Dr. Hab., Professor E.B. Myakinchenko¹
PhD A.S. Kryuchkov¹
Master of Sport M.V. Volkov¹
Associate Professor, PhD N.A. Khramov^2
1Center for Sports Training, Moscow
²Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTSOLIFK), Moscow

Keywords: cross-country ski races, strength training, competitive functionality system.

Background. When it comes to discussions of elite athletic training systems, this meaning is highly applicable to the modern Norwegian cross-country skiers’ training system that secures their domination in the sport. The domination is so unchallengeable that the International Ski Federation (FIS; Fédération Internationale de Ski) has formally recognized it as a “problem”. Having recognized the problem, the FIS offered the Norwegian Ski Federation to hold an international workshop to share its experience under the motto we used as a title for the study.

Invited to the workshop that was held in Trondheim, Norway, were the leading coaches and managers of the national ski federations from all over the world. We should appreciate the open and friendly environment of the event and detailed reports by the hosts who spelled out every “secret” of the modern Norwegian cross-country skiers’ training system that could be reported and discussed for the two full days of the event.

Objective of the study was to report and analyse the key elements of the modern Norwegian cross-country skiers’ training system.

Methods and structure of the study. The article was designed to: report findings of the system analysis based on the materials reported at the workshop including the reports by H-C. Holmberg (Sweden), M. Bjørgen, E. Kristiansen, A. Sandbakk; M. Braten, P. Northug (Norway); analyse the interviews of Tor Arne Hetland (senior coach of the men’s national ski racing team of Norway and personal coach of Martin Sundby) and A. Sandbakk, research division head at the Olympiatopen (Norwegian Olympic Team Training and Analytical Centre); and analyse the data mined from different sources by the Analytical Department of the national FSBA (Federal State Budget-supported Agency)  Sport Training Centre on the modern training systems applied by Norwegian cross-country skiers.

Study results and discussion. Generally, the materials reported by the workshop gave the reasons to conclude that the Norwegian team success is due rather to the training system design on the whole than some specific practical “tricks”, the system being logical and simple enough and driven by obvious and reasonable decisions geared to secure its high efficiency. The study format, however, gives no room to describe in every detail the most critical, in our view, aspects of the ski racers’ training process governed by the general strategy that is (a) commonly acknowledged by every contributor to the training process; and (b) persistently implemented in practice.

Trying to give a concise and precise definition to the Norwegian training concept and practical experience, we would say that the core objective of the elite Norwegian ski racers’ training system geared to attain the highest competitiveness of the system is to ensure the top performance efficiency of the athletes’ competitive functionality system (CFS). The top performance efficiency is applied herein largely in the same meaning that was spelled out by N.G. Ozolin in the 1950ies [1]. Generally, the term implies the athlete’s ability to totally mobilize own physical/ motor resources in competitions for the highest competitive success. The notion of functionality system was first introduced by P.K. Anokhin, another prominent Soviet researcher. It is defined as the “...combination of selectively mobilized bodily resource components in their harmonic interactions geared to attain the target benefit” [2].

It may be pertinent to highlight the following: (a) functionality system is viewed not as a speculative notion but rather a concrete material (protein) structure formed in a training process on the whole and every specific exercise in particular and designed to mobilize and unite all the critical bodily tissues, organs and systems into an integrated system critical for success of the exercise [3]; (b) CFS is formed to exercise very specific motor skills (competitive exercise in this particular case); (c) highest energy efficiency, dependability, variability and, in the final count, efficiency of the CFS must be demonstrated in concrete specific competitive situations (i.e. variable altitudes, temperatures, humidity levels, snow quality variations, tracks and equipment). Therefore, the CFS implies the athlete’s ability to make the highest success in specific conditions and within specific timeframe (e.g. in an individual racing event at specific world championship) rather than attain some abstract competitive fitness level.

