Training the Racing Greyhound (1)
Feb 20, 2012 16:17:25 GMT 10
Post by Tom Meulman on Feb 20, 2012 16:17:25 GMT 10
Training the Racing Greyhound (1)
Basic Principles of Planning a Training Program
Like any athlete, a greyhound must undergo a training program to prepare and condition its body for the physical effort required to race. However, successful training is all about getting the basics right first, and then working the greyhound not to some grand training plan, but to the requirements of that individual greyhound.
Therefore any training program must be flexible and able to be modified and adjusted on a weekly or even a daily basis to suit the individual greyhounds needs, while aiming for a specific goal.
The secret to successful training is to start with a healthy and sound greyhound, observe your greyhounds carefully, and adjust the greyhound’s work in line with soundly based observations made after each run.
It is also worth remembering that everything that happens to the greyhound as a result of the work you give it, is your doing and your responsibility, there is no such thing as a greyhound that always pulls up sore, or a greyhound that always stresses after every run.
If this occurs, it occurs as a result of training techniques that are unsuitable for that particular greyhound or due to the poor health of the greyhound in the first place, and therefore the fault of the trainer, not the dog.
However having said that it is not always possible get every greyhound to perform, on many occasions it is simply not financially viable to continue on with some greyhounds due to the poor mental attitude of the greyhound towards competing, or as a result of severe muscle damage and/or internal organ damage that limits racing ability, and therefore retirement is often the only option.
Basic Considerations
First of all lets review some of the basic but essential considerations that you must keep in mind when you are designing a training program for a young greyhound.
Greyhounds are generally reared in long straight runs, and they generally spend at least 8 months of their lives running up and down in these yards.
A immature greyhound that is still growing, will by pulling up and spinning around in a narrow rearing run place extra strain on their lower back, left wrist joint, the left fibula, and the ligaments of the right hock as well as other areas of the body that have not yet reached their full strength.
As well as strain to the top of both the right and left thigh muscle pulling up at the end of the yard, and straining the calf muscles as well as the lower end of the biceps particularly on the left hind leg in taking off suddenly from a standing start.
Knowing all that, it is only common sense to first of all have a good look at the physical structure of a young greyhound to determine if there are any weaknesses caused by the rearing which must be allowed for in a training program, or that may require strengthening prior to starting a training program.
But you have had the dog checked for injuries by a reputable and capable person; therefore you should be able to do what ever you want to do, right?
I'm sorry but it just isn't that simple, because I mean weaknesses, not painful injuries, and there is a considerable difference. A weakness may consist of a repetitive strain injury that has healed and shows no pain response and is therefore easily missed, but is weaker than the same muscles, ligaments or tendons on the other side of the greyhound.
Check the following areas not just for pain but primarily for bone joint stability.
Left wrist joint to take downward pressure by pushing down firmly on the top of the shoulder blade without bending back further than the right wrist joint with the dog standing balanced on all four feet.
The stability of the Accessory Carpal Bone (stopper bone) of both wrists checked by bending the wrist at right angles, placing your thumb in the hollow at the back of the wrist on top of the stopper bone, and pressing it firmly towards the toes.
On the shoulders, the stability of the junction between the Humerus and Scapula, particularly on the right shoulder, by placing the tip of the index finger in the hollow of this junction and placing moderate pressure inward and rearward.
Sideways stability of the 7th Lumbar Vertebra by placing a thumb at the side of the Vertebra and pressing it firmly sideways. Test it in both sideways directions and there should not be any movement or discomfort at all.
It should be noted that a greyhound that has sustained damage to the stability of the 7th Lumbar Vertebra will most like have a smaller left hip muscle as compared to the right hip muscle due to poor nerve supply.
Right hock flexion as compared to left hock flexion, tested by bringing the hind limb up of the ground, bending the knee upwards, and then with one hand on top of the knee, and the other under the foot place moderate pressure to bear, taking note of the distance between the foot and the knee when the same pressure is placed on each limb.
Strengthen each weakness as required, and adjust the type of work or training undertaken by the greyhound in the short term to avoid placing additional strain on any weakness found. It does not make much sense to give a greyhound suffering a weakness in the left wrist joint any work at all in a tight bullring, or to run a greyhound with a weakness in the left hind leg up a straight everyday.
Therefore any training program you see written out must be taken as a basic guide only, and not as a hard and fast rule that applies to every greyhound.
