop a skill, it must be done in an environment that incorporates elements of decision-making and problem-solving. This explains why experienced riders overcome obstacles in the arena far more efficiently than novice riders because their ability to improvise and adapt in the face of external stimuli is sharpened through years of learning. The best way for novice riders to improve their skill and gain experience beyond their years is, therefore, to simulate the real-world environment into their training and incorporate mental training for decision-making and problem-solving into their physical training.
Another notable consideration is that simply incorporating decision-making and problem solving into your training will not entirely improve the skill. The reason for this is that the training environment lacks the pressure and stakes of the competition environment. Therefore, in order to completely train a skill, it is important to also incorporate general mental training into your routine. This allows you to focus and make unclouded judgments even when under pressure, increasing your ability to adapt to the external stimuli as it arises. Examples of useful mental training techniques include coherent breathing, mindfulness, and mental imagery – I have provided examples of how these can be practically incorporated into your ride in the HQ October – December digital editions.
In essence, your training needs to focus on two separate aspects in order to effectively improve your riding capability, these are:
- athletic capacity – this refers to training aimed at improving your physical capabilities, such as speed, strength, and fitness; and
- skill – this training is fairly nuanced and requires you to incorporate aspects of the competition environment (such as decision-making and problem-solving) into your training. Along with this, you should include elements of general mental training in order to ensure that you can make decisions and solve problems efficiently and with sound judgment.
Take home message
The mind and body are two equally important parts of any athletic endeavour; when trained collectively, they deliver a well-rounded athlete with experience beyond their years. The simple tweak to your training discussed above can provide you with the mindset of a far more experienced rider – an invaluable asset in any sporting realm.