National Geographic

That curveball your favorite baseball pitcherthrew? Fifty years ago, coaches would simplywatch a pitcher to see how he was throwing. Nowcoaching is a mixture of reviewing video andstatistics on big-screen TVs, cell phones, tab-lets, and laptop computers—with old-fashionedintuition thrown in. And coaches can instantlymeasure the speed of a pitch.THIS CONVERSATION about humanperformance comes with a strongnote of caution. Can we believe whatwe’re seeing? In 1988 we marveled at theworld record 100-meter dash of Canada’s BenJohnson—until he tested positive for using aperformance-enhancing drug, was stripped ofhis gold medal, and was sent home from theSummer Olympics in Seoul. The steroids erain sports is going strong 30 years later: U.S.cyclist Lance Armstrong, U.S. track star MarionJones, Russia’s Olympic delegation—the list ofviolators goes on.But let’s focus on the good in sports technol-ogy, which has upended training for paralympicathletes as well.Visually impaired skier Danelle Umstead, athree-time Paralympian and three-time bronzemedalist in a sport where athletes can reachspeeds of 70 miles an hour, has trained in awind tunnel that allowed her to work on aero-dynamics with a sight guide. During races shefollows her partner through the course as theycommunicate via headsets. Training in the tun-nel helped her tweak her technique to go faster.Meanwhile, coaches and athletes are challeng-ing long-held assumptions about training.Michael Andrew, 19, has broken the mostnational age-group swim records in USA Swim-ming history and holds 22 national records. Heand his father-coach, Peter, swear by a non-traditional training method called Ultra-ShortRace-Pace Training, or USRPT. Andrew swimsat short high-speed distances, conditioning hismind and body to constantly swim at race pace.``````Traditionally, elite swimmers have built endur-ance through workouts that involve a slowerpace with more yardage. The much debatedapproach has helped make Andrew an Olympichopeful for 2020 and is gaining traction amongtop swim coaches in the U.S. and elsewhere.“Everything we do is science-based; there isdata to back up what we’re doing in the pool,”Andrew says. “Our brain and our body will codethese movements like a computer would. Itdoesn’t make sense to train slowly when you’retrying to swim fast.”AMERICAN DISTANCE SWIMMER KatieLedecky, who recently announcedthat she is leaving the Stanford Uni-versity team to become a professional swimmer,has a more traditional training method. ButLedecky, 21, has used sports science to becomeone of the best women’s freestylers in the world.The five-time Olympic gold medalist, who settwo world records at the 2016 Olympics in Riode Janeiro, Brazil, eagerly digests readoutsabout her nutrition and blood work, and stud-ies videos of her workouts and races, looking forways to improve her arm and hand movements.Ledecky’s success often is attributed to her workethic; her real secret could be that she has one ofthe most eicient strokes in swimming.That wouldn’t have mattered, though, if shehad not been willing to work hard, says BruceGemmell, who coached Ledecky to the 2016Olympics. In the three years before the RioOlympics, Ledecky’s weekly workload was usu-ally 60,000 to 65,000 yards, spread over ninepractices in six days. “I give speeches aboutcoaching Katie,” Gemmell says. “One day, I’mtempted to put up just one slide saying, ‘Katieworks her ass of, and she’s tough as nails,’ andthen say: ‘Any questions?’ ”Two things during those practices made adifference for Ledecky in Rio. She wanted topay attention to the start of her races—how shedived into the pool. For sprinters, this obses-sion would make sense. Every 10th of a secondmatters in races that are decided by hundredthsof a second.But Ledecky is a distance swimmer, knownfor finishing far ahead of her competitors. “Shestudied a video of her starts, hoping to gain a10th of a second,” Gemmell says. Ledecky’s sec-ond practice obsession involved the finish of the200-meter freestyle. As she would finish a series``````During workouts,Taylor Fletcher, 28 (left),and other members ofthe U.S. ski team wearheadphones that elec-trically stimulate theirmotor cortex. Research``````suggests that targetedbrain stimulationmay improve musclememory and reducean athlete’s ability toperceive fatigue.DAVID BURNETT``````FASTER, HIGHER, SMARTER, STRONGER 55