The only other basic requirement for any training program is, it must be a program, not just getting up Sunday morning and the sun is shinning so you say to yourself, hey it is a great day, lets go trial the dogs.
To plan an individual training and racing program you need to consider the greyhounds:
Health
Weight
Age
Race/trialling experience to date
Soundness – physically not sore or carrying injuries
Structural weaknesses
Mental attitude
The Greyhound’s Age Versus Work Capabilities
The age of the greyhound in relation to its physical and/or mental ability to undertake the rigors of a training program designed by the trainer is often a point of contention.
However, there is a simple basic formula that may be used to determine whether or not a young greyhound is mature enough for the intended program, and that is:
“One Month in a Greyhounds Age is Equivalent to One Year in a Human”
In other words, you would not expect a 12 year old to be able to handle the same amount of physical work able to be carried out by an 18 year old. Nor would you expect an 18 year old to be as mature in their mental outlook as a 24 year old. At the same time, how many professional athletes are still competing at the top of their field at 36 years of age?
There is another aspect to this formula, anyone who has reared children understands only too well that if you haven’t taught your kids the right way to behave by the time they are 15 year old, it’s too late!!
The same rules apply to educating greyhounds; you have a small window of opportunity to educate and break-in a greyhound starting between 12 or 13 months of age (depending on bone maturity) and 15 months of age.
However, don’t expect a 15 month old pup to be able to do the same work as a 20 month old greyhound without breaking down.
Planning and Scheduling Training Programs
Regardless of the content of a training program, there are basically two ways to schedule a training program for your greyhounds, and they are:
A training program where you plan 14 days ahead, and list all the work that the greyhound is going to do on a whiteboard, including the type of work, the track, and the distance. Then every day when the work program for that day is completed you write down the work to be done in 14 days time and make whatever alterations are required to the program based on the greyhound heath and wellbeing.
A training program where you start out with a specific race or event in mind, and using a method called Critical Path Scheduling you work back to today, listing everything that must be done by you and the greyhound, to get to the race and win it.
It is called Critical Path Scheduling because to get to a certain place or achieve a certain result, there are items or actions that are critical to that end result, and if any are missed out on, you simply don’t get there.
Starting out from this future event you first list all the “must do” or “critical” items from that event back to today. Then list all the “should do” items to be done in between the critical items. Then if you wish, you may also list any additional items that would benefit the end result but are not critical to that result. This may include items such as when the greyhound is scheduled to have a Hydrobath, injury checks, blood profiles, and/or therapeutic treatments or injections.
This will then provide a detailed plan of action, culminating in the best possible performance by the greyhound in the scheduled race or event.
Sprinters and Stayers
While it should be obvious that a greyhound racing over 350 meters and a greyhound racing over the 700 metre distances have different work requirements, and therefore a different training regime. These work requirements are still dictated solely by the ability of each individual greyhound to handle a specific workload.
The difference between a sprinter and a true stayer is the result of an ideal combination of a specific type of muscle structure, and the right mental makeup.
In other words, if you have a greyhound born with fatigue resistant slow twitch muscle fiber, and a mental makeup that causes this greyhound to be highly excitable and chase insanely, all you will have is a very slow sprinter. Or on the other hand, if you have a greyhound with the muscle fibre structure of a sprinter and a mental attitude more suited to a stayer, you will have a greyhound that may be either difficult to break-in or does not appear to chase keenly most of the time.
One of the main reasons why many experienced breeders are reluctant to use a champion stayer as a sire or stud dog, is that pups often inherit the sire’s mental attitude. While there have been many sires where a large proportion of their offspring were successful stayers, they themselves were sprinters with exceptional stamina.
It is therefore most important to realise that if your greyhound has the inherited muscle structure and traits of a sprinter, it is extremely unlikely it will ever be able to run 700 or 800 metres no matter what training methods you use.
The other important fact to understand is that when your greyhound has reached its peak fitness, it cannot get fitter; any additional and harder workload will only result in muscle breakdown, excessive muscle tone and major muscle injuries.
Every greyhound has a maximum distance it is capable of running comfortably before it starts to stress and/or suffers increased muscle damage. Find the distance that suits your greyhound best, and then concentrate on training the greyhound for that distance only.
Most greyhounds racing every fourth or fifth day do not require any other exercise other than walking for 20 minutes daily or being let out in a small yard four times daily to relieve themselves.
