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Tag Archive: modern pentathlon

  1. True Grit

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    “Pentathlete Jenny McGeever overcomes adversity at French Open”

    Jenny McGeever Modern pentathlonOne of the most satisfying moments of my coaching career came 2 weekends ago, when one of our Excelsior athletes came 13th overall in Paris.

    Jenny had been on a training camp with Pentathlon Ireland in Italy. She caught budget airline Vueling to Paris, who kindly lost her bag.

    Now, here is what was in that bag:

    • Swimming costume and cap
    • Swords, breeches, helmet.
    • Riding boots.
    • Pistol.
    • Running shoes, shorts and vest.
    • Contact lenses.
    • Tolietries, underwear (girls get especially concerned about this stuff).

    It would be easy to quit at this point. I know many people who would. Not Jenny. She begged and borrowed kit so that she could compete.

    Swimming in a borrowed costume, fencing in borrowed kit and sword: she was in the overall lead after two events.

    (You may remember I wrote a post a while back as Jenny made her International debut for GB. This Mid Devon resident has since switched to Ireland.)

    2 down, 3 to go

    Riding next, and this was a bit more difficult in oversized borrowed boots: tricky to feel the horse, so she lost a couple of points here.

    Jenny McGeever pentathleteThe last event is the combined run/ shoot. This starts with the pentathletes using a laser pistol, aiming at a target 10m away. They have 50 seconds in which to hit the target 5 times, then run 800m and repeat.

    As you can see, Jenny uses contacts when shooting. However, she had to use her glasses for the shoot. She tried running, with them, but they kept falling off.

    So she ran without them and was getting dizzy due to her bad eyesight! She was also using a borrowed pistol.

    She set a personal best despite this.

    Jenny’s run is pretty good now, but the shooting is what drops her down to 13th from the overall lead. However, it is improving at every competition.

    Funding madness

    Now, when it comes to funding, do you want to give the money to someone in the “pathway” where in the words of the GB performance director a “culture of mediocrity” is being created?

    Or, do you want to give it to someone who can overcome adversity and is continuing to improve?

    I have been coaching Jenny for over 5 years now. From schoolgirl fencer to World Cup competitor and London 2012 hopeful to aspiring Modern Pentathlete.

    Someone said to me this week “she’s a talented girl“. I disagree. Jenny is a good overall athlete, who is very well organised, trains like a dog and makes sacrifices. 

    I have seen far more “talented” athletes squander their potential through being disorganised, lazy and wanting everything handed on a plate to them.

    This Modern Pentathlon competition was a big leap forward for Jenny. I will be supporting her throughout.

    Credit goes to Tiverton swimming club and Wellington Swords fencing club too for their support and coaching.

  2. The lard works in mysterious ways- Anton Parker

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    fat athleteFat as an active system

    So, our body fat deposits evolved as an energy store for tucking away excess calories for later use and helped our mammalian ancestors survive seasonal food shortages.

    This makes perfect sense; after all the ability to avoid starvation is a real evolutionary advantage. However, in westernised societies where life is sedentary and food is always available, there is now an obesity epidemic which is crippling the population and healthcare systems. But why? And how?

    We all know that the wrong kinds of dietary fat give you high cholesterol, heart disease and strokes but why does a high BMI massively increase your risk of diabetes and cancer?

    The fascinating answer that is emerging is that far from being just an energy store, our body fat is a fully functioning endocrine organ, secreting factors that can suppress insulin activity and drive aggressive growth of tumours.

    The question that remains to be answered is whether it is simply a case of having too much normally functioning fat or whether in obesity, the fat ‘goes bad’.

    As with all research, it is difficult to tease apart the confounding factors. In this case, how much of the effect is directly attributable to the fat itself and how much is from the lifestyle that leads to obesity.

    After all, there is also a strong link between cancer incidence/prognosis and exercise… But that is another story.

