The perfect SUP athlete

What is a "Hybrid Athlete"?

by Paolo Marconi

A "Hybrid Athlete" refers to a highly versatile athlete who can excel in various disciplines and develop diverse physical characteristics. This type of athlete often focuses on multiple disciplines, adopting a training approach that involves various attributes. A "Hybrid Athlete" develops different characteristics, including strength, power, endurance, speed, and flexibility.

Today, there are many disciplines where "Hybrid Athletes" excel, such as Triathlon, CrossFit, Obstacle Course Racing, Hyrox, and even SUP Race. These athletes often combine endurance sports with traits of strength, explosiveness, and coordination, adopting a varied and functional training style tailored to their discipline.

In SUP Race, we frequently face different challenges, covering various distances under changing environmental conditions. Moreover, our discipline can also be considered hybrid. It’s worth noting that in most cases when we perform in SUP, both the aerobic and anaerobic-lactic systems are involved at a metabolic level. Another point to consider is that most athletes today compete in almost all disciplines, ranging from long races up to 20km to 100m sprints. All of this makes the performance model of SUP Race highly variable, and training programs must be diverse and personalized, leaving ample room for a "Hybrid Athlete" who can adapt to various efforts and perform across a wide range of distances and formats.

Therefore, the perfect SUP athlete must be able to train pure endurance, whether paddling, running, or enduring continuous and prolonged efforts. Beyond this, they must also be explosive and strong, capable of producing maximum strength during certain phases of the race or in short competitions where maximum strength is crucial. What complicates things further is that our sport is practiced on narrow and unstable boards, often navigating rough seas and waves, making turns, or surfing at top speed. This requires an athlete with excellent balance, coordination, and flexibility, enabling them to perform efficiently in unstable conditions, still delivering their best technique.

So, who better than a "Hybrid Athlete" to excel in our sport? Looking at the best competitive SUP athletes in the world, most of them have solid aerobic foundations, but are also strong and flexible, capable of facing the various challenges that SUP races present. Of course, there will be athletes who prioritize endurance over strength or vice versa, but each one must maintain a balance between their traits to progress and perform at their best.
Each of us must be able to identify which characteristics, whether genetic or based on personal history, can be considered a strength, but it's also important to evaluate weak points and work on them to fill any gaps. With a solid training plan and a good coach or guide, a good balance can be achieved to improve in SUP Race and develop the traits of a "Hybrid Athlete." If you'd like to learn more about how to develop the ideal traits to become a good "Hybrid Athlete" and improve in SUP Race, you can visit the Coaching page on the SUP SALIVOLI website.