Wednesday, March 26, 2008

E-Man,

I will weigh in on periodization in a day or too, as I have been training a college football player (WR) for the last 2 years. and have build a program for the last 10 months as he was off school because he's transferring.

Recovery however is a challenge with teams. Building a 30-40 minute warm-up that is intense and will develop balance, flexibility and some agility (ladders, hurdles) is an idea, however educating your athletes on the importance of rest and how it will enable them to train harder and play harder is also critical. Another great idea is to play non-sport specific ESD games in the off-season. ie/tag varieties, ultimate Frisbee, game that get them moving but are not related to their sport, so that they get a mental break from the competitive nature of their sport, it will also give multiple teams to interact with each other because everyone will be on a "even" playing field.

Hope this give you some ideas, hope things are going great with your teams.

Jay AKA CANADA

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Thoughts on training athletes 2

I do incorporate a level of periodization with my trainees. However, we do spend a good amount of time on corrective/core training, since most athletes have spent their lives training to look like bodybuilders. Once they have achieved a level of ability that allows them to train with additional load and velocity, I work that in. Power training, like core training, is a modality I start with bodyweight. XBT, my nickname for explosive bodyweight training, introduces a combination of plyometrics and velocity using counter- and non-countermovement activities. After there is a level of adaptation and ability in these areas, particularly in power generation and deceleration, I'll add a component of the core lifts, primarily squats, deadlifts, and RDLs.

My basic issue with traditional methods is this: 'sport-specific training' has long focused on three things: how much, how fast, and how high. My philosophy is to always assess 'how well?' How well can an athlete balance, accelerate, decelerate, change direction, and create and absorb force? Freeweights are a great tool but are limited, because they can only reinforce components of a full athletic motion. For this reason, I rarely commit long periods of time to freeweight training. I'd prefer to use an 84-pound weight vest on a power athlete and take him through motions that his sport requires.

As for choosing between API and IHP... that's tough, since I've been to one and not the other. (Personally, I'd choose IHP because JC interviewed me to run the place a few years back, but I never had the chance to see it.) However, if I had to recommend one or the other to another coach/trainer, it would depend on a couple of things; mostly on what the role of the coach/trainer is. As a coach, I'd probably recommend API, because it more closely simulates what I think a complete training program should be, incorporating nutrition, prehab, and both traditional and non-traditional training methods. As a trainer/performance coach, I'd probably elect to spend a week with JC and a week with Mike Boyle. I'm always more inclined to visit someone whose style is the most different from mine.

Anyone else want to chime in??

Andrew

Emmanuel wrote

Definitely true, lifts like the bench press get way too much attention. Any football player and 90% of men that train want to have a big bench, that is pretty much a fact, hell I do to. Part of my goals are to move my athletes attention away from the non-functional movements into the functional and power lifting movements like the clean and snatch. These lifts definitely incorporate flexibility, mobility, and power. As a team we do plenty of mobility work, I use Gray Cook's and Verstegen's modalities all the time as part of our prehab or warm up routines. We get plenty of single leg squats, Mike Boyle would be happy. Making teams of better athletes is definitely possible. We are all athletes baby, twisted steel, hard as concrete, spitting bullets!!!

However, am I understanding that you don't do any type of periodization for power for your clients that are athletes? Do you do corrective movement skills until they are mastered? Or do you switch periodization models for each client. I definitely plan for my clients differently than I do for my athletes. I'm wondering about schemes for volume and intensity, and any good recovery work you do... I think I saw a pretty brutal circuit you did some time back on YouTube, looked good.

One more question, if you could go to IHP or API who would you go to? why?

Monday, March 10, 2008

Thoughts on training athletes

Hey E-Man,

Thanks for your post; it's always good to get open-ended questions that make us evaluate and explain what we do! Personally, I have moved away from using the 'primary lifts' (squat, bench press, deadlift) as the core of my athletes' training. While those lifts are a great component of a complete program, they are not particularly applicable to what I need my athletes to do, so I use them infrequently.

By 'not applicable' I mean that, at no time in competition or practice are my athletes in a position where they are (a) standing still under load and driving straight up, (b) lying flat on their back, using the ground for leverage and pushing straight up, or (c) driving straight up off the ground, carrying load, from a stable position. Why commit substantial time to loading and strengthening these motion patterns?

Most of the athletes I've worked with have had major deficiencies in athletic ability. Most present with heavy feet, poor balance, and the inability to decelerate. Can they bench, squat, and deadlift? Sure - but what does that mean? It means I have strong kids who cannot accelerate, decelerate, or change direction quickly.

Now, our job descriptions are different, Emmanuel. You're a coach; your job is to create teams of better players. As an independent performance enhancement specialist, I'm not bound by those parameters. My job mission is to create better athletes. Regardless of the sport, there are essential qualities necessary for nearly all sports. We experimented with most of the modalities at API - agility, flexibility, acceleration, speed, deceleration, strength, and power. I assess each athlete in these areas, then design individual programs designed to balance the abilities. Traditional strength work is added along the way, but it rarely becomes a large piece of the puzzle.

I know that I haven't really answered your question, but perhaps it's helpful just to have different viewpoints. Hopefully, some of the other API team will offer up their input as well!

Best wishes, E!

The Professor

From Emmanuel...

Blogger Emmanuel said...

Hey everyone... Any thoughts on periodization philosophies for power sports... specifically football? Anyone done or used any conjugate methods? Undulating vs. linear...? So far I've had great success using a sort of quasi undulating/linear design. I don't completely change reps every week, although I do maximal or close to maximal efforts on different exercises each week. I like to keep the intensity high all during our off-season. I still stick to the traditional linear phases of hypertrophy, strength...etc

As I come towards the end of my second year of coaching I'm really still solidifying my philosophies and still finding what works best for my teams and our training. But any advice you all might have would be greatly appreciated.

One more question... recovery was a big thing that we talked about while at AP. I came away realizing that I never really thought enough about it when planing my training cycles. Since coming back to my teams, implementing recovery weeks has been somewhat difficult. I'm working with young athletes that want to push hard all the time. What I'm looking for are some good ways that I can satisfy their desire to train hard, while still maintaining my goals of giving their bodies some time to adjust.

I hope everyone is doing really well!!!!!!!!

Stay Strong
E

March 10, 2008 7:50 PM