The great coaches have goals for their teams/athletes and devise a plan that will accomplish those goals. For example if the goal for a basketball team is to win a championship the coach will put together a strategy for each opponent, teach technical and tactical skills, create a season long practice schedule, and motivate/inspire his athletes. This leads me to my main topic…This same approach (guiding athletes to success) should be taken by strength and conditioning coaches as well. A game plan needs to be in place if the athletes are going to consistently improve throughout the training program. I see too many coaches (many times it’s the head coach because the team doesn’t have a qualified strength and conditioning coach on staff) take the approach “no pain, no gain” or “100% intensity every time”. Of course you want your athletes to work hard, but it should be a planned routine consisting of high, medium, and low intensity days. There should be days were you teach your athletes (low intensity) and days where you condition the heck out of your athletes (high intensity).
Going along the same lines…Soreness is not necessarily a sign of great workout. Anyone can make an athlete sore (literally anyone that knows how to talk – just say “run 100 sprints uphill” or “do 500 push ups and sit ups”). I love to hear athletes say things like “my coach has the hardest workouts” or the “the training sessions are so intense”. I ask the athlete what they did during the training session and usually their response is something like this “first we did a mile run, 100 sit ups, bench press and lat pull downs and finished with the leg press/leg extensions/leg curl for 5 sets. I couldn’t move my legs for 3 days”. There are definitely ways to make the training routine more sport specific. If an athlete only has only X number of training sessions before the season starts, the coach should make the workouts as sport specific as possible. There are times to work on general fitness and conditioning, but make sure it follows your yearly plan. Every training session should follow the game plan and help the team/athletes accomplish their ultimate goals.
I have posted numerous blogs on how counterproductive low intensity/long duration cardio exercise is for athletes who compete at fast speeds and require explosive movements during competition. This does not mean I never recommend low to moderate exercise for athletes though. In fact, after an intense training session, hard competition, or tournament I encourage my athletes to speed up their recovery process. One of the most effective means to speed up recovery is taking an active approach. Active recovery includes easy to moderate cardio such as jogging, biking, using the elliptical machine, or swimming. Lower intensity exercise actually helps with lactate removal (by product of high intensity training), muscle soreness, and cools down the core temperature a slower rate. Most importantly, many researchers have shown that active recovery improves the next bout of performance more than taking a passive approach (no exercise or activity) to recovery.
Other forms of recovery are just as important and beneficial. Proactive recovery methods would also include stretching, massage, myofascial release (self-massage), hot or cold bath, and proper nutrition strategies. These methods also help with lactate removal, muscle soreness, and improving future performance.
Passive recovery (no exercise) is important and worth discussing. I am specifically speaking about quality and quantity of sleep. Athletes require more sleep than the average person who sits around all day and does not push their body to their limits. All other recovery strategies do not mean anything if an athlete is not getting enough quality sleep.
If you are an athlete or coach, analyze your entire training program to make sure it is sport specific. Check out this key sentence from Tudor Bompa and Gregory Haff’s book Periodization – Theory and Methodology of Training:
“The concept of movement pattern specificity reveals that the type of muscle action, kinematic characteristics (ie. movement patterns), kinetic characteristics (ie. forces, rate of force development, power output), muscle groups activated, and acceleration or velocity characteristics of the movement all contribute to the exercise’s ability to transfer to the sporting activity.”
Your movements in the weight room should never try to replicate sports movements (check out this blog for more on this topic). However, the exercises you choice should have characteristics similar to your sport. You want the exercises to carry over to the playing field otherwise why would you waste your time in the weight room to begin with. Once you begin to understand these scientific principles, it makes sense to incorporate ground-based training (exercises performed in standing positions), Olympic lifts and other high power output exercises, exercises in the full range of motion, and exercises in all planes motion. At the same time, it should begin to make sense why it is not as beneficial to train on machines that control only one movement and usually control the speed of the movement. Not to mention that most machines require the athlete to sit or lay on their back/stomach – that doesn’t look anything like sport!
Train Hard-Train Smart –> it’s not just important to train with intensity, it’s important to train with the correct knowledge too! www.asap-pt.com
Fancy term, but an easy concept to understand. Athletes should train to develop the appropriate energy systems for their sport. I still see way too many athletes (usually instructed by the coach) do aerobic exercise to “get in shape” for their sport (usually in the form of running laps or riding the stationary bike). The coaches’ philosophy is that this type of training will improve their endurance and help them during the latter stages of their match or competition. However, this is the furthest thing from what really happens. Remember – Your body adapts to the type of training stimulus you provide it. With aerobic training you are teaching your athletes to be really good slow runners. This would make a terrible baseball, football, tennis, volleyball, basketball, soccer or softball athlete (just to name a few sports). In fact, aerobic training has been shown to decrease anaerobic power output. Any high intensity/change of pace sport would suffer from aerobic training (on a regular basis).
Intervals is where it’s at:
High intensity interval training has been show to increase metabolic enzyme activity (both aerobic and anaerobic), improve short-term power output, and increase maximal aerobic power. In other words, you will get all the aerobic benefits you need from high intensity interval training and important benefits needed for quick/high intensity movements.
Until I see this switch in training philosophy from coaches and players, I will continue to write posts on this topic.
Dash is a great read with a positive message. The title stands for “Live with: Determination, Attitude, Success and Happiness”. The dash represents the mark on your tombstone between the year you are born and the year you die. Whether it’s sport or life you control your destiny, so make the most out of it!
I managed to find the only gym at Disneyland yesterday (went for my B-Day). The barbells were extremely heavy though.
I am pretty sure diabetes and heart attacks originated at theme parks. I couldn’t believe how many obese individuals we saw and all the crap everyone was eating all day. We did manage to find healthier options for lunch. Check it out – chicken salad and veggie gumbo (minus eating the bread).
Athletes are always looking to develop their lower body explosiveness and power. Improve your lower body strength (Lunge Matrix). Convert strength into explosiveness with the Jump-Bound Matrix. Check it out:
This video takes you through jump and then bound progressions in multiple planes of motion. This series would benefit every athlete (it may not help a billards player – but every other athlete).
