Functional Path Training

Discipline

Sport is not isolated from society; it is a microcosm of the society in which we live. So it is naïve to think that the discipline problems that exist in society will not exist on our teams. We can bemoan the lack of discipline or we can do something about it.

For the young athlete to learn discipline demands guidance. We as coaches must provide that guidance. We must set the standards by fair rules that carefully lay out the behavioral expectations involved in being part of the team. These must be written. They must be clear so that there is no room for debate. Essentially as the coach you are providing a structure to begin to improve their abilities and their enjoyment of the sport.

I think many of today’s athletes crave the structure we can give them, even though it may not be part of their everyday life outside of sport. But they have to understand that it’s a two-way street – that they can’t just follow the rules they like, but sometimes they must obey all the rules even the one’s they don’t like. That’s the price they have to pay for the structure the coach provides.

Discipline is a responsibility of coaching. If we do not enforce discipline then we are shirking our duty as coaches. We must understand that we are not coaching a sport; we are coaching young men and women who are competing in a sport. We owe it to them to provide the most positive experience that we can. Through firm and fair discipline we can create a favorable learning environment that will allow them to reach their potential.

How can this be done? Start by getting everyone on our side. You and your coaching staff should decide on the behavioral expectations of your athletes and then set the rules that will define those behaviors. Review them with your administrators. Get them to buy in and support you before any challenges are made. if you feel comfortable doing so, you might want to involve the senior athletes and the parents in the process. If they’re part of the process, it’s easier for them to buy in.

Once the rules are set, schedule a mandatory parents’ meeting to go over the rules and responsibilities for their youngsters to be on the team. This meeting should also educate the parents to practice procedures, nutrition guidelines, and criteria for team selection. Take this opportunity to educate the parents about the sport and your philosophies. Be sure to make it clear that there is no room for debate and that the rules are non-negotiable and apply to everyone on the team.

Both the parent and the child must sign a statement that they will observe the rules. If they do not they will not be allowed to participate. Emphasize that to be an athlete is special. It is a privilege to participate, not a right. There should also be a pledge from the coaches as to the behavioral standards the athletes and parents can expect from the coach. The ultimate goal is to create an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Remember as coaches we have a responsibility to teach our athletes. Very few will compete past the high school level, but they all can have the great growing-up experiences of testing their limits and being part of a team.

 Discipline will help insure a positive experience. It is not outdated, and it never will be.

                                               

Lessons I have learned Earning An Advanced Degree From School of Hard Knocks

The following are some lessons that have learned in my years of coaching. I was going through some files yesterday and I found this list that I wrote in 2005 after two particularly negative professional experiences in the previous year. I thought it would be worth sharing. Some these were hard lessons to learn and some were quite apparent from the day I started coaching.

Structure and order are essential in order to have any degree of consistent success.

Money and facilities are not the answer, good qualified coaches are more important.

Without a well-defined plan of training and competition there is chaos and inconsistent performance results.

More is not better. This is true if it is training, therapy gaining weight or losing weight.

One size does not fit all. It is important to consider what each athlete brings to the event in all respects.

It is more than physical talent; the athlete must have athletic intelligence and real mental toughness.

You must coach females differently both from a physical and a psycho/ social perspective

Anorexia is not an eating disorder. Eating or not eating is only a manifestation of much deeper psychological problems.

There is no quick fix, nor is there any thing like instant results.

Treating the symptoms rather than the causes does not work both in training and therapy.

If you spend as long in therapy as in training each day then something is seriously wrong with the training.

Progression is essential. Without a clear progression it is usually a process of one step forward and two steps back.

It is impossible to coach by email, phone, letter or fax. Coaching is a daily personal, labor-intensive process.

Objectively judging and assessing talent is essential for success.

Just because a person was a great athlete does not mean they can coach. Most of the time the great athlete only knows how they did it and what they did, which often will not work for anyone else.

Attempting to reproduce past results is an exercise in futility. The past is gone; it is only a reference point to guide future performance.

Never let your limitations as a coach limit your athletes. If you do not know something admit it, don’t try to bluff your way through it. The athlete will figure you out sooner or later that you do not know what you are doing.

