Considerations of Planning Training

Featured in “Lift Strong” for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

By James Smith

As a coach/trainer of athletes, PE advisor, on-line Q and A staff member, published author, website owner, training hall owner, and consultant to military special operations commandos, I am continually asked for training ideas.

More often then not the most common questions revolve around how to plan the training. Important to know is that, like all things, what you get out is a reflection of what you put in. Training must be structured if one expects consistent and reliable results. There are a myriad of planning sequences that will yield positive results. More important then memorizing various methods of planning the training is to possess the capacity to uniquely plan the training for any sportsman of either sex at any stage of training for any sport discipline any where at any time.

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

• Females are capable of sustaining more intensive training loads at earlier chronological ages due to their faster rate of biological maturation.
  
• Females produce a far smaller amount of the male anabolic hormone testosterone. For this reason, females are far less capable of increasing their muscle cross-sectional diameter to the extent of males without the use of anabolic/androgenic steroids.
  
• What age- due to their forming biological systems pre-adolescents must not be exposed to the same training loads as post adolescents.
  
• Children should not be subjected to lactic environments. Their cardio-pulmonary system is not as efficient as post- adolescents and they are unable to effectively clear lactic acid from muscle tissue. The stress placed on their myocardium is too great and may lead to hypertrophy of the left ventricle.
  
• Pre-adolescents should not perform intensive weight training or shock training. Their forming skeletal apparatus, vertebrae, end plates, etc are much more susceptible to high force impact and intensive loading related traumas then their post-adolescent counterparts.
  
• Children should, however, be exposed to a multitude of physical activities that challenge their balance, coordination, awareness in three dimensional space, relative strength, speed strength, endurance, and so on.
  
• The forming neuromuscular apparatus of the pre-adolescent youth is starving for information. It is critical that youths of this stage are challenged to improve their coordination and speed at which they move their limbs.
  
• Once adolescence is reached and passed the central nervous system has largely matured. For this reason it is imperative that youths are exposed to activities that develop speed strength and coordination at the earliest ages.

• Each discipline places unique physiological, tactical, technical and psychological challenges unto the sportsman
  
• In order that the sportsman is placed on the track towards attaining sport mastery their training must reflect a knowledge and understanding of anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, kinesiology, and bioenergetics.
  
• Different disciplines demand different degrees of alactic, lactic, and oxidative power.
  
• In order that the sportsmen attain mastery of their discipline they must be physically trained utilizing methodology that is optimal towards heightening sport results. As is stands, this methodology will differ at various stages of development (more general in beginning stages and more specific at higher stages of qualification)

• The most important time for a sportsman to demonstrate his/her highest potential is during the contests, not the training. For this reason, it is vital that the training be planned such that maximums are attained during competitions.
  
• Certain developments with respect to the organism’s functional capabilities set the stage for other developments to occur more powerfully in the future. Herein lies the significance of sequencing training blocks in order to produce a powerful cumulative effect.
  
• Certain sport disciplines have longer competition cycles then others; some with multiple phases such as Track and Field in which there is an indoor and outdoor season. In such cases the training must produce maximums at more then one time in the annual plan. Here is where the terms double and triple periodization originate.

• The stage of development and qualification are not always linked (certainly not in America). As a result, one may observe sportsmen of medium to high qualification (collegiate to professional) that are deficient in their special strength preparedness.
  
• In such incongruent circumstances, the defining criteria for planning the training must be rooted in the stage of development.
  
• The point in the annual plan is of extreme importance. The training must be adjusted according to the competition calendar. The pre-competition training will differ from the stages of training that are distant from the competition block.
  
• The pre-competition training load must be higher in volumes of specific training
  
• The post-competition training load must emphasize restoration
  
• Prepatory blocks of training must accumulate and concentrate the load in order that the organism operate at a higher functional level during successive competition blocks
  
• Competition blocks must emphasize the further perfectioning of the sport skill while retaining and possibly developing non-specific qualities that serve supporting roles to specific qualities

• What, if any, is the sportsman’s primary deficiency?
  
• Different goals require different training programs
  
• Two sportsmen of the same discipline may have entirely different weaknesses and strengths. Two or more sportsmen of the same discipline may possess entirely different levels of trainedness and physical preparedness. For this reason the training must be individualized

• It is at this point in which all of our knowledge, experience, and imagination culminates into our planning efforts. The following must be determined:
  
• The stage of preparation and qualification
  
• The sport discipline
  
• Where in the annual cycle
  
• The target of training
• The contents of the load
  
• The means
  
• The method of performing the exercises
  
• The volume of the training load allotted to various tasks
  
• The intensity of the training load
  
• The amount of workouts per day, week, and month
  
• The sequence of different phases of training throughout the annual plan
  
• Test phases
  
• Etc…