GPP in Dec

Expert Discussion Planning and Periodization
1

Is it okay to begin GPP in Dec? All of the sprinters have a good base from football and soccer.

Dec- I only have 4 days per week to work with I am planning Tempo for 2 days and speed the other 2 days; both speed days will be accel (20m) on hills, HI INT med ball, wghts

Jan-
2 days of tempo, core work, circuits
2 days of speed:
100-200m- 1 day accel work as above but increase distance to 30m; med ball, weights
2nd day will be MV work. Flys of 20m with 20m build-up. Med ball,Wghts and light plyos will be introduced (box jumps, skips, B’s)

400m- Continue with 1 day accel and 1 day of Special End (reps of 60 to 150 w/ full rec)

Feb-
2 days of Tempo
2 days of speed: 1st day of speed- accel out to 40m; med ball, wghts, plyos
2nd day of speed: MV- 30m fly w/ 30m buildup

400- 1st day-Accel and Speed End
day two -Special End

March-
100-200- Accel up to 40m
MV- Flys of 30m w/ 40m buildup
wghts, plyos, Med ball

400- 1st day- some accel and Speed End
2nd day- Special Endurance

First indoor Meet of two at end of March. Once Comp season begins the meets will continue development of special endurance in the 400m and we will focus on Speed End in practice. Likewise, the actual races will provide development of Speed end for 100-200m sprinters.

I am considering sprinkling an occasional Spec End session in for the 100-200m runners before the COmps begin.

Please chime in (CF, KK, PJ, Tolbert, NIkoluski, Speedz, Boldwarrior, Pope, The One, I know I am missing somebody)

Cut’er up if you need to. You know by now I have a backbone and not gristle.

2

Is there any way you can get athletes to do something on their own the other days? Even if it is bw circuits or hurdle mobility or tempo or something.

3

General comments here…
I assume you have no option into when to start your GPP…
I would seriously take into account their background; they may already have good acceleration, so you can focus mainly on their technique in various ways, but not necessarily as separate sessions and they may also have a good “tempo” base, which I would take advantage of.
Also, from your outline, it is not clear how you would fragment Speed and Special Endurance.
Overall, I would not go “against” their already strong points, but rather work with them. In other words, a S-to-L approach may not be appropriate for all of them, if this is what you are trying to do here; but, of course, you are the one to decide this!
Hope it helps a bit!

4

I think your taking the progression a little slow in terms of distances. I think going into outdoor without any real work past around 60 is going to make it rough especially for the 2.

Plus you already got these athletes with a decent base I am guessing from their other sport, you might want to raise the volume some. Obviously it depends on when their previous season ended and such, but I wouldnt work them from the ground up, also meets of any importance up starting until april or may so you have some time to get some good work in early, maybe there days of hard stuff.

I might start out more like:

1 day reaction drills, 1 day hills maybe slightly longer than 20m if its not too steep, and 1 day of sprint drills high knees, butt kicks, a’s, b’s, bounds, hurdles, etc. Work the volume on the tempo decent, not to death, but decent, get balance the recovery and work capacity, here speed and conditioning are important, also give you something work off of and gives more wiggle room later.

Between I would progress from hills to steps maybe, also decide how sound the athletes are getting at the drills, maybe focus on drill in problem areas for the athlete, and later just add drills and reaction stuff together adding a flat day of sprints accel or flies depending on needs.

Just my thoughts!

And obviously you have to gauge how the athletes are responding and whatnot, perhaps I am even getting too far ahead of myself with the post not know enough about the athletes.

Anyhow even going into march I would probably want something like 2x3x60, starts or reaction, and 3x100+ depending on how the athletes are doing for the three hard days.

5

I would like to reiterate Nik’s comment. They are already coming from other sports. You might need to adjust the beginning emphasis based on this. Football players might be still have nagging problems from football season, for example. In that particular case, you can slowly introduce sprints while trying to rebuild their work capacity.

Away from general comments, the template looks fine. I agree with Davan about getting your athletes to do something simple on the other days, just make sure they don’t overdo it. In addition, i am a fan of the occasional max velocity day for the 400m guys. What are you doing for the “mixture” guys (200/400)?

6

Wow, I love the responses and the response time. I am just now digging into and sorting out the responses (of course I am at work). I will have a response by the end of the day.