There is no immediate cause/effect relationship between workouts and performance. In fact the relationship may be negative if the athlete is operating at the redline constantly during workouts,

Coaching is more than a workout or a drill. The context of the workout is often more important than the workout itself.

There is no place for performance enhancing drugs in sport, amateur or professional. Coaches have to speak out against it. Any coach who is aware that his athletes take a banned substance should be banned from coaching. There is no fine line in regard to drug use. You are either against it or you condone it.

Make It Simple

Anyone can make things complicated; the genius lies in making things simple. In designing and implementing a training program nothing could be truer. I have said many times in this blog – simplicity yields complexity. The body is smart. It has the ability to take simple basic movements and turn them into magical patterns of coordinated skills. Master the basics; the simple and the complex will follow. Put the body into position to pull, push, squat, rotate, brace, extent and bend. Then give it movement problems to solve, provide the abilities to solve the movement problems and you will an adaptable athlete prepared to thrive in the competitive environment.

Make It Count

Make every rep, every, run, every jump and every throw count! Work without a purpose is not training, it is just work that will make you tired but will not make you better. To have real purpose the work must be meaningful and mindful. Each training session is part of an ongoing process of self-improvement – progress toward the ultimate goal of excellence in the competitive arena. Don’t waste any opportunities to get better, know why you are doing what you are doing so that you can do it to the best of your abilities – Make it count!

Good is not good enough. If you want to be the best stress quality, strive for perfection. Start with effort, effort is easy, it takes no talent to produce effort – build on superior effort. Focus on the task at hand. Each training session must take you out of your comfort zone either physically or psychologically. To be the best constantly push the envelope, get comfortable with being uncomfortable all the time. Risk, stay on the edge, fail early, fail often, get up, get going, try again, learn form each mistake – Make it count!

Thoughts on recovery - Part Four

There are some simple basic guidelines for restoration depending on the timing in relation to the workout. Within the workout, allow adequate rest between exercises and the various types of work based on the type of work. This rest should preferably be active in nature. A major recovery consideration intra workout is proper nutrition. During the workout this should consist of fluid replacement and carbohydrate replacement, preferably combined. Shaking and self-massage can be effective recovery tools between exercises in a workout. Between am and pm workouts it is important to apply recovery methods immediately at the conclusion of the first workout. Between days employ the recovery methods 6 –9 hours after the workout or competition.  If the workout or competition finishes late then start the recovery procedures in the morning after rising. 

Recovery and restoration is as much a part of the training process as the training itself. The recovery must be part of the training plan from the earliest stages of development. Recovery must be taught by making the athlete more aware of reading their body and understanding how they adapt to training. It is quite a personal process that the athlete must take ownership of in order to insure progressive adaptation. Without recovery the adaptation to training cannot take place.

Thoughts on Recovery - Part Three

The key to management of the recovery process is a sound system of monitoring training to accurately assess the stress of training. Monitoring is analogous a compass that keeps training on the correct path.  It occurs on several levels, all of which are important.  The simplest level is just recording the results of the workout.  This is a dual responsibility – for the coach and the athlete. It is not an option, it is essential!  Monitoring does not always provide immediate feedback; it takes time for patterns to emerge, so be patient. 

In training there is an immediate residual and cumulative training effect, the ultimate goal of training in the long-term adaptation or the cumulative training effect.  Monitor each of these effects in order to assess the program of training. Monitoring training will allow control of the training process and ensure a proactive adaptive response.  Planning the training and implementing the training are only two prongs of a three pronged attack.  Monitoring the training is the third.

Carefully monitor those components of training that are the focus of that particular training period. It is not possible to monitor too much. You must look at the factors of training stress as well as total life stress factors. Monitoring should be both subjective and objective where possible. Monitor and record what is practical.