Cease all trials and hand slips behind the lure a minimum of 72 hours before the race; don’t leave your greyhound’s best run on the trial track!
Cheers,
Tom
Basic Principles of Planning a Training Program
Like any athlete, a greyhound must undergo a training program to prepare and condition its body for the physical effort required to race. However, successful training is all about getting the basics right first, and then working the greyhound not to some grand training plan, but to the requirements of that individual greyhound.
Therefore any training program must be flexible and able to be modified and adjusted on a weekly or even a daily basis to suit the individual greyhounds needs, while aiming for a specific goal.
The secret to successful training is to start with a healthy and sound greyhound, observe your greyhounds carefully, and adjust the greyhound’s work in line with soundly based observations made after each run.
It is also worth remembering that everything that happens to the greyhound as a result of the work you give it, is your doing and your responsibility, there is no such thing as a greyhound that always pulls up sore, or a greyhound that always stresses after every run.
If this occurs, it occurs as a result of training techniques that are unsuitable for that particular greyhound or due to the poor health of the greyhound in the first place, and therefore the fault of the trainer, not the dog.
However having said that it is not always possible get every greyhound to perform, on many occasions it is simply not financially viable to continue on with some greyhounds due to the poor mental attitude of the greyhound towards competing, or as a result of severe muscle damage and/or internal organ damage that limits racing ability, and therefore retirement is often the only option.
Basic Considerations
First of all lets review some of the basic but essential considerations that you must keep in mind when you are designing a training program for a young greyhound.
Greyhounds are generally reared in long straight runs, and they generally spend at least 8 months of their lives running up and down in these yards.
A immature greyhound that is still growing, will by pulling up and spinning around in a narrow rearing run place extra strain on their lower back, left wrist joint, the left fibula, and the ligaments of the right hock as well as other areas of the body that have not yet reached their full strength.
As well as strain to the top of both the right and left thigh muscle pulling up at the end of the yard, and straining the calf muscles as well as the lower end of the biceps particularly on the left hind leg in taking off suddenly from a standing start.
Knowing all that, it is only common sense to first of all have a good look at the physical structure of a young greyhound to determine if there are any weaknesses caused by the rearing which must be allowed for in a training program, or that may require strengthening prior to starting a training program.
But you have had the dog checked for injuries by a reputable and capable person; therefore you should be able to do what ever you want to do, right?
I'm sorry but it just isn't that simple, because I mean weaknesses, not painful injuries, and there is a considerable difference. A weakness may consist of a repetitive strain injury that has healed and shows no pain response and is therefore easily missed, but is weaker than the same muscles, ligaments or tendons on the other side of the greyhound.
Check the following areas not just for pain but primarily for bone joint stability.
Left wrist joint to take downward pressure by pushing down firmly on the top of the shoulder blade without bending back further than the right wrist joint with the dog standing balanced on all four feet.
The stability of the Accessory Carpal Bone (stopper bone) of both wrists checked by bending the wrist at right angles, placing your thumb in the hollow at the back of the wrist on top of the stopper bone, and pressing it firmly towards the toes.
On the shoulders, the stability of the junction between the Humerus and Scapula, particularly on the right shoulder, by placing the tip of the index finger in the hollow of this junction and placing moderate pressure inward and rearward.
Sideways stability of the 7th Lumbar Vertebra by placing a thumb at the side of the Vertebra and pressing it firmly sideways. Test it in both sideways directions and there should not be any movement or discomfort at all.
It should be noted that a greyhound that has sustained damage to the stability of the 7th Lumbar Vertebra will most like have a smaller left hip muscle as compared to the right hip muscle due to poor nerve supply.
Right hock flexion as compared to left hock flexion, tested by bringing the hind limb up of the ground, bending the knee upwards, and then with one hand on top of the knee, and the other under the foot place moderate pressure to bear, taking note of the distance between the foot and the knee when the same pressure is placed on each limb.
Strengthen each weakness as required, and adjust the type of work or training undertaken by the greyhound in the short term to avoid placing additional strain on any weakness found. It does not make much sense to give a greyhound suffering a weakness in the left wrist joint any work at all in a tight bullring, or to run a greyhound with a weakness in the left hind leg up a straight everyday.
Therefore any training program you see written out must be taken as a basic guide only, and not as a hard and fast rule that applies to every greyhound.
The only other basic requirement for any training program is, it must be a program, not just getting up Sunday morning and the sun is shinning so you say to yourself, hey it is a great day, lets go trial the dogs.
