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| An Interview with Don Christie | |||||
| Dr. Don Christie, a sports physician based in Lewiston, Maine, works closely with athletes of all levels, from high school to world-class elites. |
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| By Ron Beck © 2004 , Camp Keewaydin, Lake Temagami Ontario. August 5 2004: (photos, unless otherwise noted, © 2004 Camp Keewaydin)
I ran into Don at Lake Temagami this summer, and we got into a conversation about high performance squash and the value of Canoe Tripping as a cross training exercise. Exhibit number one is my son, Nate Beck, who is currently on the Keewaydin trip staff and has eschewed the traditional summer squash training regimen for college squash players in favor of canoe tripping. The result for him has been exemplary. He has exhibited drastic improvements in his squash each year. According to his coach, Bob Callahan of Princeton, "Nate has been our most improved player each of the past two years." Another example, perennial US age group champ John Frazier (a former Princeton Squash Team member), spent years as a Keewaydin camper and staffman. John achieved high national rankings in the years he spent his summers canoe tripping, and there is a case to be made that the endurance base he built then is still serving him today. I asked Don about this and other topics: ST: Don, what do you think about the idea of improving your squash by canoe tripping in the off season? Dr Christie: Ron, this isn't just a hypothesis, this is very much a proven fact. (We've spoken about your own son and John Frazier, both Keewaydin alum's.) What's called "dryland training," follows a significant rest period after the squash season and may include a regimen of totally different, but related, physical activities such as Keewaydin-style canoe tripping. Squash practice, itself, can wait for a few weeks. Such a sequence of relative rest, participation in alternative activities, and resumption of formal sports training can give an edge to world class athletes. The Nordic skiers from Finland, Norway and Sweden are a case in point. When studies were done to understand the successful development of Olympic and World Cup champions, it was found that not only do they engage in all sorts of playful sports as kids and young teenagers, they continue to participate in variety of activities during their summer "off" They hike, they cycle, they play soccer, and they run among other things. Those activities let their bodies rest and recover from the cross-country skiing season; even as they add to the essential base of endurance that they will employ in the upcoming competitive season. While roller skiing is the principle sport-specific dryland training for Nordic skiers, they introduce it in a very ordered fashion, and by no means is it their only training activity. Thus they avoid over-training the specific muscles that have been under constant stress and overload during the competitive season. ST:
What about the canoe-tripping angle? The tripping part adds in the key element of portaging, when you are carrying the canoe plus camping gear and food supplies from lake to lake, or around a rapid too unsafe to shoot, usually over hilly and uneven terrain. You often make more than one trip over each portage. You tend to assume a slightly squat position - great training for your quads, gluts, "core" and postural balance muscles. You are changing direction from side to side, balancing a heavy weight, so you are building a very functional endurance and strength base which happens to be ideal for the constant change of direction and balancing required on a squash court. (Editor's note: a 17-foot wood and canvas Chestnut Prospector canoe — the Keewaydin "standard" for the older section of campers — weighs 75+ pounds "dry", and soaks up some water weight as the season goes on.)
When you get back from a summer of canoe tripping, and get back onto the squash court, your cardiorespiratory conditioning is great. (Think of those miles of paddling against headwinds and the long portages with canoes or double packs!) Now all you do is spend a few days reminding your body that you are back on a squash court, and you are right back into it, at a higher level of overall fitness. Perhaps the most important thing is that you have given your body an extended period to recover from an intense season of competition even as you have begun to increase your baseline of endurance and work on both upper and lower body functional strength. This lets you move into the new season with an improved base of fitness. ST:
Explain exactly what you are talking about with the recovery period. There are many things that need to be done to avoid this problem. The first is to teach the athlete and his or her coach the importance of rest and recovery. This includes several elements. What we started out discussing is the need for a rest period at the end of the competition season. I would add to that the importance of taking time to monitor personal growth and development during adolescence. (At the least, measure weight and height every 3-4 months to properly monitor individual rates of maturation.) In a junior or college competitive season, the competitions come one after the other. In many cases, small injuries aren't rested adequately before the next competition, and so on. (See below about "just saying 'No!'") So at the end of the season, it is extremely important to take a significant period of rest, completely getting away from the specific training regimen for the sport. This will be specific to the athlete and his or her situation. If there is an injury, it is crucial to assess it and give the rest period needed to completely heal that injury, even — and this is often what the coaches and parents and even the competitor, don't want to hear — if it's in the midst of the season. Then the second element of the program is to design an complete training program that extends for the full ten months or so from the end of the rest period through the end of the competitive season.
