MENTOR AS ANYTHING

Even Olympian needs schooling to keep up with the changes

SHE’S a former Nutri-Grain series winner, an Australian ironwoman champion and has been to two Olympics but Northcliffe’s women’s coach Naomi Flood will have to go back to the drawing board to keep up with this summer’s controversial changes.

Surf Life Saving Australia’s decision to incorporate additional disciplines such as stand up paddle boarding and cross-fit style obstacle challenges into the Nutri-Grain series as part of the stand-alone Iron X race has drawn extensive criticism.

But Flood believes the practicality of the changes presents the greatest challenge.

“I’ve got to learn how to do stand up paddling and cross fit exercises in a way that won’t injure our athletes,” she said. “It makes me worry.

“If clubs have coaches that don’t know how to coach it then they’ll have to hire coaches who do and if clubs don’t have access to a cross-fit gym then they’ll have to pay to access one.

“We don’t have space for stand up paddle boards at our club and I’m not sure many clubs would have space.”

The 2009 Nutri-Grain series winner, 33, also claimed athletes would suffer as a result of the changes, given the demands of having to train for additional elements beyond the original four traditional disciplines.

“We have swimmers training four to five times a week and amazing Coolangatta Gold athletes who are going to have to bulk up and change their training,” she said.

“It’s going to completely change their physique so then they won’t be able to swim well at all, which defeats the purpose of having elite swimmers.

“They spend forever honing their fitness, ability and agility to be able to complete the current three disciplines but now you’re adding in all these additional elements which they haven’t trained for.”

Flood likened the introduction of new disciplines to the sport of surf life saving to a game of NRL.

“It’s like saying to the Titans that they’re going to play a game of football and the first half is normal but then the second half is split into two quarters and in the first they have to play AFL and then play netball in the second,” she said.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. The demonstration event is in theory a good idea but it should just be an exhibition.”

SLSA did not return calls when approached by the Bulletin for comment.