To plan an individual training and racing program you need to consider the greyhounds:
Health
Weight
Age
Race/trialling experience to date
Soundness – physically not sore or carrying injuries
Structural weaknesses
Mental attitude
The Greyhound’s Age Versus Work Capabilities
The age of the greyhound in relation to its physical and/or mental ability to undertake the rigors of a training program designed by the trainer is often a point of contention.
However, there is a simple basic formula that may be used to determine whether or not a young greyhound is mature enough for the intended program, and that is:
“One Month in a Greyhounds Age is Equivalent to One Year in a Human”
In other words, you would not expect a 12 year old to be able to handle the same amount of physical work able to be carried out by an 18 year old. Nor would you expect an 18 year old to be as mature in their mental outlook as a 24 year old. At the same time, how many professional athletes are still competing at the top of their field at 36 years of age?
There is another aspect to this formula, anyone who has reared children understands only too well that if you haven’t taught your kids the right way to behave by the time they are 15 year old, it’s too late!!
The same rules apply to educating greyhounds; you have a small window of opportunity to educate and break-in a greyhound starting between 12 or 13 months of age (depending on bone maturity) and 15 months of age.
However, don’t expect a 15 month old pup to be able to do the same work as a 20 month old greyhound without breaking down.
Planning and Scheduling Training Programs
Regardless of the content of a training program, there are basically two ways to schedule a training program for your greyhounds, and they are:
A training program where you plan 14 days ahead, and list all the work that the greyhound is going to do on a whiteboard, including the type of work, the track, and the distance. Then every day when the work program for that day is completed you write down the work to be done in 14 days time and make whatever alterations are required to the program based on the greyhound heath and wellbeing.
A training program where you start out with a specific race or event in mind, and using a method called Critical Path Scheduling you work back to today, listing everything that must be done by you and the greyhound, to get to the race and win it.
It is called Critical Path Scheduling because to get to a certain place or achieve a certain result, there are items or actions that are critical to that end result, and if any are missed out on, you simply don’t get there.
Starting out from this future event you first list all the “must do” or “critical” items from that event back to today. Then list all the “should do” items to be done in between the critical items. Then if you wish, you may also list any additional items that would benefit the end result but are not critical to that result. This may include items such as when the greyhound is scheduled to have a Hydrobath, injury checks, blood profiles, and/or therapeutic treatments or injections.
This will then provide a detailed plan of action, culminating in the best possible performance by the greyhound in the scheduled race or event.
Sprinters and Stayers
While it should be obvious that a greyhound racing over 350 meters and a greyhound racing over the 700 metre distances have different work requirements, and therefore a different training regime. These work requirements are still dictated solely by the ability of each individual greyhound to handle a specific workload.
The difference between a sprinter and a true stayer is the result of an ideal combination of a specific type of muscle structure, and the right mental makeup.
In other words, if you have a greyhound born with fatigue resistant slow twitch muscle fiber, and a mental makeup that causes this greyhound to be highly excitable and chase insanely, all you will have is a very slow sprinter. Or on the other hand, if you have a greyhound with the muscle fibre structure of a sprinter and a mental attitude more suited to a stayer, you will have a greyhound that may be either difficult to break-in or does not appear to chase keenly most of the time.
One of the main reasons why many experienced breeders are reluctant to use a champion stayer as a sire or stud dog, is that pups often inherit the sire’s mental attitude. While there have been many sires where a large proportion of their offspring were successful stayers, they themselves were sprinters with exceptional stamina.
It is therefore most important to realise that if your greyhound has the inherited muscle structure and traits of a sprinter, it is extremely unlikely it will ever be able to run 700 or 800 metres no matter what training methods you use.
The other important fact to understand is that when your greyhound has reached its peak fitness, it cannot get fitter; any additional and harder workload will only result in muscle breakdown, excessive muscle tone and major muscle injuries.
Every greyhound has a maximum distance it is capable of running comfortably before it starts to stress and/or suffers increased muscle damage. Find the distance that suits your greyhound best, and then concentrate on training the greyhound for that distance only.
Most greyhounds racing every fourth or fifth day do not require any other exercise other than walking for 20 minutes daily or being let out in a small yard four times daily to relieve themselves.
Cease all trials and hand slips behind the lure a minimum of 72 hours before the race; don’t leave your greyhound’s best run on the trial track!
Cheers,
Tom
