Our pre-season training is just about complete (for hockey) and it’s still going for basketball but I just wanted to share some important thoughts I had for this very, very important time period in the macrocycle.
I like to call this time period the pre-pre season. It’s actually the 3-4 weeks (6 weeks in men’s basketball) before actual practice occurs, which is often known as pre-season (period before games begin). This is often the most physical stressful time period of the year as the overall volume of training, plus specific individual skill improvement is at it’s highest.
The goals of this time period are to prepare the team to practice at a high level and have the work capacity to be able to make it through practices where coaches can work on putting in systems and plays. They shouldn’t worry about having to get their athletes “in shape” because that will take time away from actually developing as a team from a technical and tactical perspective. I want my athletes to be able to make it through 2-3 hour practices 4-5 days/week with a high level of energy, enthusiasm, effort, and encouragement. They need to be in very good general shape (high work capacity) to be able to handle these stresses and recover for them to continue the practice as well as possible.
Here are some other pre-season training guidelines that I like to follow:
1. Emphasize conditioning and work capacity to be able to tolerate a high work load and recover.
2. Emphasize full range of motion work along with soft tissue work.
3. progress from 2 days of impact or non-specific conditioning progressing to 4-5 days of impact or specific conditioning.
4. Figure out your priority and train that piriority.
5. Include team building exercises and activities into training.
6. Prepare the athlete and team for the mental and physical stresses that will occur during the season.
These are just some things to consider when preparing your athletes and teams for the upcoming season once the off-season is over.
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Here’s another article from a current intern of mine from Scotland, David Meechan. David has been around the world learning from the best and feel honored that he’s come all the way over to the US to spend the past 3 months with us at Quinnipiac. David has alot to offer and shares some of his knowledge with this in depth article regarding conditioning for soccer but can be applied to most court and field sports.
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Coming from the UK, football, as it should be called, not soccer as termed in North America is life! No other sport in the world matters. The World Cup final is the most viewed sporting event worldwide, where close to a billion people watch it Continue reading
It’s about that time when most collegiate strength coaches who don’t work with football are starting to plan programs for the upcoming school year. When starting out to write a training program there are a number of factors that must be considered and questions that you must ask yourself.
Below is a list from the late Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky
- where are we in the training calendar,
- what is the technical-tactical nature of the position,
- what are we philosophically committed to,
- what geometric position does his body initiate movement from at the snap,
- what directions might he initiate movement in and in what way might he change his direction,
- what muscles are involved,
- what is the speed of contraction,
- what amplitudes of movement are involved in the work,
- where in the amplitude are the greatest forces generated,
- what percentage of his technical-tactical responsibility necessitates that he overcomes or resists external resistance,
- what is the magnitude of resistance he must overcome or resist against,
- what are the geometric positions of his body when he overcomes or resists against external load,
- over what distances does he cover on average,
- what role do speed, reactive/elastic ability, power, strength, and joint mobility play in the execution of his competition maneuvers,
- how many snaps does he average per game,
- how long is the average play,
- how much time transpires between most plays,
- how might I construct drills to be performed under alactic and aerobic conditions,
- how will I sequence the change and introduction of training stimuli into the training load,
- how will I utilize the time available during the off-season,
- what will the contents of the training blocks consist of,
- how will regulate the sequence and nature of the bioenergetic training,
- how will I regulate the sequence and nature of the biomotor training,
- how will I structure individual training sessions and consecutive days and weeks of training,
- and the list goes on…
Some of those questions may apply to your sport, while some may not, but you should get the idea. Writing a training program is so much more than putting a grouping of exercises together with some sets and reps. How are you organizing them to gain a training effect? How must rest are you giving between sets? How is the week planned out? etc.
The next time you sit down to plan a strength and conditioning program what kind of questions are you asking yourself?
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What do you think of when I mention cardio? An hour-long jog? A long, steady session on the exercise bike? Sweatin’ to the oldies? If it’s any of those things, you’re doing cardio, but you’re not doing smart cardio. There are lots of things you can do to burn calories, but if you’re reading this article, you know that you want the calories you burn to come from fat, not lean mass. Traditional long, slow distance cardio burns muscle and fat pretty indiscriminately. In fact, if you do enough, you may find that your body burns muscle preferentially to ease the demands of doing so much aerobic work. That’s exactly the opposite of what you want.
To Read More: Smart Cardio to Burn Fat
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