It is a matter of common knowledge that the physical fitness tests of the leading athletes of the world in a variety of cyclic sports have not found any progress for the last 20-30 years. Moreover, all attempts to find correlations of the competitive success rates of elite ski racers with different strength- and speed-strength-specific performance rates and, what is the most surprising, thee aerobic/ anaerobic power and energy efficiency rates have shown the correlations being close to zero (as verified by our own yet unpublished study data). However, the competitive success rates have been on the rise all the time! To put it in other words, a high functional fitness of an elite ski racer will be viewed as a key condition rather than a real contributor to the individual competitive success.

Having realized the above simple facts, the Norwegian sport experts made an emphasis on the efforts to find ways to improve the individual natural/ acquired athletic abilities mobilizing capacity. In their opinion, this goal will be achieved (and this is highly important!) through the actions to:

(a) Develop highly efficient movement systems – more efficient than the ones in use by the potential competitors; and

(b) Carry out high-intensity competitions-simulating trainings in pre-season with the higher workloads than those of their potential competitors.

Movement system

It is largely through the ongoing research works that the new trends come up in the ski striding techniques that are closely dependant on the quality of new equipment, and this is one of the reasons why sport biomechanics and kinesiology experts are so much respected today in western countries. No wonder that virtually every western university operates today a well-equipped biomechanics study laboratory at least as good as the ones that were established in the former USSR by V.M. Zatsiorskiy, I.P. Ratov, V.L. Utkin and their teammates 40-50 years ago.

Individually optimal versions of the racing techniques are being developed today for the leading athletes by the Olympiatopen research team with support from the relevant contracted specialists called “physicians” in the West. Here in Russia we call them “kinesiologists” albeit they are few and far between and virtually never contracted to assist in the individual athletes’ training processes in fact.

The training process individualizing work is normally designed by the Norwegians in the following way. The athletes are tested by a combination of tests, and based on the test data a team of 4 specialists develops an individual set of strength-improving practices for every athlete. Three of the team are the researchers and one is the so-called “implementing coach”. The coach works in close contact with athletic teams, and one of his direct responsibilities is to help athletes master individual strength practices and, even more important, to exercise progress control of the athletic performance and thereby contribute to the athlete’s efforts to improve efficiency of the biodynamical aspects of the individual propulsion movements in the ski stride by helping the athlete develop and excel the “right sensations of the right technique”. The progress control is performed, among other things, on a large-size (3x5m) skiing treadmill equipped with mirrors and video-recording units for the feedback purposes. The implementing coach normally stands beside the working athlete with a long stick and literally hits the athlete at the body point he/ she needs to focus on in the process.

It was emphasized by the reporters at the workshop that athletes will always train on the treadmill or roller track following strength training exercises to consolidate the skills, with every athlete being trained as required by his own individual training program that takes normally one hour in a gym and one hour on a treadmill. It may be noted, however, that Martin Sundby trains for 2 hours on the treadmill following very intense strength training session in the gym.

It should be further noted that the Norwegian “technique-focused” strength trainings are largely different from the ones that are common in our country. As one can understand, for instance, from the large poster in the ski racers’ physical conditioning gym at the Swedish Ostersund Training Centre where H.C. Holmberg works; from analyses of the D. Domrycheva’s training process under control of the western coachers; from the master-classes of M. Braten at the workshop and some other data sources, the local strength trainings are more like practices for patients at health rehabilitation centres than our usual push-ups on horizontal bars, squats with weights and sprints with auto-tyres. The training experts use a wide variety of “crafty” devices, special postures and many other rather special “unclear” exercises and specific execution practices. However, all these tools and practices are applied for a concrete and clear purpose that is to help the athlete get a feel of the right muscular performance with the right postural control in one or another phase of the ski stride – to shape up a powerful and economic propulsive movement sequence. It is commonly believed that it is the internal sensations that should drive the skiing technique and the practicing techniques – so that the athlete should develop an instinctive feel of what can be translated (copied) from some special exercise to the skiing technique to excel the latter.

To put it in other words, the indoor strength trainings are applied by the Norwegian experts both to increase muscular strength and, what is more important, to improve the ski stride execution technique with a special emphasis on the efficiency of the propulsion impulses created by the upper and lower limbs. M. Braten in his report described this concept as follows: “The philosophy of this (strength) training concept is to find the right translation form to help translate the new (special strength) abilities (of the ski racers) from indoors to the snow. Presently it is only the competitive technique quality and nothing else that we are focused on”. The trunk-stabilizing muscle groups are highly important in this process as “translators of the actions”.

