EFFICIENCY AND PERFORMANCE
The technique employed by any athlete determines their performance. Not only how long they can sustain their best effort but also how far their best effort will take them so long as they maintain appropriate nutritional strategies.
How long you can sustain your effort is determined by your efficiency. The more efficient your technique is the lower the energy cost and the longer you can maintain the effort. By refining technique you improve the efficiency of your movement and your endurance performance will improve as will your maximum ability.
Two athletes with the same efficiency of movement can have very different performances directly as a result of how effective their techniques are.
When evaluating cycle ergometer test values, athletes with the highest efficiency achieved higher results in competition. What was observed was effectiveness of technique, where athletes with a more effective technique were able to develop even higher rates of efficiency. Where athletes scored the same level of physical capacity, it was always the athlete with a more effiency that performed better in competition. Efficiency has a higher relationship with performance than parameters of maximum power output in endurance performance.
Improving both can be achieved simultaneously, once you have developed the most effective technique. Three time Triathlon World Champion Peter Robertson has very effective technique. Throughout the course of his training, the focus is on improving the efficiency of movement and applying strategies that encourage this – as a result physiological imprvoements follow.
Focus more and more on technique components – train to a technique and monitor physiological responses. Specific sessions should aim to elicit a certain response as a result of practicing form. Training to push your body to physiological parameters can be done without focussing on technique and is the reason why few enjoy successful performance gains. Practice your form and enjoy the responses, avoid training for fitness.
More from training
> Fatigue feedback
> Efficent movement - elastic properties of muscles
> Improvement timeline
> Technique and physiology
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