Swedish speedskater Nils van der Poel dominated the 10,000-meter race Saturday and then released a training guide for anyone who wants to get on his level:
A friend of mine thinks that my success is mostly based on me being a talent. That the training plan that devoured me wouldn’t give anyone else the same results. Perhaps he’s right, perhaps he’s not. I actually think that he is a little right and a little wrong. I like to think that I earned my success. I also wish for the sport to keep developing and for my records to be broken. I will not be the one to break 6.00,00 nor 12.30,00, but maybe someone else will. For those who might want to, I wrote this document. It’s basically a summary of how I trained from May 2019 to February 2022.
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During my last two seasons I regularly skated 240 laps of 30,0 weekly, alone and with lane change. I believe that I am the only skater ever to be able to do that continuously. I was not born this way, I worked for it. From May 2019 up until August 2020 I abstained from competitions on ice and instead aim my powers at developing a strong aerobic base that enabled me to, later on, perform more high intensity work than ever before. The physical ability that enabled my success was a very strong aerobic base.
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Some pro athletes say that, since they are professionals and can train as much as they like, they might as well add some weight training, and some stretching, and some core, and some technical sessions, and some training competitions, and some coordination sessions… All training sessions are performed at the expense of other, more efficient, training sessions, or at the expense of recovery after these sessions. My point isn’t that stretching is useless. If you need to stretch then go ahead and bend over. But do not fool yourself; do not drop hours from the essential sessions in order to perform something that sounds cool or is easy. Yeah, the gym is warm and nice, mirrors everywhere so that you can see your pretty face and attractive muscles. But you’re more likely 50 watts of the required bike threshold to make it below 12.00,00, than you are 50kg in squats from it. I completely cut what I thought were the sub-optimal sessions in order to increase the optimal ones. But, as I’m looking back upon it all, 5 minutes of core and stretching weekly would have been a smart way of staying clear of injury. Those “prehab” sessions I believe should be approached with an attitude of “how little of this is enough?” in order not to get injured nor steal time and effort from the essential sessions. During winter I skated a lot more competition speed laps than any other long distance speed skater, but I did a lot less of any other high intensity training than all the others.
The 10,000 hour rule. Anyone can train for 10,000 hours at some endeavor and be among the best. Most applies to sports. That means time, coaching, equipment, practice, competitive play, etc.
Eight hours a day, five days a week for six years and you too could be a pro golfer. So goes the idea.
One man tried to become a pro golfer and after a while was just not making adequate success and quit.
Natural-born talent, a gift, plays a great role in success. You must have the talent, but agreed must practice a whole lot to reach the top.