A beginner’s guide to obstacle course racing

One of the most inspiring South African fitness athletes I know is an athlete by the name of Thomas van Tonder. 

Thomas is a Red Bull-sponsored obstacle course racer (OCR). Thomas won his first event in Pep Store shoes and fast track to 2019, he placed third in the Red Bull “Conquer the Castle”, second place in the three kilometre OCR World Championships in the United Kingdom and won the Sprint Event.

Thomas is currently ranked fourth in the world overall. 

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, he has set a Guinness world record for the fastest 50m rope climb and came first in 19 South African Warrior races. 

OCR embodies how human beings should be functionally fit and even though CrossFit claim they have the fittest athletes on earth, there are very few elite Crossfit athletes that will be able to go toe-to-toe with elite OCR athletes in their world. 

OCR is a sport in which an athlete competes on foot and must overcome various physical and mental challenges.

Obstacles may include climbing over walls, carrying heavy objects, traversing through bodies of water, crawling through barbed wire, and jumping through fire, mimicking military style training to test your endurance, strength, speed, and dexterity. 

Understanding body size

The purity of this type of sport is that it speaks to how humans need to function. They need to be able to push, pull, squat, and lift, and control the body with ease and fluidity.

Choosing a fitness career, sport or fitness activity requires your body to undergo changes to cope with the demands. If you are a professional body builder, you must be built for aesthetics, but even though you might look like an ancient Greek god, you will not necessarily be able to sprint a 100m, run a half marathon, climb over things or be able to be agile in any other sport. 

Crossfit athletes are not good swimmers or marathon runners because their body needs to be built in a different way for their sporting demands.

The mass or size of Crossfitters works against them on longer distances because it causes more drag in water and when they jog, added muscle size places more energy and muscle demands on the body with each step.

An example would be taking a first-place marathon runner, equipping them with a 5–10kg weight jacket and expecting them to win the race. More than likely they won’t even finish the race. 

The sports or fitness activity you decide to participate in will determine your optimal physical body, fitness and muscle needs. 

To become a top athlete in the OCR world, your entire life must be dedicated to developing your skill-sets and building your body to be more functional, lean, and tough. This requires not just running around in the outdoors each day and expecting to improve or win, but rather a more calculated effort. 

Beginners guide to OCR training – Five top tips: 

1 Build your lungs

Start by running on the road to help build your lung capacity, build running endurance, and leg strength. Sign up once a week for a trail run to help develop your ankle stability and accustom your calves to varying terrain surfaces. Your legs and lungs will be taxed at first, but your body will quickly adapt.  

2 Research 

It is important to do your own research and not blindly accept what everyone tells you. Even if they are right, you need context to what advice they are giving you. This comes by understanding your craft and researching everything you can online about OCR. 

3 Follow your guru 

Learn from the best in the world. Follow Thomas_OCR and other OCR athletes on social media and see what they do on a daily basis to get an understanding of what they are doing at a professional level. The idea here is to understand what is required of you at that level and then water down your training to normal human ability. 

4 Learn to run

Learning to run properly is an art and a skill you need to learn and practice. Book an assessment with a sports scientist to help you understand more about your foot landing, ball or heel strike, alignment and over-rotation of hips.

If your alignment is not right and you are a heavy runner, adding volume to your training and intensity will only over-work muscle that should not be over-used and cause you a lot of discomfort and injury. This is single-handedly the best investment you can make in yourself, just ask Thomas. 

5 Have fun or change

One thing you will always see in every single video or picture that Thomas posts is how happy he is to do what he is doing – the passion in his eyes and the sheer excitement of the adventure. He loves to be outdoors and has made this his life.

Thomas is an incredible ambassador to health and fitness because he is living his life to the fullest each day. If you love outdoors and running, admire from afar and change to something you are passionate about.