Apps For Perfecting Your Winter Sports Performance

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Have the spectacular goings-on at Sochi got you inspired to get off the couch and pick up your snowboard? Just remember to take your iPhone with you: there are a ton of game-changing apps to get more out of your runs.

Back in the day, slo-mo video analysis and gait analytics were only for the pros, now weekenders can have it, too, along with speed and other stats that can definitely up your game.  Cult of Mac polled some app makers for advice on how to get more out of this winter sports season.

Clear Sky's 10K app.
Clear Sky’s 10K app.

Extreme Sports? Step It Up Before You Go

“One of the frustrating things about extreme sports is that you just can’t do them all the time. As a snowboarder living in Israel, all I get is one week of snowboarding a year, at best,” Benny Shaviv, CEO Clear Sky Apps, maker of fitness apps ranging from 10K forever to Pushups Extreme. Before the winter season, Shaviv runs two t0 three times a week and does strength training. A month before the longed-for vacation he steps it up and says the “impact on my snowboarding has been tremendous.”

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Find Focus Before You Hit The Slopes

“Although meditation can have a spiritual or philosophical aspect to it, I focus on the neurological changes in the attentional system,” says Portenga, a sports and performance psychologist and founder of iPerformancePsychology.  “I use meditation to help train the attentional system without getting into the philosophical aspects. Breathing is similar. This is a crucial skill to manage energy and recovery. It’s surprising how many people don’t breathe efficiently or have breathing patterns that waste energy and can lead to anxious feelings. To handle pressure, a performer must have mastery over their attention and energy.”
That said, Yoda-like mental mastery still can’t make you graceful or expert if you’re a world-class klutz.
“At the most basic level, sport is 100% physical,” Portenga, who has worked with athletes in both the summer and winter Olympics, notes. “If you can’t ski, you can’t ski and no amount of ‘mental toughness’ will cover for that. It’s why you’re not going to see any PhDs in sport psychology at the Olympics. That being said, the brain controls the body, so it’s responsible for how efficiently we develop and how much of what we’ve developed we get out during a performance. You have to develop the physical skills first.”
A screenshot of Ubersense.
Video app Ubersense

Try A Virtual Coach

Ubersense, a free app for video and analysis in sports training, has been working with the USA Bobsled and Skeleton teams before they hit Sochi. Choke is a dirty word in sports, and it tends to happen when experts morph back into newbies when they suddenly become conscious of every move they make. And what about newbies who are already hyper-aware of how exactly how dumb they look?  It all depends on when you decide to shoot, apparently.

“We’ve heard from some people that they do not look to record or analyze footage during a game or round of golf as gets them thinking too much and they prefer to record and analyze during practice instead,” says Alex Pedicini, Ubersense community manager. “While some people may be a little embarrassed about the way they look on film, we’ve found that people who are serious about improving their performance and technique want the visual feedback.”
The app can record and analyze over 30 sports, compare your efforts to the pros and devise coaching plans. (The fearless can even share their videos — over various social media channels).
Pedicini says there is a ton to learn from watching and analyzing yourself on video, if you can get past the cringe factor.
“Slow-motion and video analysis in general was expensive and only available to elite level coaches and athletes. Now, with the rise of mobile devices and the increasingly high quality of the cameras it’s possible to do pretty much all the analysis you need from your phone or tablet,” he says.

If You Don’t Want To End Up On The Couch, Watch Your Weekend

Apps are great for motivation and charting progress, but there are some pitfalls to working with them. “People who don’t run regularly commonly try to go too hard too soon,” says Shaviv of Clear Sky Apps. “This means that someone who has not run for years might go out there and try to do a 20-minute straight run (and will feel pretty bad doing it). Then, in an effort to accelerate and get in shape fast – they might take a shot at running almost every day… which will only make it worse.”

The lesson? Weekend warriors will end up on the sidelines.

“Your body needs natural progression and time to heal. Using a pre-set program that slowly progresses is the way to go. We advise everyone to start slow, and make sure to mind the rest days. They are just as important as the running days – its during that time that your muscles build up and improve,” Shaviv notes.

Listen To Your Body, Not the Tech

Let’s say you’ve been faithful to wearing a heart rate monitor and an app, to track your progress all fall. Fitness by the numbers can be problematic, though.

“The biggest pitfall of training with tech is relying on it too much,” says Kate Billerbeck of NuMetrex, which makes futuristic heart rate monitor clothes and gear. “People tend to look at the stats in isolation – they think something like ‘oh, well I’ve had really steady results the past couple of days, so I can push myself to the limit today.’ ”

The opposite happens when weekend athletes let the numbers get them down. Billerbeck says that it’s easy to get discouraged if you’re not seeing the progress you expected.

“It’s important to remember why you started self-monitoring in the first place – to get to know your body better.  Sometimes it can be beneficial to take a step back and get some perspective – take a day off if you’re feeling tired or think about how much better you feel about yourself when you get a good workout in – regardless of whether or not your progress shows up on the screen.”

Digifit apps Digifit apps.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

One final word to the quantified fitness aficionados: keep an eye on your goals and your gadgets if you want to go long.

“(People forget) they need to reassess their fitness level and workout plan as their fitness level improves to maximize workout efforts.” says Dean Hovey, CEO of fitness app purveyor Digifit.  Hovey advises users to reassess their fitness level and cardiovascular strength every few months. “This will help avoid plateaus, promote safer workouts and ultimately help the user reach their goal faster.”

Other speed bumps on the road to maximum fitness include too much data from too many disparate sources, Hovey says.

“With so many fitness, health, weight management and calorie counting tech tools these days, many people become overwhelmed and may have personal data for different goals stored in multiple accounts or on multiple devices,” he says.

“To fix this problem, link accounts to gather data in one place or find a wearable tech tool that gathers data across multiple areas.”

One final note of caution: if you’ve gone digital with your training, don’t drain your willpower because of the batteries.

“Get in the habit of charging your devices on the way to the gym in your car, keep extra chargers in your gym bag and take a long a portable device for those unexpected low battery alerts,” Hovey notes.

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