    Further Reading

    • http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/528575

     Anton Parker: Healthcare Scientist, Molecular Biology Department, Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

  3. Cool Downs for Fencers- A Major Rethink?

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    fencing cool down

    Last week I was talking to a couple of reasonable fencers (Louise Helyer– Commonwealth silver medallist, Drew Wilsher– Army Champion) about cool downs for fencers and why they should be different from other sports.

    It was something that they had not come across, and was of interest as they both coach modern pentathletes- for whom it is perhaps even more important.

    Fencing is a one sided sport- ipsilateral– and the actions predominantly work repeatedly on this same side.

    Most actions in life are contralateral (opposite arm and leg) including running.

    When looking at warm ups and cool downs, coaches have looked at things from a physiological perspective – heart rate, blood flow, core temperature and so on. In the warm ups technical drills and mental preparation will take place to prepare the fencer for competition.

    But what about the motor control system and the reflexes associated with this?

    The crossed extensor reflex (where one limb extends the other flexes) is a key part of walking and running, but has been interfered with whilst fencing. The fencing cool down should include some exercises that return the motor control system aback to its resting state ready for daily activity.

    Examples might be:

    • Walking- (fencers walk funny) emphasising swinging of the arms.
    • Walking and lifting knee up high- touch with opposite elbow.
    • Kneeling on the floor extending opposite arm and leg, then alternating sides.
    • Press up position- bring left  hand and right foot together undeneath the body, keeping your back flat. Repeat on the opposite side.

    More of these and video clips can be found in the SportsTraining System

    In the Modern Pentathlon World, after fencing for three hours, the athletes have a short break before starting on their combined run\shoot event. This is normally spent eating and drinking to aid recovery. But what about doing a few cool down drills that work contralaterally and restore the motor system to normality.

    This will then help the athlete when they are warming up for their combined event.

    Whilst it is very common to talk about “sport specific” training, these athletes don’t exist in a vacuum. They have to walk from A to B at the every least. So some thought should be given to adjusting back normal motor patterns as well as mental and physical recovery.

    (The same could be said for weightlifting exercises that only operate bipedally in a sagittal plane- think about doing exercises afterwards that work contralaterally and involve movement. Heaven forbid that it might resemble some athletic movements!)

    Further reading:

  4. Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe competing in the Olympics

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    arthur lanigan o'keeffeWell done Arthur

    Great news for Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe who has made it in to the Olympics as part of the Ireland Modern Pentathlon team.

    At 20 years old, this is a great result and is just reward for his hard work and dedication.

    He has some form having competed at the World Championships at only 17 (pictured right with me and his coach Drew Wilsher).

    Arthur trained with me weekly for 2 years on a Platinum package 

    Modern Pentathlon Training

    It was a busy time, juggling school work (well, not so much of that) with all of the 5 modern pentathlon disciplines. Arthur was part of a great group that I worked with then, including Greg Longden (16th in Youth Olympics) and Louise Helyer (Commonwealth Silver Medallist)

    arthur lanigan o'keeffeArthur is one of those athletes who has to be reigned in, and I am really pleased that he has made it.

    It’s just a shame about his socks.

    Good luck Arthur.

     

     

  7. Modern Pentathlon World Championships

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    Excelsior client Arthur Lanigan O Keeffe competed in the Modern Pentathlon world championships last week. At 17 years old he is technically a youth A athlete, not even a junior, but he more than held his own against the senior competition.

    He started off with a P.B. 2.03.03 in the 200 metre swim, finishing 6th in his group of 32.

    He then had a tough time in the fencing (he has only been fencing a year and this was always going to be a learning opportunity for him) finishing 29th out of 32. However, he did finish strongly with 8 hits out of his last 12 bouts.

    He then had a great combined event of run and shoot, again finishing 6th out of his semi final group with a time of 11.21 for the 3 sets fo 5 target hits and 1km runs. This moved him up from 25th in his group to 18th. Overall he finished 44th out of 96 competitors on the day. You need to be in the top 36 to make the finals day.

    That is a fantastic result for a first world championships, and we will look to build on that next month when we resume training.

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