The most simple and most effective means of monitoring training is a detailed training log. The log represents the athlete’s personal training monitoring tool. It should represent the athlete’s individual input about their response to training. Each log, regardless of the sport or person, should contain certain basic information. Somewhere the log should monitor factors outside of training, sleep diet and other stressors all can have an effect on training. This information is:

Athletes Log

Day and Date

Hours of Sleep

Time of Training

Weather

Duration of the session (Rounded to the nearest quarter hour)

Energy rating – Before workout

The actual exercises

Sets

Reps

Times

Interval

Intensity

Training Demand Rating Scale (Post Training)

The coaches training log should be as detailed as possible and still practical to isolate variables to identify possible patterns. It should incorporate the following:

Evaluate planned work versus work completed

Rate the athlete’s response to the work.

Breakdown of the time duration of each training component

The training demand rating scale is a valuable tool can be easily adapted to use in a team as well as an individual sport.  It can be used to rate training demand on individual components of the workout or for the workout as a whole. It really depends how detailed you want to get. Regardless of how you apply it provides very good reliable feedback as to the stress of training. Conceptually, the athlete simply rates how hard they feel they are working by assigning a number to the sensation of their effort. For simplicity and ease of use a 10-point scale is effective in the athlete population if the athlete must is first educated to the effort relative to the assigned numerical value.  It must be fine tuned for each athlete to provide reliable feedback on training stress. The following is the Training Demand Rating Scale:

1=Easy - No Effort Required

2=Extremely Light

3=Very Light

4=Moderately Light

5=Light

6=A Little Hard

7=Hard

8=Very Hard

9=Extremely Hard

10=Maximal Effort

Have the athlete rate and record the effort at the conclusion of the workout. It is useful once you orient the athletes to the scale to allow them to develop their own verbal descriptors for the various points on the scale.  This will personalize the process which makes the information that much more meaningful. 

Monitoring will also help to assess how the performance was achieved.  Two athletes can do the same workout; achieve the same results and have polar opposite adaptive responses.  One may have to tap deep into the adaptive reserve to achieve the result and the other may require much less effort.  That is why it is so imperative to have additional means of monitoring training. Also monitor readiness for the workout. Monitor indices that indicate adaptation. It is imperative to monitor factors outside of training, sleep diet and other stressors all can have an effect.

Monitoring increases training effectiveness. The more consistent the monitoring the more meaningful the information will be. In essence monitoring training allows you to reconcile what was planned for training and what was achieved. Remember it is very specific to the event, the performance level of the athlete, the age of the athlete and the gender. Once a system of monitoring has been implemented the information gathered must be straightforward and simple so that it can be easily interpreted and modifications made easily made as needed.

Thoughts on Recovery - Part Two

The global objectives of recovery/regeneration and the general strategies to address them are:

1) Restore Glycogen Levels -. The goal of recovery is Glycogen levels to at least to pre exercise levels. In order to be effective carbohydrate (CHO) should be taken within a 2-hr. window after exercise. Low Glycogen will result in fatigue, tiredness, dizziness, light headedness, sleeplessness and muscle soreness. The guidelines for replenishment of glycogen levels to pre exercise levels are: 1grams of carbohydrate per kilogram per hour for first 2 hours post-exercise.  1.2 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight per hour in 15-30 min intervals for up to 4 hrs post exercise. 

2) Minimize the Breakdown of Muscle - This is a cumulative process; it is seldom one workout than can cause this. The stress of several hard workouts or a very demanding competition, especially a hard endurance sessions or heavy lifting sessions, put the body in a catabolic state where tissue is broken down. In order to recover the body must repair this damaged tissue by shifting to anabolic or muscle building state. The guidelines to minimize the catabolic effect of training are: Follow the protocol for carbohydrate but use a 1:4 protein to CHO ratio for protein. Research has shown that that six grams of protein will accelerate protein synthesis after exercise.

3) Restore Depleted Electrolytes - This is an ongoing process that must be addressed both intra and inter workout. It is imperative that the athlete has a well planned strategy to address this. Replacement of essential electrolytes like sodium, magnesium, potassium, chloride and calcium to prevent heat illness, nausea, confusion, headaches, sleeplessness, post-exercise fatigue, muscle soreness and GI distress. It is imperative that the athlete avoid colas, coffee, tea and alcohol as these drinks have a diuretic effect which will delay the rehydration process.

