First off: Thanks for the reply Charlie! (great infor about speed reserve)
Altought I agree with you almost completely and I had implemented/modified your system for my needs working with soccer players (hills, short-to-short, no or very small SE etc) I have couple of comments to put:
It seems that you solve all problems with team athletes by prescribing tempo and speed, which is actually your sprinters do. Thus you basically copy the sprinters workouts to team athletes with little or no modification which I dislike. Please correct me if I am wrong here Charlie - not to critique you but to learn from you.
We do not have off-season here as defined by westerns. We have a pause of 1month during the june, and we have a 20days break during the winter. Our preparatory period starts with team practices and thus I must implement speed/tempo/weigths/plyos into team practices and arrange with a head coaches and menagers. Thus western concept of off-season where you have athtletes free of team practice when they are able to do athletic/sprinter like training is of little use in Serbia (except maybe that 1 month, but during that time athletes goes home and their trining is not organized nor controled - its their year vacation).
So how to modify tempo and speed in this situations?
In my last post I was reffering to the research of Jens Bangsbo in which he demostrated that players who did performed SE training (mainly with a ball: 2on2 small sided duel games; hunting a ball; repeated shooting at the goal with a sprint around the cone) greatelly improved his ‘field test’ than players who didn’t.
Bangsbo states that: ‘analysis of the matches has shown that the higher level of soccer, the more high-speed running is performed. The capacity to produce lactate and to repeately perform high-intensity excercise should therefore be specifically trained. This can be achieved trough speed endrance training’
But tat the same time Bangsbo writes: ‘However, it is recommended that this type of training is only used with top-class players, as the training is very demanding, both physically and mentally. When there is a limited amount of time aviable for training, time can be better utilized for other forms of training.’
‘Speed endurance training should have low priority and may be complitely omited for non-elite players’
‘Speed endurance training should not be used with players under 16 years of age.’
The quotes are from ‘Aerobic and anaerobic training in soccer’ by Jens Bangsbo (2005/06) pp150-151.
In my last post I was reffering to the research of Jens Bangsbo in which he demostrated that players who did performed SE training (mainly with a ball: 2on2 small sided duel games; hunting a ball; repeated shooting at the goal with a sprint around the cone) greatelly improved his ‘field test’ than players who didn’t.
Did said players perform speed-training regularly? If not, maybe their results would be even better if they focused on that?
I would use tempo during the preparatory period, and only medball circuit and technical work as ‘aerobic work’ in in-seasons for the starters. For the bench guys tempo is ok.
Bangbo reported ‘in addition to normal training’, without to reference to a paper/journal.
I found this abstrack
Effect of two different intense training regimes on skeletal muscle ion transport proteins and fatigue development.
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2006 Dec 28;
The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of two different intense exercise training regimes on skeletal muscle ion transport systems, performance and metabolic response to different types of exercise. Thirteen subjects were divided into two training groups: either performing repeated 6-s sprints (sprint training: ST; n=6) or 30-s runs (~130% VO2 max; speed endurance training: SET; n=7). The training in SET provoked higher (P<0.05) plasma K(+) levels and muscle lactate/H(+) accumulation. Only in SET the amount of the Na(+)/H(+) exchanger isoform 1 (31%) and Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase isoform alpha2 (68%) was elevated (P<0.05) after training. Both groups had higher (P<0.05) levels of Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase isoform beta1 and monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1), but no change in MCT4 and Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase isoform alpha1. Both groups had a greater (P<0.05) accumulation of lactate during exhaustive intermittent exercise and higher (P<0.05) rates of muscle lactate decrease after exercise, but only SET had a faster increase (P<0.05) in muscle pH in recovery. ST improved (P<0.05) sprint performance, whereas SET elevated (P<0.05) performance during exhaustive continuous treadmill running. The improvement in the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test was larger (P<0.05) in SET than ST (29% vs. 10%). Only SET had a decrease (P<0.05) in fatigue index during the repeated sprint test. In conclusion, turnover of lactate/H(+) and K(+) in muscle during exercise does affect the adaptations of some but not all related muscle ion transport proteins with training. The adaptations with training do have an effect on the metabolic response to exercise and specific improvement in work capacity. Key words: Muscle metabolites, Na+/K+ pump, intermittent exercise performance, monocarboxylate transporter, Na+/H+ exchanger.
Thus, SE training can be used to futher develop aerobic power, which in turn can decrease fatigue index (better recovery) in repeated sprints as indicated by this reseach.
Once again, why do we have to be so BLACK or WHITE? Do the CF routine during the GPP and do some SE (2-3 training sessions) training during SPP…
You CAN’T copy the sprint program directly because the sprints have Special Endurance while the soccer does not, relying instead on short bursts. Additionally, soccer requires a larger aerobic componant. for example short sprints might include 6000 to 6600 meters per week of tempo, 400m might include 9000 to 10,000 meters per week, while soccer might require approx 12,000 meters per week.
As for moving to speed endurance training for the top athletes. this is directly in reverse of the direction seen with top level sprinters, where all general fitness avenues are exhausted, leaving more max speed as the only remaining means to better performance. Perhaps the testing is on those who are not totally aerobically fit (back to the bla discussion you pointed to earlier?)
2 to 3 training sessions of SE over what period?
One top Italian team, noted for high level results from a small squad does SE once every 10 days but no more.