Please note these items in the meanwhile:

  1. I cannot legitimately work WITH the sprinters until the season begins (mid-March) but they are interested in a trying to approach the season earlier on their own. All I can do is open the indoor track once or twice per week, and monitor their workouts from the sideline. I can probably only monitor 2 workouts per week. I figured they could do the tempo on their own and the lifting.

  2. SHould I allow their fall sports (ending in November) to serve as the GPP and come in at SPP?

  3. Nik, most of them do not have great accel in place. I can only think of maybe two but they only accel out to about 30m roughly.

  4. Pope, you suggested distances up to 100. By Dec they will be doing any outdoor tempo in snow or on any uncovered grass. Any accel on hills will be done on a sidewalk or street in flats if it is dry. Problem is they would be doing it in 30 degree temps AT BEST! My fear of stairs is the terazzo floor is hard on the joints, it only provides a short accel, and it is like using a Smith machine for bench or squats, it dictates to some degree your form and stride length.

Now we can do longer distances when we use the indoor track. Because of transportation (highschoolers) issues it may be only one day per week. The track is a ten minute drive.

  1. Quark, we are giving everybody two weeks without any work after their season concludes

  2. Any student that has expressed interest or hav the given qualities or characteristics for 200-400 will have 1 day accel thru Dec-Jan. Afterwhich, accel will be worked into MV. I can alternate weeks for SPec End/Speed End

  3. Lastly Nik,
    Separation of Speed End from Spec End
    I don’t want to insult your intelligence by answering incorrectly so what do you mean by “separation”? Are you referring to recovery days or type of workouts?

So, should I jump into SPP because they have a good base in place already?

7

I don’t think the rec. is necessarily to jump straight into SPP, but possibly to shorten GPP and use it as sort-of a recovery from the other sports season and going over again accel. I don’t know if they would need a full 7-9 weeks of GPP with your already short timeframe.

8

Do you need longer than that? I understand what you say about the others though…

You don’t insult anything, don’t worry…
Not so much about type of workouts (this is obvious), but where the focus/emphasis would be -depending on the approach you want them to follow (S-to-L or L-to-S). Again, this is up to you…

9

what would GPP as recovery look like?

“Do you need longer than that? I understand what you say about the others though…”

To get the times I believe they can accomplish I thought that would include at least 10m more of accel and higher MV.

"You don’t insult anything, don’t worry…
Not so much about type of workouts (this is obvious), but where the focus/emphasis would be -depending on the approach you want them to follow (S-to-L or L-to-S). Again, this is up to you… "

Thanks for making me view that again. For the 400m I would like to work L-S (Spec End–>Speed End) possibly even Tempo---->Spec–> and intersect with the progression of accel—>MV—> at Speed end.

Do you all believe I should address MV and accel simultaneously for all sprinters?

10

GPP recovery may be 2 weeks of very light extensive tempo or pool work, hurdle mobility, etc. This gives you a bit of a break from the training, let’s you return from any mild injuries, etc.

11

I see.
any thoughts on the other stuff?

Wait, I have a couple of more quest.

Can a workout during this period consist of Spec End and lead right into Int temp. Just to kill two birds with one stone? (assuming the other speed day is MV and Speed End)

How do you determine (w/o all the technology) whether to address MV or accel out to a further distance?

12

I can’t see why not, especially if you are limited with time. I would be more concern with how you combine these two with SE. But again what you suggest for 400 m sounds good!

13

I am assuming SE is Speed End. If so what do you mean by combine. I would do Speed end on a seperate speed day.

Sample week
M- 2x300 w/ full recovery bw reps. after the second 300 place 2x150s with incomplete recovery but w/ less speed involved (80-90%).
Wgts, Med ball, etc

T- Ext Tempo, core work

W- MV work 4x(30m accel–>20m fly) then
2x3x80m for Speed End

Th- repeat Tues

14

Sorry, combine in a certain training phase. SE refers to either of them here. Check your PM inbox…

15

I would say all the thoughts have validity.

I would just add something of a very general nature: consider your objective(s) and reconcile your strategy for achieving it (them).

Long at your linear (time-line) development toward that objective. Look at the stratification along the way, the phases integrating into making a bullet-proof athlete.

Justify to yourself that the work you prescribe will best enable your athlete(s) to reach targets on schedule.