4) Hydrate and Rehydrate - This is the easiest aspect of recovery to implement, but perhaps because it is so easy it is often forgotten until the athlete is in a distressed state. It is a factor anywhere the athlete is training, not just in a hot humid environment. Hydration will minimize dehydration, stabilize the blood volume, and prevent muscle cramping. The guidelines for fluid replacement are: Athletes should weigh in before and after training to estimate sweat loss. Each kilogram (2.2 lbs.) of weight loss is equal to one liter of sweat loss. In order to re-hydrate after training drink1.5 times the calculated volume of sweat loss. Use a commercially available drink that combines rapid absorption rates (hypotonic characteristics) with adequate amounts of carbohydrates and electrolytes.

5) Reduce Inflammation – The stress of training produces micro tears and swelling in muscle tissue. Inflammation is a natural protective mechanism of the body to heal and stimulate blood flow to the damaged tissue. There must be a balance between allowing the body’s natural inflammatory response to take place and minimize swelling that could inhibit training in following training sessions. The best way to reduce inflammation and stimulate blood flow in gentle movement combined with ice.

6) Reduce Muscle Soreness – Muscle soreness is the natural result of training Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a well-established phenomenon. With DOMS the athlete is more sore the second and third day post exercise. The steps to control DOMS are a systematic cooldown that stimulates blood flow to the targeted muscles, gentle rhythmic exercise and static stretching. Gentle exercise in a swimming pool is very effective.

7) Boost the Immune System – Systematic high level training will severely stress the body’s immune system. This must be addressed by moderating lifestyle and through proper nutrition. It is recommended to supplement with vitamin C to enhance the immune system. 8) Proper sleep - Get at least 8 hours of continuous sleep every night. Rest more if traveling across time zones and allow sufficient time between training sessions for recovery. If it is determined that somewhat less than the recommended 8 hours of sleep is being achieved, a “sleep debt” is incurred. If sleep debts occurs, then steps should be taken to repay the sleep debt. You can make up sleep debt using all or any of the following: Going to bed earlier each night for an extended period of time. If your schedule permits, take a 30 – 60 minutes nap during the day.

Thoughts on Recovery – Part One

I want to preface this series of posts with some global comments . Today recovery has taken on a life of it own, with recovery sessions planned after remedial workouts that minimally stress the athlete. There are now muti-million dollar recovery centers manned by "recovery specialists." Is all this necessary? I have my questions. Recovery must be put in the perspective of the training and the training age of the athlete. In  this series of posts I will lend my perspective on recovery which will hopefully provide a better understanding of the role and the process as well as stimulate some healthy discussion.

Recovery is a key factor in performance. It is during the recovery that adaptation to training occurs. Recovery is the process over time needed to repair damage to the body caused by either training or competition.  After the work the rest should be easy, sometimes it is not because it is not thought of as part of the training process. To insure the highest quality training and to prevent overtraining, recovery must be planned as part of the training process. In some instances it is beneficial to build the workout around the recovery for athletes who are finely tuned and in absolutely peak condition. It does no good to give an athlete a workout that they could handle and then not be able to come back and do anything significant for days afterward. The key to all of this is the necessity to assess the athletes “recoverability,” which is how well they were able to recover from the different workloads.  Do this both subjectively and objectively. No two athletes recover and adapt from the same workout the same way. In fact athletes react individually to different types of work. The recovery strategy must match the type of fatigue. Some athletes are fast adapters and recover quite quickly; others are slow adaptors and take significantly longer. This is easy to address in an individual sport, but can present a managerial problem in a team sport. The means of assessment of recoverability is to closely monitor training and the response to training.

Restoration is a series of planned actions to bring the athlete back to baseline. Activities or external means that help the athlete physically or psychologically overcome the rigors of hard training. Regeneration is an active process, it is the means used to bring the athlete back to baseline. This is an actual planned training unit to help the body recover from training and to return to previous performance levels through removal of mental and physical fatigue due to training and competition efforts.

Rest is time off with no training at all.  For the athlete this is a poor alternative.  The body is accustomed to a certain level of activity. When that is taken away it is a shock to the body. It interferes with appetite, sleep and general mood state. Complete rest makes the return to training more difficult. Rather than restoring the body the athlete coming off a day or longer of complete rest is flat. A much more viable alternative is active rest. In active rest the “muscles work, nerves rest.”  It is time off from the regular activities of training.  “Active” refers to other sports activities.  For example the play a game of pickup soccer or the swimmer may go for a bike ride. It is absence from abuse not absence from activity but still gives the athlete the stimulus activity that does not stress the system.