As stated by Tor Arne Hetland, the Norwegian sport community started training the trunk muscles on the memory of his generations when many racers complained having pains in the back. After the Norwegian experts developed and implemented specific training programs to strengthen the relevant muscle groups they noted the following benefits: (a) the racers did not report feeling pains in the back any more; and (b) the propulsion impulses were stepped up due to the physical energy being applied in a more focused manner.

One more emphasis in the strength training was made on the upper limbs and shoulder girdle. The reporters mentioned that female racers in particular need to give a special priority to the upper body development practices, with the relevant training sessions scheduled up to 3-4 times per week. The indoor strength exercises will be designed to biomechanically mimic the ski racing technique, with a due emphasis made on the propulsion time depending on the ski stride the exercise is mimicking. It was stated that the key efforts in the speed improvement, particularly in sprint, will be focused on the impulse strength and magnitude improvement and the muscles relaxation skills. In the indoor roller trainings and outdoor snow trainings, coaches will apply electronic metronomes to speed up the propulsion frequency with no detriment for the stride length. Following the individual set of exercises being designed for and mastered by an athlete indoors, the latter will be trained outdoors to cultivate the acquired right sensations in the natural training conditions.

The above methodology has made it possible for the Norwegian teams to be 1-2 years ahead of the potential rivals in the key aspect of the modern ski racing sport that is the high performance efficiency in mobilizing the generally restricted individual resource of every athlete.

Competitive implementation trainings

The competitive functionality system will be duly tuned and geared up to the best efficiency rate achievable in the competitive training process. On the face of it, it looks neither new nor unclear, but there are some details that make the difference. As reported by Professor H-C. Holmberg, the second strategically important concept of the Norwegian training system may be interpreted as follows: an objective of the preparatory training process is to make the body fit for the top-intensity special performance (i.e. competitive loads) in the pre-season training stage.

Let us give a case in point. A typical pre-season training session of Norwegian athletes may include 5х5 minute top-intensity ski races with the rest breaks of 4-5 minutes, with the athletes often preferring to train in groups. When one of the Russian team leaders tried to carry out these workloads together with the Norwegian peers, he seemed doing quite well on the first two distances looking fairly competitive. However, he suddenly failed to go further due to fatigue. We should note the following two important things in this test:

(a) Blood lactate of the Norwegian racers after the top-intensity race (!) was tested to vary within 10-12 millimole per litre, whilst that of the Russian racer skyrocketed to 22 mmole/ l and, as implied by the common theory, made it impossible for him to continue;

(b) No wonder that this kind of “glycolytic” load resulted in the Russian racer having to resort to “rehabilitation skiing” for 2-3 days, whilst his Norwegian peers were the next day fit for repeating the races once again.

How this working capacity can be cultivated? The only “secret” (that is no secret in fact for the home theory and practice) is the large volumes of aerobic trainings in zones 1-2 that should amount to 80% of the whole training time in the pre-season training period. It is also important that: (a) the training session should last for 3-4 hours; (b) the “threshold loads” (in zone 3) should be kept at a relatively low level; (c) trainings in zones 4 and 5 should be run the whole year round; (d) the strength and speed-strength fitness should be maintained the whole year round (including the pre-season period) by the relevant indoor strength trainings as described above.

It should also be mentioned that noting like a periodicity of the annual micro-cycle (standard for our theory and practice) can be found in the Norwegian system. April is the time for Norwegian athletes to relax and “warm up”. In the period of May through November the total loads (training days, hours, total volumes of cycled work in hours etc.) stay virtually the same making up 90 hours on average. In November the training loads are gradually stepped down from around 60 hours in December to some 40 hours in February (traditional period for top-ranking events); and then grow up to around 50 hours in March and April. It is natural that within the regular season and pre-season the training methods and tools are varied as required by the specific goals and individually designed micro- and meso-cycles.

