Good luck to the Willand Rovers against Gosport Borough F.C.
My local village club is doing really well in the F.A. Cup this year, having made it through to the 4th qualifying round. They host Gosport at Silver Street this Saturday.
Physiotherapist Sarah has been helping the club for the last 18 months, screening and treating the players when injured. They are a great bunch, and remarkably polite for footballers.
I took the team through some preparation work earlier this week.
Captain Scott Rogers came to one of my speed training sessions in the summer and liked how we progressed through the warm ups to the speed. We have been trying to fit in training with the team, but due to the cup run, they have had busy mid-week schedules for the last 2 months.
The players all work full time: carpenters, tilers, teachers and office workers. My emphasis when preparing them is getting them to be mobile through the hips and groin, plus the thoracic spine (t spine). They have spent all day hunched over desks or a floor space, so they are very stiff when they come to play.
Footballers tend to suffer from hamstrings, groin and knee injuries. My job is to help these guys prepare properly so they can avoid the non-contact injuries. The lads took to the unusual (for them) exercises with relish on Tuesday night
Here is what we started with:
Good luck on Saturday. Up the Rovers!
Kick off 3pm, at Silver Street. The Rovers should be on BBC spotlight tomorrow night at 6.30pm.
“Should I do weights and cardio in the same session?”
Traditionally training has been divided into Resistance Training and Aerobic Training.
Inter session concurrent training= doing R.T. and A.T. in separate sessions, but within the same training period.
Intra session concurrent training= mixing R.T. and A.T. within the same session.
However, for most sporting activities, this artificial divide has little relevance. If you think of a wrestling match, there is a huge demand on the aerobic system, but at the same time the wrestler is using his strength.
He doesn’t jog around the mat for one round and then lift his opponent repeatedly in the next. He uses both systems at once.
This divide has been encouraged by researchers who wish to have a clear measure of outcome to their 6-8 week study. The human body is more complicated than this.
Recently researchers have been looking at inter session C.T. on untrained and aerobically trained subjects. Little research has been done on intra session C.T.
I call intra session C.T. combination training and use it on experienced athletes who have the basic lifts down and a good base of fitness. All the sessions last less than 30mins and usually less than 20 and require a balance of aerobic fitness and strength.
This is much more relevant to most sports than just jogging on the treadmill one day and doing 3 sets of 10 reps on machine weights the next.
Disadvantages of doing cardio and weights in the same session
If we follow the specificity argument, then just playing sport would be all we needed to do to get fit.
It is difficult to develop pure strength and pure cardiorespiratory fitness together. Instead, we do need to Develop our strength and fitness separately in order to Express them in the sporting arena.
So for beginners and at specific times in the season, I train the weights and cv fitness separately. I never leave it too long (2 weeks at most) without doing one or the other.
So, we might concentrate on strength for 2 weeks, but still do 1-2 fitness sessions. Then we might focus on fitness for 2 weeks, but maintain strength in 1 session a week.
This topic is huge, and I will revisit it regularly.
If you want some specific training programmes on “Get Stronger” ” Run Faster” or “Jump Higher” with video clips see here.
The author of this quote- Evil Knievel, died 11 years ago at the age of 69. Famous for his successful and unsuccessful motorbike stunts, he entertained many of us in the 1970s.
I remember setting up ramps and jumping over model cars to be like him with friends.
The full quote is
“Bones heal, chicks dig scars, pain is temporary, glory is forever.”
This was paraphrased in The Simpsons episode Bart the Daredevil when Captain Lance Murdoch tells Bart:
“Bones heal, chicks dig scars, and America has the best Doctor to Daredevil ratio in the world.”
Knievel really lived life on the edge, my son Jack seems to be following in his footsteps!
“Jodie can’t make training tonight because she is exhausted and worried about her homework deadlines”
A phone call, text or email late in the day from the Mum, and your plans for the night’s training session are scuppered. This is extremely frustrating as a coach. It happened to me 3 times last week alone.
In all the talk about periodisation, planning and competition preparation, the likes of Tudor Bompa and Vladimir Issurin have neglected to include the impact of the “Mom Taper”.