This is where canoe-tripping, or other such endurance and strength and agility-building training comes in, so that when the season begins, the appropriate physical fitness is increased and the likelihood of injuries decreased. As you get closer to your season, a specific set of training should be followed to improve the body's ability to handle the intensity of pressure in a match situation - interval training and the like. The third element of the program is within-season rest. Adequate sleep is absolutely essential. During sleep, your muscles are recovering and rebuilding. Also, at times during the season, when the athlete doesn't feel ready or "fresh", it is completely wise and appropriate to sit that athlete out for a match or competition to ensure the avoidance of burnout or breakdown as the season wears on. This is the hardest part for the coach and parent to get their heads around. ST:
Do you have any other thoughts for recovery from a squash match? Extensive studies of how the body fuels the muscles during competition show a progression of use of sources of energy as intensity varies and the match progresses: fat and carbohydrate for low and mid-range effort of any duration, and carbohydrate (in the form of stored muscle glycogen, plus a small contribution from blood glucose from absorbed "food" or "deconstructed" liver glycogen stores) during higher-intensity effort. The body starts to "hit-the-wall" for anything beyond low-level effort when the carbohydrate fuel sources run out, and it simply grinds to a painful halt when lactic acid formed during intense, prolonged effort achieves a point of no return. The goal, then, is to extend the time before carbohydrate supplies run out and the lactic acid level becomes too elevated. A proper training and nutrition regimen accomplishes this. (EDITORS NOTE: The topics of exercise metabolism and nutrition for maximal performance are vastly more complicated than this might imply and will be the subject of a future SquashTalk discussion with Dr. Christie) One way to further this metabolic "education" is through the off-season "dry land" training we talked about - canoe tripping being one possible component. Another key component is, first, to be well nourished in general, and second, to replenish usable energy during competition. This will extend the period before one "hits-the-wall," maybe from, let's say, seventy minutes to eighty, which might be enough to give you the edge in that critical end of the fifth game in the 75th minute. This is where sports drinks like Gatorade come in. Extensive tests have showed they have the formulation just about right, providing the right percentage of sugar that the body can continue to uptake while undergoing intense activity, so it doesn't just sit in your stomach, plus sodium and potassium salts to replace sweat losses and facilitate carbohydrate absorption. If you can't afford commercial sports drink, make your own version out of half-strength orange juice and a pinch of salt per 8 ounces of drink. Try to take in an average of 8 ounces every 15 minutes of on-going exercise (which would be, therefore an average of an 8 ounce cup after each squash game in a match), to prevent the fatigue and drop-off in performance that comes with dehydration. Then is the all-important AFTER MATCH "fuel" replenishment. You have a window of 20 to 30 minutes right after exercise (practice as well as competition) when the body should begin refueling for muscle recovery, including glycogen replacement, and get you ready for the next day's, or evening's competition. There's really nothing better than a snack of real food, such as half a peanut-butter sandwich, some milk or yogurt, and some fruit. (Commercial "recovery" products such as Endurox R4 are convenient for many.) In contrast with what you ingest during competition, you now need to add some protein in with the carbohydrates. Of course a regular meal must follow on schedule. ST:
You mentioned earlier to me the all-importance of the ability to
"just say no" ? Athletes who have recently experienced a major growth spurt often discover that their recovery times are temporarily longer and performance poorer, and they, especially, need to feel free to say "No!" Such discipline, in the face of schedules fixed by administrators and under pressure from parents, friends, team-mates and other athletes to perform, no matter when or where, requires extraordinary resolve and understanding on the part of both athletes and coaches. It is the good coach's task to lay this matter out with parents, administrators, and teammates before the season begins, making clear that what counts most is the optimal development of each athlete. Serious squash players(and their loyal followers) must take this long view. [For more on where to engage in canoe tripping see http://temagami.keewaydin.org or www.ottertooth.com. You can reach Don Christie MD by email at dchristie @adelphia.net. He is based in Lewiston Maine] |
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Don
Christie, a sports physician who has worked with all levels of athletes,
has also spent his past 40 summers in various roles at the world's
preeminent canoe-tripping camp, 
Dr.
Christie: First
of all let me be very clear about this. I am talking about Canoe
TRIPPING, 