As far as we understood from comments of the Norwegian coaches and athletes at the workshop, loads in the first and second parts of the annual cycle will be, first of all, always individually designed and, second, always kept at the individually maximal level, with the specific loads being found by the athletes by the personal sensations. On the whole, the role of sensations in the Norwegian training system is so high and important that might require a special article to be described. 

There are sound reasons to believe that it is the “micro-cycles with the highest training intensities” that should be considered the key component of the impressive successes of the Norwegian athletes in the pre-season. It should be mentioned in this context that the Norwegian experts improved to perfection the standard micro-cycle application idea of V.A. Ivanov [4]. It was back in 1986 that the Norwegian theoreticians worked out a workload management standard applicable to every training system in the country. Since then the training loads of the leading Norwegian ski racers were thoroughly recorded and analysed by the Olympiatopen analysts versus the laboratory test data and the competitive success rates. The data and analyses gave the means to develop a set of micro-cycles designed for specific goals. There is nothing special in the micro-cycles in fact, and the only “secret” they have is about how, when and to whom specifically particular training module should be applied in a most effective manner.

Annual training plans composed of standard micro- and meso-cycles forming an individual combination for every athlete are designed by a very limited number of highly competent experts, following by the plans being handed for execution to the athletes at the short-term “setup” coaching sessions. These sessions take 5-7 weeks per year and normally are timed to the middle-altitude training periods. They unlikely need more time for the reason that, first of all, there are lots of excellent skiing bases in Europe on the whole and Norway in particular. Second, elite ski racers often prefer training alone rather than in groups. And third, the elite Norwegian sport is virtually unsupported by the national or regional governments (as it is the case in Russia) that means that the athletes pay for the services on their own and, hence, are free to decide where to go for the training they need. Therefore, the process of the physical preparations for the high-intensity competitive loads is managed as required by the individually appropriate physiology-sensitive plan, albeit the process loads are controlled by the athletes on their own.

Conclusion. An objective of the strength training of elite ski racers is to attain high efficiency of the key propulsive (push-off) phases in the ski stride with the whole movement system being designed in the most economical format. That means that the strength training is actually viewed as a tool to increase efficiency of the ski racing technique. It is the competitive fitness that is ranked the key constituent of the ski racers’ competitive functionality system efficiency, and it is the training intensity at the pre-season stage that determines the athlete’s competitive performance efficiency and success. An objective of the pre-season training is to make the athlete’s body highly fit for the highest-intensity loads in the regular season.

References

1. Ozolin N.G. Trenirovka legkoatleta: Osnovy metodiki trenirovki [Training of track and field athlete: Basics of training methodology]. Moscow; Leningrad: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1949, 212 p.
2. Sudakov K.V., Makarov V.A. Kibernetika funktsionalnykh sistem [Cybernetics of functional systems]. Moscow: Meditsina publ., 1998, 400 p.
3. Pavlov S.E., Kuznetsova T.N. Adaptatsiya i stress v sporte [Adaptation and stress in sports]. Aktualnye voprosy meditsinskoy reabilitatsii v sovremennykh usloviyakh [Topical issues of medical rehabilitation today]. Moscow, 1999, pp. 307-312.
4. Ivanov V.A., Filimonov V.Y., Martynov V.S. Optimizatsiya trenirovochnogo protsessa lyzhnikov-gonshchikov vysokoy kvalifikatsii. Metod. rekom. [Optimization of training process of elite cross-country skiers. Method. recom.]. Moscow: USSR State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport, 1988.

Corresponding author: nikhram64@mail.ru

Abstract

The article reports and analyses opinions of the leading Norwegian experts, coaches and athletes on the key elements of the modern Norwegian cross-country skiers’ training system – that may explain their domination in the global ski racing sport. Special attention is given to description of the modern strength training components that are actually considered a basis for the cross-country skiers’ technical training cycles and widely applied to increase the power and efficiency of the propulsive movement phases in the ski stride. The article also considers the high-intensity competitive training modes widely applied by the Norwegians to attain the highest effectiveness of the “competitive functionality system”.