Hi, I have a client who’s 15 and is trying out for the team BC under17 hockey team.
I was wondering what you guys thought on this topic.
My client isn’t working out with weights for a week before he leaves. I was hoping he’d get in and stop weights 3 days before he traveled.
He’s doing an upper and lower split routine.
Have you guys heard of anything on the topic?
I don’t expect that he will gain much or lose much by missing a week. However, I think the danger is lack of CNS stimulation. I believe that Charlie would have athletes do heavy benching up to 3 days before competition to make sure the CNS is sharp.
I also think that higher calibre athletes hold the CNS stimulation longer than lower calibre athletes. Therefore, a younger athlete could and probably should lift for CNS stimulation even closer to competition.
How do you strike the balance between CNS stimulation and fatigue? I assume you are talking about very low volumes of bench maybe 2 sets of 2? I also assume you do bench instead of squats to avoid fatigue? Am I on the right track?
Cheers,
TC
Right on! Part of striking this balance will be simply working with the athlete to see how much is enough but not too much.
The kid is only 15 so I don’t do any lower than 8 reps. He’s been working out for 2.5 years with weights now.
That was also the exact reason I wanted him to get in a few more days. CNS drop off.
Any tips on how to “see” this? I am pretty perceptive but when it comes to things like this i really need some more hints to go on - a little mentorship would be useful!
Hmmm. Look at the stopwatch 
OK, I’m just yanking your chain, but on the other hand, the end result is really what matters so that is the ultimate test.
Usually you can see low CNS excitation when the athlete looks “flat.” I’m not sure how to describe it better than that…anyone else have a better description?
On the other hand, too much CNS stimulation over a long period will result in eye twitches, restless sleep, perhaps a lack of appetite. The athlete may lack “bounce” or the ability to fully explode. However, some of these symptoms may appear just as a result of the anticipation of an important competition, so it is sometimes hard to tell.
Not sure if this helps. Each athlete is different and the relationship between the coach and athlete as well as past experiences help with figuring some of this stuff out.
What about heart rate. Testing resting heart rate at waking can give you an indication if you’re overtraining if you’re heart rate is higher when you wake.
Plook, I like what everyone wrote but in case you care (not sure if this helps at all)…I know what this dude is going through, I had to deal with the same thing, I had a try-out once in Moncton , I took a train from montreal overnight and when I got there I had to go through all the orientation, moving into the host house …this took 2-3 days, plus a dumb training camp barbecue, ect, all the while there were no weights and no access to the ice, tension was also high!! :eek: What I did was I lifted the day I left ( that morning), then I did a bodyweight circuit in the basement of my house, to get my heart rate up…the following days I did light-medium light sprints/run in my houseing family’s yard and did plyo’s (hops, jumps) nothing too taxing but I made sure I felt like I did something, this seemed to work pretty well, also the last workout I did before I left home was always a leg (focus) workout…I am sure there are better ways but I do think he might want to do something, all the crap these teams make you do before the try-out kind of sucked, you just want to get on the ice and play! Tell that dude good luck! 
I forgot to mention that this kid is swimming 3x’s per week and is also on the ice a few as well. He’s a great skater but every single scout has mentioned the fact that he lack’s “intensity” (people abuse the hell out of that word) and doesn’t really play with much urgency. He’s also really big and strong. Kind of a gentle giant. I’m trying to teach him how to push himself to the breaking point mentally. He always seems to have to be in control and not lose his cool. He’s 15, 6’2" 200 and really lean. He also gets straight A’s. Serious potential.
I figured a few more workouts would help him more than it would hurt him. I figured 2-3 days off would’ve been fine.
Did you make the team???
XLR8:
Thanks for your help. Just want to clear this up in my mind because I think we are using slightly different terminology for the same thing which is throwing my understanding a little :o
a. Which of the above (1 or 2) would you refer to as CNS fatigue (too high a sympathetic reponse)? Is the other low CNS response (e.g. being somewhat lethargic)?
b. Is there any way you can describe the difference between “lack of bounce” and “flatness” (in my head they have the same meaning)?
c. The problem I have is trying to tell the difference between the two CNS states (fatigue and “lethargicness”) - if your athlete was running two flat out 60m and the times were down on their normal runs how would you tell if it was fatigue or lethargicness that caused the drop (assuming they ran a PB 5-10 days ago and you arn’t sure which side of the deviding line they are on)?
Cheers,
TC
P.S. I think I may be simply restating the quesiton that you have already answered but I just want to be sure. Thanks again.
I am by no means an expert on this either. I have enough trouble just figuring this out for my own training!
a. Which of the above (1 or 2) would you refer to as CNS fatigue (too high a sympathetic reponse)? Is the other low CNS response (e.g. being somewhat lethargic)?
a. 2 is CNS fatigue. 1 is low CNS response. Note that they both result in lower than optimal performance.
b. Is there any way you can describe the difference between “lack of bounce” and “flatness” (in my head they have the same meaning)?
They definitely feel different to the athlete (or at least to me!) One feels like you just can’t get there while the other feels like there is nothing left in the tank.
c. The problem I have is trying to tell the difference between the two CNS states (fatigue and “lethargicness”) - if your athlete was running two flat out 60m and the times were down on their normal runs how would you tell if it was fatigue or lethargicness that caused the drop (assuming they ran a PB 5-10 days ago and you arn’t sure which side of the deviding line they are on)?
I think you may have to look at other symptoms and an athlete’s history to give you better clues as well. Like I said I’m no expert here. Perhaps one of the big guns will chime in.
However, in the scenario you state above with a PB 5 - 10 days ago, I would probably suspect CNS fatigue first since it can take well over a week to recover from a big PB. But again, this totally depends on the athlete and higher class athletes tend to hold CNS stim longer.
Imo it depends a few different factors. Did the athlete peak for this or was his volume of activity relatively the same. If he increased his volume for the last few weeks he will be better doing some active rest for a few days and watching for the delayed transformantion. Each atlete is different I know in my training after a peaking cycle i need about a week of active rest. No max effort type work and nothing that will tax my cns. I will still work the muscles but not the cns. This kid sounds like he is doing alot and he could use a few days to rest where you could just put him through a body weight circut to get the blood moving. I n my own training I know i push my workload over 3 weeks and on the 4th i decrease the work load. I try not to over train but i will over reach on purpose. I hope this makes sense. Alot of this can be found in the book SCien and Practice of Strenght Training by zatsiorsky. Its a very good read.
If I used Charlie Francis Training Systems when I was a young kid and maintained it throughout my teenage years, I’d probably be in “the show” right now. I can’t remember how many times I went into junior camps sucking wind and playing at well below my capable speed. All my teenage years were filled with overtraining and garbage bodybuilding methods when I could have got my shit together and dominated out there. I still managed to play a high level of college hockey but I regret the whole lack of training education on my part. Don’t let these kids screw up their future by their lack of training knowledge. Educate them as best you can.