I have scoured the research and documents surrounding the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model by Balyi, Cote et al and I have yet to find the “Mom Taper” mentioned.
For all the theory in the world, I am interested in what is happening on the ground. As a coach who has worked with teenage athletes and their parents for over 10 years, I have tried and failed to implement long term plans. But why does the Mom Taper trump my plans?
Put yourself in Mum’s shoes.
First off, it is important to remember that the young athlete is the Mum’s son or daughter. They will always be their child. We as coaches are temporary influences (hopefully positive) in their lives. The longest I have coached any single athlete is 7 years.
I repeat, the young athlete is the Mum’s child first and foremost.
Most Mum’s I know want the best for their child. They are busy trying to juggle work, managing the home and being the taxi driver for 2 or 3 children going to multiple venues on different nights.
They are under pressure to attend every single training session, drive to the competitions, help with homework and somehow pay for all the kit, fees and fuel. They are surviving week to week, and have little time to sit down and think ahead.
(I have to switch my phone off on Sundays, because I get a flurry of texts from about 8pm to 10pm as the Mums finally get a chance to sit down and look at the week ahead!)
This results in;
fixture overload
training conflicts
falling behind on homework assignments
poor eating habits
lack of rest.
This then leads to a short time crisis of homework panic or illness.
Is it any wonder the Mum cancels training?
(This is different from the “I don’t want Jodie getting sweaty doing exercise” version of the Mom taper:it’s impossible to taper off a taper. I have little tolerance for that!)
4 ways coaches can help prevent this problem
Realise that the world is bigger than our sport and our sessions. Ask the Mum and the athlete what else is happening in their lives.
Sit down and plan 4 weeks at a time with the Mum and athlete. This is essential and is the Number 1 reason why the athletes I work with predominantly avoid injury. This is an eye opener for coach. parent and athlete alike. (Use these free 4 weekly planners)
Be adaptable: know your athletes and adjust the sessions according to how they look and feel. They may need 10 minutes of play time and “mucking about” to get rid of the calculus residing in their brain from an exam that afternoon.
Perhaps most importantly, and hard to do, have a real honesty check about the necessity of the sessions. Do our cricketers need winter nets? Is that athlete centred, or is it cricket coach’s income stream centred? Do we have to have 6 hours of selection games on a Sunday in the rain, let alone 4 Sundays in a row. How much value is being added here?
Summary
It is easy to criticise Mums about last minute cancellations, but we as coaches need to recognise the landscape we live in (Living and coaching in Devon, I understand the amount of driving that is required too). I find that advance communication helps all parties.
Sometimes known as Generation Y, this group of people are the ones coming into the workplace since the Millennium.
A bit different from the Generation X “slackers”, the Millennials have been hot housed, nurtured and been led to believe that they can achieve anything.
Massively full of self confidence (or something) they have yet to fail at anything in their life. They expect to be able to run their social life through work or through their sport.
Well, welcome to sport. Failure is a part of it, as is hard work, as is realism. If you are unaccustomed to failing and working at something to improve, then the first time you get a B- or are unable to get it right straight away- it is a massive shock.
Two things happen here- they quit, or someone else is to blame. The problem with super high self esteem is that in order to protect it, you can apportion blame elsewhere. This is a poor starting place for performance improvement.
The other side is mixing the social life into work and sport- well it is alright being best friends with everyone in the squad, but you are competing for places with them.
The Millennials in team sports appear to be more worried about the social than the performance- and I am talking about funded players here.
My 3 tips are:
Be a bit more forgiving in attitude: introduce adversity training gradually.
Allow time for social engagement at the start and end of the session.
Set guidelines on how to interact with each other: no phones in the session or at meal times!
“When you start to coach, you coach the system you played, but you begin almost to immediately discard what doesn’t fit you or your material, and you look for what does . All of us are takers, but if a person can’t add something to what he takes from others, he should get out.”
Vince Lombardi in “Run to Daylight“.
I have had a conversation very similar to this to two different people in the last two days. One was with a physio talking about S&C coaches going on courses and then applying the new information indiscriminately to all and sundry.