Training Session Considerations

Each training session should a have general theme. This general theme in turn should be supported by objectives for each component of the training session that are very specific and measurable. When planning an individual training session, ask yourself what do I most need to accomplish? How does that fit into the bigger picture? Carefully consider the time available. The key is to design the sessions so that there is a seamless flow from one workout into another, so that even though the focus is on that individual workout it is always placed in the context of the workout leading into and out of it. The ultimate goal is the cumulative training effect, which is what occurs in the long term. Where does the workout fit within the Microcycle plan? The workout is only one component of the big picture. To achieve this look carefully at complementary components that make up the sessions, both intra and inter workouts.

Training sessions are classified as to the emphasis of the session. The emphasis can be on a teaching, training or in-season a stabilizing, sometimes called a maintenance emphasis. Teaching and training emphasis sessions will occupy significantly more time than a stabilization workout. In the teaching workout make sure it is correct the first time. Do not be in a hurry; take time to attend to details and individual needs. Allow more time for individual drills and exercises when you are teaching. The training emphasis workout is the refining process. This will involve more repetition. It may not take more time, and it demands constant attention to detail. Once the season begins or emphasis changes in a training cycle stabilization workouts can be emphasized. The theme here is to maintain what has been done before.

Make sure that there is always an injury prevention component in each workout. This is most easily addressed in the warm-up as remedial work. Consideration needs to be given on how to incorporate recovery given the constraints of most situations. Self-massage, shaking and stretching as well as intra workout nutrition in the form of hydration is the most basic and practical form of recovery intra workout recovery.

The basis of planning the individual training session is the modular training concept that will make planning and implementation of workouts very easy. The training module is defined as specific combinations and sequences of exercises that are designed to be very specific and compatible. The exercises are carefully selected to sequence and flow from one exercise to the next within the module. Each module is designed to focus on one particular component that should fit with the other modules. The volume and intensity for the exercises within each module is determined for each session based on analysis of the previous session. A training session is nothing more than a collection of modules. 

The actual design of the session should carefully consider progression, sequence, time allocation and integration with skill workouts. Training must be targeted and directed to optimizing training time. Training is cumulative. It has been my experience that one session can break an athlete, but one session cannot make an athlete. Focus on the absolute need to do, minimize the nice to do. Training components have a synergistic relationship, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Placing the components together is much like putting together a giant mosaic. All components must be trained throughout all phases of the training year. Just the emphasis and mix should change.

When training a group, carefully plan to meet individual needs in a group context. Everyone will not progress and learn at the same rate. The way to organize this is to group within the workout.

Evaluation is a constant ongoing process that should be part of each training session. Training equals testing and testing equals training. This approach will provide constant feedback. Never lose sight of the fact that the ultimate test is the competition itself.

Periodization in Perspective

Matveyev did not invent Periodization. He was one of many who formalized the concept. Because he was Russian, and the Soviet Union was the dominant geopolitical force in the communist bloc, Soviet ideology tended to prevail even in sport. I believe this explains the dominant influence of the Soviets in the literature of training methodology. Certainly others like Harre in the GDR, Nadori in Hungary all made significant contributions. Most of what we see in the literature today, including the work of Tudor Bompa, who has done much to popularize the concept in North America, is basically a rehash of the Soviet literature. Not much has been done to modify, study and change to adapt the concept to the contemporary challenges that exist today. It is a much different sport environment than it was even as short a time as twenty years ago. Previously where the focus was the Olympic games, hence quadrennial cycles, now there are more frequent world championships and high level competitions in many sports. Competition schedules are not as clearly defined. In most sports, especially ate elite level, there is no off-season. None of the literature on Periodization has ever effectively addressed team sports. In addition one would be naïve not to recognize the huge impact systematic doping had on the development of the former eastern bloc sport development systems. In fact much of the Periodization was based on sophisticated manipulation of drug cycles.