Ph.D., Associate Professor N.A. Vinokurova
A.G. D'yachkovskiy
M.V. Danilov
Candidate K.K. Omukova
Institute of Physical Culture and Sport of North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov, Yakutsk

Keywords: training workload, annual training cycle

Introduction

Sakha Republic (Yakutiya) located in the north-eastern territories of the Russian Federation may be considered one of the most unusual and interesting areas of the world as far as the genetic processes that have formed the local indigenous population are concerned. Territory of the Republic comes to as much as 18% of the total area of the Russian Federation, but it is still sparsely populated due to the harsh climatic and environmental conditions in the area [1]. Winters in Yakutiya are very long and frosty, with thin snow mantles, and summers are short, mostly dry, with relatively high air temperatures. These are the reasons why the cross-country skiers’ training systems in Yakutiya (regardless of the age groups) are totally different from those applicable in central Russia.

The first pre-season period of the cross-country ski racer’s training cycle in the Sakha Republic (Yakutiya) is designed to include the following two stages.

Stage 1: Summer and fall pre-season period

This stage generally starts in June and comes to an end in October. Key objective of the training process at this stage is to improve general physical fitness level in a phased manner. Major attention at this stage is given to the training practices to develop special physical qualities, build up the general workability level and to master and excel certain skiing technical skills [1]. This is the stage when coaching teams and athletes continue to purposefully perfect the skiing skills using special training equipment and tools designed for snowless training practices. Total training workloads at this stage are increased in a phased manner, with intensities of the cyclic practices being on the rise as well. This rise, however, is designed so that the total intensity of the workloads is raised somewhat slower, lagging behind and under the training workload growth curve. This is the basic principle of the training workload and intensity increase in the process; but the coaches may decide that some process micro-cycles need the workloads and intensities being drastically stepped up for some short time as required by specific interim goals of the training system. These rises may be driven close to the upper permissible limits at times when the individual best General Physical Fitness (GPF) rate is attained by the athlete, with some decrease at the first stage later on; although the attained level of physical qualities and skills will be maintained by the GPF conditioning practices so that the attained level should in no case be allowed to go down. At the same time, these practices will be associated with the significantly increased Special Physical Fitness (SPF) workloads.

Stage 2: Winter pre-season period

The winter stage starting time may vary depending on the actual weather conditions (mostly on the snow mantle formation time) in the area and skill levels of the athletes trained (as the strongest skiers are now budgeted for travels to the Sport Training Centre of Aldan city to meet the first snow). In the middle zone, the winter training stage normally starts in the third decade of November or somewhat later and comes to an end in late December to early January when the main competitive events of the season begin. Generally, the winter stage training period is planned depending on the calendar of skiing events and actual skill levels of the athletes.

The second pre-season period of the cross-country ski racer’s training cycle in the Sakha Republic (Yakutiya) is normally planned for December through January when the air temperatures go lower than minus 40 degrees Celsius. The frosts force the cross-country skiers’ instruction and training practices indoors, into the sport halls. This is the period of skiing competitions in Yakutia that may be divided into the following two stages: the first stage is October through November; and the second stage is February through April.

The cross-country ski racer’s training process in the regular season period will be designed to attain the following main objectives: to further excel the special physical, mental and volitional qualities; keep up the GPF level attained; consolidate the skiing skills and qualities at stable high levels; master the competitive tactics; and obtain good competitive experience. Training system in the regular season period will be shaped up and managed based on the weekly training cycles being prudently combined with the competitive cycles. The training cycle in this period will be designed to gradually increase the training workloads in terms of volumes and intensities. The competitive cycle training (that generally ends up with races on different distances) will be geared to stabilize and/or slightly reduce the training workloads (depending on the individual goals in and challenges of the target competitions), with the intensity rates being increased. Generally, the athlete’s participation in competition dictates the training workloads and intensities being duly varied within a wide range of scenarios in a wavelike manner. If the athlete competes every week in different distances, the weekly competitive training cycle will normally stay the same in terms of practices and workload management goals, whilst the workload volume and intensity may vary depending on how drained the athlete is after the last competitions and how long and challenging the distance in the upcoming event is. It is not unusual that the sport calendar offers no evenly timed breaks in between the events. In addition, it is not realistic to demand the best individual performance and highest success from the athlete in every event; and this is the reason why the coaching team and the athlete have to solve the complicated task of the pre-season training process being designed and managed in such a way as to maintain the sport form at reasonably high level with the peaking form being attained right on the days of the top priority competitions. In between the top priority competitions, the athlete may need rehabilitation followed by a new peak of the sport form. The wavelike sequence of hikes and sags in the sport form conditioning process gives the grounds to expect high accomplishments in every top priority competition of the long winter season. An athlete has to maintain his/her best sport form for as long as 3.5 months in fact, and it is very important that the sport form maintenance and its peaking points achievement process is well controlled, the controllability being ensured by thorough and purposeful cooperation of the coaching team and the athlete. When the athlete knows well his/her own potential and specific needs in the training process, he/she may reasonably expect high and stable results being achieved both in the target season and for a few years to come [1, p.33].

