Your thoughts and vernacular seem to echo many of my own with a degree of precision. How bout some credit (wink wink)
As for the “minimum”, there is in fact a very manageable means of monitoring this value just as there is in the medical community.
Your statement regarding the need to know the maximum, in order to prescribe a minimum, is incorrect because every subject has his/her own tolerances. For this reason, every subject has different optimal dose requirements and, on the other end of the spectrum, tolerances for excess.
No different than in the clinical environment, a degree of trial and error must be practiced and it is unarguably in the interest of athletes and patients alike for their coaches/doctors to seek the minimum dose necessary to solve the problem.
In the case of the novice athlete, it just so happens that a large dose, of lower concentration (ergo intensity), is required to set the foundational atmosphere for that athlete generating a high apex of sport results later in life (when it counts)
conversely, athletes of very high preparation require carefully managed large doses of high concentration in order to further the already very high percentage of their performance limits at which they are already operating.
The large doses of high concentration that are far too often administered to novice athletes is a grave mistake because the earlier the intensification the shorter the apex and long term development is hindered. While a degree of overdose clearly advances the development of athletes in the low and middle zones of development this must not be viewed in synonym with what is optimal.
As for the management of the types of training stress that is most optimal for the sprinter of low to middle qualification, the nature of the intensity of the various components must be individually measured due to factors already eluded to (morpho-biomechanics, CNS stress tolerance, and etcetera). The only constant is that speed work of some type must be maintained throughout in order that advancements in morphology and strength/power potential occur harmoniously with running mechanics.
Key Points of Development:
1: strength to weight ratio aka horse power
2: Plyos aka stiffness
3: mobility
4: movement efficiency
5: work capacity
6: regeneration
I’m in the process of writing a series of articles “ Speed Training For The Ages 7-18”…
Putting the above concepts into action:
Weekly Template: Ages 16> – 4-6 times a weeks, 1.5-2.5 hours per session Focus: Strength and Explosive Strength Block
Monday:
Warm-up AA - (Mobility Jog, Static stretch, Dynamic flexibility, Sprint Drills, Buildups) (15-20mins)
Speed Work (20-25mins) – see below – 0-10yards
Hills: 10x10+Flat:10x10
Jumps (15-20mins) – see below
SLJ x8 uphill+x8flat
Double Box Jumps 3x5
Explosive Med Ball Throws (10-15mins)-see below
Overhead back 2x5
Between legs forward 2x5
Olympic Lifts & Strength Training (50-70mins) – see below
Olympic Lift (Snatch or Clean) 5x3 (Open %)
Back squats 3x7 (Open %)
Bench press 3x7 (Open %)
High bench rows 3x6-10
Hyper’s 3x8-10
Stiffness Jumps 2x10
Cooldown: A series - Regeneration
Always make sure to issue a disclaimer, particularly regarding the intensive variables (especially Olympic lift variants) that mechanics comes first and if the athlete hasn’t had proper instruction then it isn’t worth doing them. Come to think of it, when you’re done with it you should forward it to all the S&C coaches in the US because the youtube videos indicate that most of them don’t know how to instruct most speed/power/strength drills nor how to recognize mechanical risk factors/performance inhibitors.
Yeah; I’d say you’ve had a substantial influence on how I view sport training.
All I was trying to get across was what you alluded too; that you must do a degree of trial and error through an organic process and there is no clear cut and dry or explicit amount of training (in terms of low or high amounts) that is needed to obtain results; only that beginners need more breadth and elite need more height.
The context that tb2010 used ‘minimum’ suggested that all individuals need only develop a minimal amount of work capacity, whereas in contrast a wide base must be laid at the beginning of PASM in order to reach the pinnacle (as you alluded too).
What I meant by ‘maximum’ was that their is not a predetermined amount of volume (albeit in any unit used across all means) for all individuals to be achieved (in order to achieve the highest results) because everybody has a finite amount of adaptation energy and some are genetically programmed to have more or less and this is what ultimately defines what amount of load the individual organism can adapt too.