The other was to a young person who wants to be an S&C coach and I said to go to lots of different sources at the beginning of her career, but then to establish her own ideas and philosophy as she gets more experience.
Agility is like any other fitness component, it follows the principles of training of:
Specificity
Overload
Progression
Reversibility.
The balance between specificity and overload is a crucial one. Your agility can’t just be Organised Despair, nor can it be just playing games.
One way of overloading the balance/ control system is to practice transferring from stable to unstable surfaces. I am not a believer in circus tricks: standing on swiss balls has very little transfer to real sport.
One drill I use as part of a progression is a series of quick lateral steps and then a single leg stick and hold. Start on your right leg and move rapidly to your left for 3-5 metres and stick the landing on your left leg.
Repeat to the other side. A progression is to finish on a rebounder (pictured with Dan James demonstrating) or a different surface such as grass.
For someone like Dan (GB Goalkeeper for Blind Football) who has good lateral movement and control, we need to add a different stimulus to over come the plateau.
We can also go further, faster, or add more complicated movements. We just can’t stay the same.
This was her way of describing to young teenage boys the necessity of developing strength in a safe and progressive manner.
Unfortunately in the rush to “look good nekked” a lot of bad advice is heeded by these boys.
Top heavy
In the desperate attempt to develop limb size (rather than strength) the training programme negelects the fundamental needs of the developing body.
“No one ever died of weak biceps”
Roy Parsloe: lecturer on my A level p.e. course in 1991.
Why on earth would we put a preacher curl into a school gym? The kids spend all day sat down in classrooms as it is.
If you train sat down or lying down, then your entire trunk area is made redundant. We then have a situation where people need to work on their “core stability“.
Pull ups are better
This lady may be trying to “tone” her arms, compared to the boys who would be trying to “get hench“, but they are all sat down.
Every dumbbell exercise and 90% of the bodyweight exercises I demonstrated on the course were done standing up or in prone support. This limits the overall weight you can lift, but it is our ability to apply strengthon the field that is important.
The young person has to learn how to control their own body weight in different planes of movement and at varying speeds before picking up a weight. The quick fix is to sit or lie down (and have a mate pick up the weight and pass it to them) but there are no benches or chairs on the rugby pitch.
Thanks to all the candidates who threw themselves with abandon into the practical sessions and the classroom discussions.
I hope I managed to stimulate some thoughts into how they go back and work with all their players: solid foundations and sound programming beat fads and short cuts every time.
Success in sports depends on an athlete’s ability to perform functional movements, such as running, jumping or changing direction, to a high level on a daily basis. However, the fatiguing effect of high intensity competition and training experienced by elite athletes can reduce the quality of performance.
In recent years, ice baths or cold water immersion (CWI) have been used widely in an attempt to help athletes recover following training and competition.
But are they really effective? And what is the correct protocol? We take a look at the research behind the practice.
Reducing Muscle Soreness
One of the potential benefits of CWI is the reduction in muscle soreness associated with intense exercise, otherwise known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
There is now a vast body of research which supports the use of CWI following intense exercise to reduce DOMS (1, 3, 6, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19, 20,), with benefits including reduced pain at rest, reduced pain on stretch and increased active range of motion.
Several mechanisms have been suggested to be responsible for this reduced soreness including:
1) Reduced swelling due to hydrostatic pressure of water (20)
2) Reduced swelling due to constriction of blood vessels at low temperature (6)
3) Reduced nerve conduction velocity due to cold temperature, resulting in increased pain tolerance (1)
It is not known for certain which of the mechanisms play the biggest role in relieving soreness.
However, a recent study (9) comparing different CWI strategies has found that water immersion at 6°C was more effective than both water immersion at 10°C and contrast water immersion alternating between 10°C and 38°C. This would suggest that the cold temperature plays a more important role than the water immersion itself.
This benefit may only exist with trained athletes, and that those new to exercise or performing a new training regime will not see a reduction in muscle soreness.
Recovery of Performance
Despite the benefits of CWI for reducing muscle soreness, the effects on recovery of physical performance are less clear. Numerous studies have examined the effects of CWI on a variety of performance related parameters; however the mixed results make it difficult to draw solid conclusions about its effectiveness.
