The evergreen question for everyone in any sport - how do I get better? On YouTube and social media you’ll find plenty of prescriptive content telling you what you have to do, and what the game changer tip is. As some folks might know, I’m not a fan of prescriptive advice and tend to err on the side of roundabout vague explanations because I like people to understand the why or the how for something so they can apply the relevant parts to themselves. So I thought I’d lay out my approach to progression. The elements I focus on (broadly) and how I think they contribute to progression. I don’t know how many blogs this “series” will be made up of. But I’ll start with the easiest one for most people to address; physical capacity. Which is improved with training.
So, training - the not so fun stuff that a lot of people struggle to motivate themselves to do. Why is it relevant for foiling? Some might say it’s only important for people who are into racing and competing. But actually, there’s a lot to be said for having a good base for foiling, as well as the fact it’s good for general health, longevity etc.
So why even bother training? I think being fitter and having improved capacity can let you do even more of what you enjoy doing. It’s as simple as that. Sure you can get fitter just by foiling more - but for those who are time poor, being fitter, stronger and more explosive can mean that you do link up that one extra wave, or manage to get that extra paddle up when you need it to get you on foil for that last bit. Letting you have more fun when you foil thanks to work you put in at moments when you maybe couldn’t foil. Having a higher physical capacity also gives you more reserves for if you need them, and lets you operate in a zone that allows you to make decisions with much more clarity (Josh’s recent video was a good reminder of this).
For me, training has always been an integral part of my day to day having been involved in structured sports and training programs throughout my childhood and university days (primarily rugby and athletics), so much so I pretty much have continued to follow some sort of structured training since (albeit with different goals and objectives). Training for foiling - and especially downwind foiling - is a bit of a different challenge though when trying to combine it with a normal job and home life. It’s something I’ve chatted to Dave Galvin a bit about with his pro cycling background (here’s a good podcast with Dave). But really you have to hit all facets of conditioning. You need a good aerobic base to cope with the duration as you go for longer runs, you need good anaerobic capacity for paddle ups and you also need a good combination of strength / power and strength endurance. To be honest though it probably combines well with the current trend of hybrid training and being a “hybrid athlete” other than the fact that hybrid athletes chase big strength targets / absolute numbers. A training focus that does lead to mass gain. Whilst mass does help in foiling, above a certain mass it gets harder to maintain a solid power / weight ratio and has diminishing gains - so I wouldn’t just go smash weights to get stronger.
So how have I been training for foiling? I must say that I’m goal focused, and for me my goal is M2O meaning this part will lean towards that, but take what you want from it. Some parts might be relevant to you, some might not. Per session (in the gym and on the water), I generally try to make sure my sessions have some sort of focus on a few core “building blocks” (listed in order of what I deem the most important,and before people go “I’m not into that, I just want to have fun”, that’s fair enough - I’m weird enough that this is part of my fun)):
- Skill
- Knowledge / Gear testing
- Endurance / Strength Endurance
- Strength / power
I’m not going to go into the details of my sessions in this blog. Just because I think how you train varies per individual. Though if you really want to know more, send me a message. Happy to chat about it and I’ll probably do a blog on each of the bullet points. But I’ll outline how I focus my training in blocks in terms of priorities.
Since I have a full time job (for now) and for the last few years (and this year) have set myself the goal of doing my best in M2O, I try to plan my training to focus on this, with the following “Macro cycles”
Note: the below reads like a lot but I tend to do 2 strength sessions a week that are 30-50mins and 2-3 assault bike sessions / runs, foiling sessions vary based on the daylight. The below just gives an idea on how I spend my energy (I wouldn’t call it all training, just more how I spend my time with a focused approach). Winter is great as the short days mean I have to focus on all the non-foiling things on weekdays leaving only the weekends for foiling.
- Base Work: I do this from November (after the French Races) through into January. What does it look like? Lots of endurance work on the assault bike to build the engine, Zone 2 running. General Strength work (Focusing on strength in full ROM rather than heavy) and a lot more fun foiling (skill focus) working less hard when I downwind, looking at efficiency with less efficient foils and surfing. I tend to size down my boards, foils and switch away from high aspect racing foils. Unless it's for testing purposes. Since the days are short I tend to foil 2 days a week (weekends).
- Build phase: This is where I am now and runs from Feb into May. This is where the base I’ve built comes in. Having a base I can rely on (on all fronts) means that in this phase I can look at ramping up strength work (with more power focus), endurance focus changes to strength endurance (I like the assault bike for this) sessions like flatwater paddle ups (intervals) become a more frequent part of my week and I start to focus on building in downwind runs with a race focus if the conditions allow, or have a race focus for parts of my downwind runs. Also the more base work I've done, the less guilty I feel when I skip a gym session to go foiling.I like to ride under foiled to build confidence for racing situations (check out the podcast with Jarrod Snow where he talks about this). Foil sessions get sprinkled in in the evenings as the days get longer so I do between 2-4 foil sessions a week.
- Race Prep phase: In June and July I don’t really train too heavy. I tend to lean more towards foiling and dialling in my gear. Fun surf sessions in the waves. As much downwinding as possible, where most downwinding will have an element of race focus be it pushing speed, riding under foiled, practicing paddle ups, sub optimal conditions or choosing runs where the wind angle isn’t ideal (too offshore or onshore). I like to run through it all.
- After the races: After Hawaii I tend to take it easy and just have fun. More surfy downwinding on my mid length for a bit but as we get closer to October I tend to add back in the race focus elements. I also pick up a bit more gym / strength endurance again in August and September. To try to stay in some shape going into the France races in October. September
One thing I always try to keep consistent throughout all my sessions is enjoyment and fulfillment. If I’m not in the mood for something on a given day, I’ll change my training around. So I don’t have a rigid Monday = gym, tuesday = cardio. Instead I have a list of sessions I want to do in the week and will vary which day I do it based on what I feel like. Same goes for foiling, I always make sure I have a focus, but also make sure I’m going to have fun (note, sometimes I have fun in the struggle session. If I’m trying to dial something in or in marginal conditions intentionally for example.)
Hopefully this has been a good insight to help anyone thinking of building some training for foiling into their weekly program and I plan to try and write a few more of these so feel free to reach out with any questions, comments or feedback by email or via instagram!