Notes from 2009 CSSC at ETSU.
An Introduction to Periodization – a superior method of training – Mike Stone
-Too much of a load (especially intensity) limits long-term gains. Need to be patient in programming.
-Fatigue dissipates faster than fitness
-Concentrated load model will involve raising one component-volume and/or load while dropping another. One component is emphasized while others are de-emphasized.
-Longer accumulation phase will require a longer realization phase.
Periodization as applied to strength/power training – What are the real models and how well do they work (linear, non-linear, undulating, daily undulating ??) – Greg Haff
-Mentioned the works of Matveyev, Nadori, Thibaudeau and others. Both Haff and Stone noted that Nadori might have been as much “ahead of his time” as any of the other noted sports scientists of the 50’s/60’s.
-A side note that overhead squats/snatch squats activate virtually all of the muscles along the spine more so than any other exercise other than full snatches.
Tapering : The ups and downs – Inigo Mujika
-Indicated that the most effective tapers featured high intensity and low volume and NOT low intensity/moderate volume nor medium int. and medium to low volume.
-45% volume reduction better than 10-15% decrease from one meso to the next. 41%-60% volume decrease seems to benefit most athletes.
-High frequency taper is better than trying to achieve taper via a reduction of the frequency of high intensity work.
-4 week taper can be good. Beyond that it is more difficult to achieve a peak. Within that 4 week period, most often the volume reduction should be no greater than 20%. My note: in order to correlate well with early volume reduction recommendation the mesos he must mean must be longer than 4 weeks in length where he advocates up to 41-60% reduction.
-My question to Dr. Stone was; Are most of Dr. Mujika’s findings applicable to most strength/power sports since virtually all of his work is done with top athletes from endurance sports? His answer was yes, he believes that to be the case.
-10 day taper can be effective for strength/power athletes. My addition is that I believe that if the athlete is of a lower qualification that a 10 day taper might not be necessary and is likely too long.
-Progressive taper is thought to be superior to a step taper.
-A well conducted taper should result in approx. a 3% performance increase.
-High quality training must remain in the program to maximize the taper. Increase in the training load 3 days out from target comp. can result in a performance increase. My edit: this could potentially be very risky if you don’t know how to do this effectively.
-Reduce volume-load 8 days out and increase slightly 3 days out for best performance.
Conditioning for Games Players (warm-up, running, agility, flexibility, etc.) – Part 1- Protocol Rationale – Clive Brewer
Conditioning for Games Players (warm-up, running, agility, flexibility, etc.) – Part 2- Demonstration – practical application and keys to teaching good technique – Clive
Brewer
-The most powerful angle of the knee is at 125-135 degrees. My edit: this is identical to the angle to achieve a proper DKB or double knee bend and is therefore similar to Stone’s findings. Also very similar to the proper angle for the back leg in starting blocks.
- Use of a sled for acceleration development with approx. 5-7% of bodyweight.
-It was mentioned by many the importance of monitoring/testing to see what is contributing positively towards performance and what might be inhibiting performance in order to re-program as necessary. Also, just to be sure, in general, that the given program is truly achieving what it is supposed to be.
Weight-room management and organization – conflict resolution, scheduling- John Graham and John Taylor
-No one leaves the weight room unattended.
-Be sure the athletes understand the expectations that the coach has for them both in terms of execution of the lifts, conduct/etiquette in the weight room and maintaining the weight room. Keeping it clean and orderly-athletes must respect the facility and clean up after they have used the equipment.
-Not a place for them to bring food to and leave bottles and wrappers.
Everything you wanted to know about weightlifting movements: Demonstration/video- practical application and keys to teaching good technique – Mike Stone
-In olympic lifts and their pulling variations, the mid-thigh position is the strongest position (as mentioned above) and the weakest position is at the knee.
-Boxes or stands should be utilized to strengthen specific movments for pulling power development.
-One value of the Olympic lifts and related exercises is that the landing stress is much lower than some other methods such as plyometrics exercises due to the weight limiting the height of the takeoffs.
-DKB can be taught in as few as 9 sessions and varying the loads appears to be more effective than using the same loads in facilitating the learning process.
-General statement that over-teaching is worse than no teaching.
-Explicit teaching is best early on in the teaching then semi-ecological appears to be more effective as time goes by.
-Said shin/knee must be somewhat ahead of the bar in the starting position and the bar must be moved back towards the lifter when the lift is begun.
-My note: the mid-thigh position as demonstrated here and in several videos I’ve viewed is actually above mid-thigh and thus features a fairly upright trunk with the wrists flexed in and the elbows rotated out and straight.
Oh say can you see? – Vision and vision training for athletes – Jeff Falkel
-Strobe glasses used to actually impair slightly one’s vision to create a visual overload. —Not really much different from other training. The visual system could be trained for anyone via an overload which will ultimately lead to accommodation.
Coach, how much weight should I lift? – How to set the load, (Failure/RM’s, heavy and light, daily, weekly etc.) : Importance of calculating volume load and intensity etc. – Mike Stone
-Spoke again on the MTP as being a concentric pull with no counter movement.
-Load=mass
-VL (volume- load) / time= kg/sec.
-VL is the best way to determine both the amount and intensity of the work done as you are taking into account both measures.
-1rm ability drops during the week due to accumulated fatigue. My edit: this is why in most cases you must drop the intensities late in the week.
-The highest power outputs for cleans and snatches are between 70-85% of a 1rm. They percentages are lower for exercises like squats/benches and other high force/low velocity lifts.
-Unloading is related to volume-load even if the work is done at very high intensities. So an unload week could be the heaviest week of a block due to the volume load being the lowest of the block.
-Peak power output for jumps at zero additional load (other than bodyweight) ONLY for untrained athletes. As training takes place over time, peak power percentages/intensities move away from zero and closer to 30%.
-To increase power development-pulls alone could do this if technique is very sound. Especially cleans/jerks.
-More full lifts that are regularly done by even elite lifters= greater injury rates so the vast majority of the pulling volume should come from partial pulls-clean pulls, mid-thigh pulls, clean grip shoulder shrugs, etc. Eventually, once proficient you should include more full or power versions of the Olympic lifts in the training but to limit, somewhat the volume of the full lifts due to the aforementioned increased injury risk.
-Advocated the top-down method of teaching the Olympic lifts. Advised to insist upon athletes catching the barbell fairly low-not straight legged as some do.