Tactics: the missing link in performance

Adventure sports performance is a complicated business. There is a popular story about Wolfgang Gullich, the first climber to climb the sport grade of 9a, who after a winter of hard physical training, failed on one of his test pieces and exclaimed, ‘Climbing is so complex!’ Wolfgang had trained very hard and even created new training protocols that would be adopted by elite climbers across the sport, but he trained something that he was already strong in and neglected things that may have helped his performance more. You might be thinking: well how do I avoid the same mistake? How can I know that I have considered all of the factors that might impact my athlete’s performance? The answer might lie in completing some kind of activity demands profile for your activity before evaluating training needs. A framework that helps to consider the elements that contribute to performance might also help. A number of sports, for example, skiing and paddle-sport (see the BASI Alpine manual, 2014 and BCU Coaching Handbook, 2006) have adopted a framework that breaks performance into key areas as part of their coach training syllabus. The physical, physiological, technical, tactical, equipment and environment model (Figure 9.1) is a starting point for the coach to consider limitations on current performance levels and also to ensure that an athlete is developing in a rounded and holistic manner. We need to ask; where are this learner’s priority needs? Do they need to be fitter, more accurate, more mentally robust, or do they need a smarter approach to the task?.