I think the real question in this debate is how much SE can you do before it starts taking away from the other important factors (either in terms of decreasing rate of acceleration or because you don’t have time or resources left to train them)?
Charlie, how would you structure those workouts? I know that in the past you have stated that shorter distance runs (<200m) work better for teams sports athletes, so would you do something like 40x100m, 3x/week?
40x100m seems like a long tempo session, although Jack Daniels uses similar sessions with his distance athletes to improve VO2 max. If I recall correctly, he sometimes prescribes 200m runs done once each minute or 100m runs done once every 30 seconds. I think the sessions are ~24 minutes long, which would be ~4800 meters. And, as with tempo, the goal is to do all of the runs at a prescribed pace.
12,000m divided by 3 sessions is around 4k per session. This may be appropriate if there is no team practices and two sessions per day, but when there are, shorter tempo and shorter rest also incusion of medball and body circuit (to relax the legs a little) is better option. What do you think Charlie?
Why not using one longer tempo session utilizing 200s and 300s (around 1’), and one tempo session utilizing shorter reps (100s and 200s with shorter rest btween, around 20-40’’) and one medball/bodycircuit kind-a tempo?
Anyway, is it smarter to increase the tempo volume, or to cap the tempo volume and reduce rest period over time? Greater volume will impair recovery between sessions due stress on legs and soccer players have plenty of it…
We did 3 or 4 SE sessins during last three weeks of our prep period which lasted 8 wks. Only one session was 120m shuttles interspread by 7on7 game for 4mins. Other was duel games 2on2 and 3on3 for 30-60secs.
Just today I did SE stuff (120m shuttles) interspread by possesion game (4on2 inside the 10x10m square for 1’30’’) for 3 reps for players that don’t play the game tommorow and have two days off. This kind of training (SE — shuttles, repeated sprints, 1on1-4on4) will be used during the season for bench guys to s(t)imulate the game and the stress from a game.
Great thought TC! This is the KEY. Notice that Bangsbo said SE have ‘low priority’, and we use it as a ‘sweet at the end’ when all other components are developed to appropriate level.
1: I agree. the longer tempo sessions are when there is no team tactical practice.
2: You could use one of the tempo sessions to facilitate up to 300s. You might also wish to finish off a speed session with a shorter tempo session (perhaps a small circuit = 1000m), subtracting whatever low volume you choose from the weekly total on strictly tempo days.
2: I agree with using it to replicate game conditions for bench guys in-season though I’m not sure it’s needed in the short off-season. If it IS to be used, I’d work from short-to-long and add one session of SE/wk over weeks 5, 6, and 7, with week 8 without to allow for optimal recovery at the season opening. What do you think of that approach?
2: That’s a great tip… but what if the athletes proced to the after speed session?
3:
Let me repeat the Bangsbo statement regarding SE: ‘When there is a limited amount of time aviable for training, time can be better utilized for other forms of training.’
Anyway, the focus and order of development should be based on ‘adaptation persistence’. According to Rippetoe and Kilgore (2006: Practical Programming, p.222), Cardiovascular endurance, Technique and Power are less persistent than muscular endurance, strength and hypertrophy. Where Speed Endurance as an ability to repeat sprints and to keep quality of effort over a prolonged time fits in according to this ‘adaptation persistance’ concept will determine the emphasis of the short off-season. What do you think on the idea?
If the off-season is short, aerobic endurance and power (clean, speed) and techique are a major focus according to mentioned refference. Where here SE fits… again ‘When there is a limited amount of time aviable for training, time can be better utilized for other forms of training.’
Exactly what we did!
We used hills for 10s and 20s, the I did some build-ups (30m buildup from butt-kicks, bounding, skip and 20m maintenance for techique) altought I would do this before hills next season (I think Al Vermiel uses build-ups before ‘real’ speed work), then Ins&Outs (15-20m segments, altought I noticed no rhythm change with 20m segments—maybe 15m segment are more appropriate for team sports due shorter acceleration phase?) and contrast sprints: Hills (2x10)-Grass(2x20m); Hills (2x20m)-Grass (2x40m).
We reduced volume drastically in week 8, by decreasing number of training sessions to 1 per day, and reducing training duration by limiting number of sets of games played. Instead of duel game on wk 8 we did 3 sets of 3on3…
How much we were right we will show tommorow on the first match of the second part of the season. Wish us good luck! I will report back tommorow…
Duxx 2: Meaning going from speed to weights? Prob do the tempo at the end of both H.I. sessions but, if the weights are away from the field, you might have to do the tempo first- be flexible.
Meaning going from speed to weights? Prob do the tempo at the end of both H.I. sessions but, if the weights are away from the field, you might have to do the tempo first- be flexible.
am i reading this right you would do tempo after the weights session
we have a centralised venue with grass hills, field, gym, physio, massage and ice baths all at our mercy
The “capacity to repeatedly perform high intensity exercise” is one of the least investigated and debated training traits though,at least in most western countries approach to team sports…
And the existent confusion is only made more evident by the reference to lactate production training…an inefficient energy source per se and most of all at supporting maximal outputs which are to be repeated at rather unpredictable moments in a given time frame!
Exactly right. The duration of the repeat, the time between, the percentage of maximum intensity, the number of repeats and how often that number is reached in a game- or season, etc, all influence what is called for.
The single most certain way to be sure you cover the exact needs of the game is to play it!
So back to question: What to choose for the short off-season and what to leave to the game itself?
!