In the spring time, when the ulus-level [ethnic community/ area level] events and the republican competitions are over, the athlete and coaching team will start up, with a good knowledge of the weaknesses and drawbacks in the physical, technical and functional aspects of the past training process as revealed by the competitions, their pre-season training for the next season. It is the time when the snow mantle is still good enough for a full-scale training process. Training sessions normally take place in the mornings from around 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. when the crust of snow ice favours the skiing practices. The greatest advantage of these morning training sessions is that no special efforts or costs are needed for the skiing track preparation and grooming since the ice crust is hard enough for comfortable skiing wherever the snow cover is still available. Gliding is excellent in this time of the year, and the snow conditions are favourable for improving different skiing skills including V1 and V2 skate uphill techniques, downhill techniques making sharp turns, slowdown techniques etc… It normally happens in late April that snow cover starts melting down on the slopes, but there are still lots of places for training along the river roads that are absolutely plain. Training process at this stage is focused mainly on the skate skiing techniques on the flat surface, half-skate left/ right turns, straight-line acceleration skills, one-ski gliding skills, free skating stride without poles, alternate step and double pole techniques etc.

Key objectives of the pre-season training period are to give adequate recreation to the athlete after the training and competitive workloads of the last year; and to keep up the skills and fitness at reasonable levels to ensure the best sport form of the skier being achieved in due time in the next annual cycle. In the spring and summer time, the athletes will run cross-country races, enjoy padding in multiple rivers and lakes, swim up and down the streams, practice off-road cycling and will take long walking tours. Furthermore, the athletes may take striding and jumping skiing-like practices with poles on variably steep slopes and imitate diagonal stride along the river banks with legs in water up to the knees.

The purpose of the study was to offer an optimal annual training cycle design in application to cross-country skiing sport in the Sakha Republic (Yakutiya).

Materials and methods

The study was based on tests of the physical fitness levels at the onset and the end of the testing period, the test data being processed by mathematical statistics method, and the tests being performed twice per year. The experimental group and reference (control) group were made of 20 adolescent athletes each, the athletes being 14-15 years old and having different sport qualifications up to Class 3. The annual training process cycle in application to the cross-country ski racers of these groups was designed to make an emphasis on the practices to develop special endurance as a top priority quality of a ski racer. Both of the groups performed the same amounts of cyclic work over the study period. The athletes had 4-6 training sessions per week, each session taking 2 to 2.5 hours, including 4 special endurance sessions of 1.5-2 hours each. The training process of the experimental group was designed as follows: 2 days of skiing or roller skiing practices plus 2 days of imitation skiing practices. The reference group was busy with only imitation practices for the same 4 days. Training processes of both of the groups were basically different in the following aspects: the experimental group made an emphasis (in summer time and in December through January high-frost winter period) on the roller skiing practices, whilst the reference group concentrated on special imitation skiing practices with poles and jumping exercises. The spring-and-autumn instruction and training processes were the same for both of the groups being dominated by the strength training sessions and cross-country skiing races.

Study results and discussion

Analysis of the test data for the experimental group versus the reference group demonstrates that the roller skiing practices in the snowless and high-frost (December through January) winter periods of the annual training cycle are expressly beneficial for the competitive accomplishments of the trainees. It is very important that the training practices are prudently designed and managed on a sequential basis with due consideration for the individual needs of every cross-country ski racer. It should be mentioned that the cross-country skiing sport is rated among the most labour-intensive sport disciplines as confirmed by the actual physical education practices and modern sport science. The higher the individual sport skills of the trainee are the more attention will be paid to his/her training by the coaching team to protect the athlete from excessive workloads and too high intensities; and prudently manage the technical excelling and rest intervals throughout the training process.

Having analysed the data generated in the study, we have good grounds to conclude that the prudential management of the training workloads on a micro-cycling basis, with due consideration for the harsh climatic conditions of Yakutiya, and with the training system being designed based on the technical skills improvement and special conditioning practices in application to the adolescent cross-country skiers, have helped improve the competitive accomplishments of the tested athletes.

Conclusions

Cross-country skiers’ annual training cycle in the harsh climatic conditions of the Sakha Republic (Yakutiya) is designed to include pre-season (the June through September summer-and-autumn period plus the December through January high-frost winter period); regular season (the October through November autumn-and-winter period plus the February through April late-winter-and-spring period); and off-season (May).

References

1. Aleshina, N.S. Struktura trenirovochnykh nagruzok v godichnom tsikle dlya razvitiya i podderzhaniya spetsial'noy vynoslivosti u yunykh lyzhnikov-gonshchikov (Training load structure in annual cycle to develop and maintain special endurance of junior cross-country skiers) / N.S. Aleshina. – Tula, 2005.
2. Fedorova, S.A. Etnogenomika korennykh narodov respubliki Saha (Yakutiya): avtoref. dis. … kand. ped. nauk (Ethnogenomics of indigenous peoples of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): Abstract of Ph.D. thesis). – P. 3-4.
3. Lytkin, M.I. Vospitanie skorostno-silovykh kachestv lyzhnikov 15-17 let sredstvami natsional'nykh vidov sporta Yakutii (National sports of Yakutia to develop strength-speed qualities of skiers of 15-17 years of age) / M.I. Lytkina. – Moscow, 1997.
4. Shamaev, N.K. Osobennosti metodiki fizicheskogo vospitaniya v usloviyakh Severa (Features of methodology of physical education in the North) / N.K. Shamaev. – Yakutsk, 1996.
5. Shamaev, N.K. Osnovy metodiki urochnoy sistemy fizicheskogo vospitaniya v shkolakh Severa (Methodological basics of lesson system of physical education in schools of the North). - Yakutsk, 1999.

Corresponding author: nadezhda___vinok@mail.ru