The assessment of energy demand in the new olympic windsurf board: Neilpryde RS:X®

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the energy demands of sailing the new Neilpryde RS:X Ò Olympic windsurf board. Ten skilled male subjects performed an exhaustive incremental treadmill test to determine their maximal physiological parameters. Thereafter, four tests were performed in a randomised order using two wind conditions, light [2-4 ms -1 (4-8 knots)] and strong: [9-11 ms -1 (16-22 knots)]. Oxygen consumption ( _ VO 2 ; ml min -1 kg -1 ), blood lactate concentration ([la] b , mmol l -1 ), and time spent pumping (% total time) were recorded during 10 min of up-wind leg and during 6 min of down-wind leg.The results indicate that sailing on RS:X is associated with a high level of energy demand using both aerobic and anaerobic pathways whatever the wind conditions. During the down-wind leg, _ VO 2 (ml min -1 kg -1 ), [la] b (mmol l -1 ), and time spent pumping (% total time) values for the light and strong wind conditions were 56.5 ± 5.9 versus 55.5 ± 3.6; 10.2 ± 1.5 versus 9.6 ± 2.3, and 69 ± 5 versus 64 ± 2%, respectively. In contrast, during up-wind leg the same parameters for light and strong wind were 53.9 ± 4.5 versus 40.4 ± 7.2; 9.7 ± 2.8 versus 5.0 ± 2.7 and 66 ± 3 versus 37 ± 8%, respectively. During the up-wind leg with strong wind conditions, less time was spent pumping (p < 0.05), mean oxygen consumption values were close to 60% _ VO 2 max ; and post-exercise blood lactate was less than 50% maximal lactate concentration. These results could be related to the time spent in pumping action, involving whole body activity. When sailing with the RS:X board, the physiological demand seems to be higher than with the previous official Olympic windsurf board [Mistral One Design Ò (MOD)]. This difference could be mainly attributed to the specific biomechanical constraints induced by each board characteristic.

Physiological demands of different sailing techniques of the new Olympic windsurfing class

“…The cardiorespiratory and blood lactate responses reported in the present study while using the new pumping technique are very closely aligned to those recently published by Castagna et al (2007) who studied a cohort of 10 French and Spanish international level windsurfers under similar wind velocity conditions. Accordingly, it is confirmed that sail pumping on the new Olympic RS:X board is associated with a high requirement on both aerobic (80% max) and anaerobic metabolic pathways.…”

“…Interestingly, the different sail area and board characteristics of the RS:X compared to the Mistral board [bigger sail (9.5 vs. 7.4 m 2 ), shorter (2.86 vs. 3.70 m) and wider board (93 vs. 63 cm)] also made sailors to develop a new pumping technique (Castagna et al 2007). Sailors claim that implementation of the new technique has made their boards sail faster and at a closer angle relative to the direction of the wind (better pointing angle ability relative to the wind).…”

“…Sail pumping in Mistral One Design class (the official board used by sailors from 1992 through to the 2004 Olympic Games) was reported to increase windsurfers' cardiorespiratory demands three-fold compare to windsurfing without pumping (Vogiatzis et al 2002), thereby making windsurfing a highly demanding Olympic class in terms of aerobic capacity ( _ VO 2 typically ranging between 70 and 85% of maximal) (DeVito et al 1996(DeVito et al , 1997. With the introduction of the new sailboard [the Neilpryde RS:X Ò (RS:X)] for the Beijing Olympic Games, sail pumping was shown to be even more demanding compared to the Mistral class ( _ VO 2 ranging between 80 and 90% of maximal) owing to the larger sail area of the RS:X board (Castagna et al 2007).…”

Physical requirements in Olympic sailing

“…Comparable or greater values for metabolic response have been observed in boardsailing by De Vito et al (1996& 1997, and more recently, Castagna et al (2007;2008) reported oxygen uptake values of 65 ml*kg -1 *min -1 , or above 80% of VO 2 max, with heart rates above 90% of HRmax and serum lactate exceeding 10 mmol*l -1 in elite Olympic board sailors when recorded during highly taxing conditions on water (characterized by light wind and down-wind sailing where immense sail pumping (i.e. manual repetitive movements with the rig) contributes as a main factor to propulsion).…”

Atenção em velejadores: conceitos e aplicações

“…Estudos apontam as diversas exigências necessárias para a prática da vela, como: demandas de força, equilíbrio, coordenação, resistência, nutrição adequada, além de boas condições psicológicas para interpretar adequadamente ações do vento e do mar, tomar decisões rápidas, e manter a concentração e o foco de atenção (SLATER; TAN, 2007;DUARTE, 2007;MACKIE;LEGG, 1999;DAUTY et al, 2006;BERNARDI et al, 2007;CUNNINGHAM;HALE, 2007;LÉGER et al, 2007;PARDAL;SPURWAY, 2007;VALLEJO;ROSIQUE;GONZÁLEZ-MORO, 2008). Somado a isso, também se torna necessária uma boa atenção em tarefas individuais e simultâneas, estando estas relacionadas à capacidade do velejador em automatizar tarefas (ABERNETHY et al, 2007).…”