If a maximum was determined, then a minimum in reference to this maximum could also be determined (in order to lay the base for further intensification of the training load), which would mean that training was much more mechanistic and algorithmic.
I suppose this could be done by collecting data on a large amount of individuals across their entire career and seeing what amount of training was done throughout each period of the training process thus allowing one to make predictive models and a range for the total load of training of the years.
thanks for more clarification. i think this “grave mistake” happens all the time in high school kids because the training time is pretty much all in season and coaches want results immediately
longterm development should really always be the goal, but is tough to keep the priority when so many younger people are subject to needing to run certain times by a certain year so you dont want to get left behind or might not have enough time
The “overdose” syndrome that plagues the corporate population of American coaches (technical tactical as well as physical preparatory) exists because it is a pedestrian solution to a complex problem.
Dropping a stick of dynamite in the water will bring a certain amount of fish to the surface; but at what cost to the surrounding ecosystem and what type of fish and other underwater life will be destroyed in the process… Meanwhile, the patient fisherman equipped with the necessary bait and tackle has a much higher probability of extracting the intended target at zero cost to the surrounding ecosystem and minimal cost to other underwater life.
No doubt, we live in a quick fix, short sighted society; however, this is no justification for “overdose”. To date, my coaching and personal training career has spanned a broad spectrum of subjects (youth, high school, collegiate, amateur, professional, and foreign and domestic military special operations) and I have never resorted to “overdosing” a client yet results have always been timely and positive.
Ironically, the populations most often subject to the naive coaching mistakes we are discussing are the same populations who are experiencing the most accelerated rate of biological maturation. These uninformed coaches must be reminded that it takes very little intensification to foster results during this period and the greater the intensification the more the interference with this sensitive stage of growth.
Analogous to Charlie describing the utility of sprinters learning to ‘wait for it/let it happen’ coaches must understand the same philosophy applies to the physical preparation of developing athletes.
I didn’t list any disclaimers because of the benchmarks/standards that must be achieved before moving on to the next level. The above program is for ages 16> - only after meeting the standards of the previous age brackets. If all goes well the athlete will start to learn ol/barbell lifts at 12-13 years old; after successfully meeting the benchmarks from the previous cycles - Mb/BW/General strength circuits etc.
Unfortunately, my experience suggests that I could bottle it but regardless if it was taken willingly or force fed, most recipients wouldn’t have the aptitude to make much use out of it.
Therein lies the rub. It isn’t enough to have access to quality resources, even if they are studied extensively, if there isn’t enough aptitude to begin with.
Another Charlie analogy (regarding excessive jump training for basketball players of low preparation) "It doesn’t matter how many times you jump, regardless of how high you can’t jump)
Reminds me, a lady came in last week to do some Work experience in my training studio. She was top of her class, studied the stuffing out of her books. Went home every night and did 4-5hrs of youtube, internet seaching ect ect. So, practical demo - i asked her for 1 Push, 1 Pull 1 shoulder and 1 arm exercise. I got, 3 x Pull, 1 x weird arm and 1 x fail leg.
So, FAIL number 1.
Fail number 2 was - i demonstrated 8 * different Row exercises, using cables, dumbbells, mediballs, bars, bodyweight. She thought ONE was a chest exercises and all the rest were Bicep exercises with shoulders…
She has just come out of college and is now fully accredited.
Age, approx 50.
If a top of the class student FAILS on such basic lifts - what hope do they have understanding anything else more complicated?
I asked becauseJanic looks Eastern European to me and I would have found it ironic had you been from that part of the globe and had insufficient physical education during the school age years.
I often exaggerate for the sake of (attempted) humour and of course mean no real disrespect to either region or any of the good coaches working therein.
@ James Smith
A while ago someone translated my English name into (I believe) Ukrainian, but quite possibly some other Eastern European language, the result of which you see before you. That would probably explain the Eastern European flavour.