The table below indicates the discrepancies between studies:
Table 1. Details and results of studies investigating the effects CWI strategies on recovery of performance
Although the results are varied, some patterns do exist across the studies. For instance, the studies which retested performance on the same day seemed to find either no effect or a negative effect. This has been attributed to decreased nerve velocity and also restricted blood flow to the muscle (1, 8).
Whereas studies which tested between 24-48 hours later were more likely to find a positive result, suggesting that CWI could help recovery for next day performance. This could be due to a reduced perception of fatigue and/or a reduction in localised swelling which has been shown to reduce force generation (5).
These could be important implications for the use of CWI in sport. Sportsmen and women in sports involving several bouts of competition within one day such as multi-event Athletics or Rugby Sevens would be advised to abstain from CWI in between bouts.
On the other hand CWI may be beneficial for athletes competing on consecutive days such as Tennis, Cycling or Tournament Football.
Due to the varied nature of the results however, there is no ‘best practice’ which can be advised regarding the use of CWI and so athletes should use with caution on an individualised basis as part of theirrecovery strategy.
Reducing Adaptation
Despite some research supporting the use of CWI for recovery of short term performance in sport, there are suggestions that long term use could actually have a negative impact on physical adaptation.
Immersion in cold water has been shown to illicit an increase in the stress hormones cortisol and norepinephrine for up to 60minutes post immersion (4). These hormones are catabolic in nature, meaning that they act to break down muscle tissue, which would reduce the body’s ability to adapt to training.
In addition, the reduction in swelling associated with CWI and relieving muscle soreness may also be detrimental to adaptation. MacIntyre and colleagues (13) suggested that:
“the inflammatory response may be responsible for initiating, amplifying, and/or resolving skeletal muscle injury”
They also present evidence of the role of white blood cells in the inflammatory response, which would be significantly reduced during cold water immersion due to the vasoconstriction of localised blood vessels.
Conclusions
The role of cold water immersion in recovery from intense exercise is still unclear. There is strong evidence which suggests muscle soreness resulting from exercise can be reduced in trained athletes, and that this may have a positive effect on performance in the following days.
However the long term effects of cold water immersion on the physical adaptation to exercise remain uncertain. With this in mind, cold water immersion following training should be limited.
Whilst ice baths may look cool and feel nice, there are better and more convenient ways to recover.
1) Algafly, A.A., & George, K.P. (2007). The effect of cryotherapy on nerve conduction velocity, pain threshold and pain tolerance. British Journal of Sport Medicine, 41, 365-369.
2) Ascensao, A., Leite, M., Rebelo, A.N., Magalhaes, S. & Magalhaes, J. (2011). Effects of cold water immersion on the recovery of physical performance and muscle damage following a one-off soccer match. Journal of Sports Sciences, 29, 217-225.
3) Bailey, D.M., Erith, S.J., Griffin, P.J., Dowson, A., Brewer, D.S., Gant, N., & Williams, C. (2007). Influence of cold-water immersion on indices of muscle damage following prolonged intermittent shuttle running. Journal of Sports Sciences, 25, 1163-1170.
4) Bleakley, C.M. & Davison, G.W. (2010). What is the biochemical and physiological rationale for using cold-water immersion in sports recovery? A systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 44, 179-187.
5) Brophy-Williams, N., Landers, G. & Wallman, K. (2011). Effect of immediate and delayed cold water immersion after a high intensity exercise session on subsequent run performance. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 10, 665-670.
6) Cochrane, D.J. (2004). Alternating hot and cold water immersion for athlete recovery: A review. Physical Therapy in Sport, 5, 26-32.
7) Crampton, D., Donne, B., Egana, M. & Warmington, S.A. (2011). Sprint cycling performance Is maintained with short-term contrast waterimmersion. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 43, 2180-2188.
8) Crowe, M.J., O’Connor, D., & Rudd, D. (2007). Cold water recovery reduces anaerobic performance. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 28, 994-998.
9) University of Ulster (Pre-Publication). Post exercise recovery research.
10) Eston, R., & Peters, D. (1999). Effects of cold water immersion on the symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage. Journal of Sports Science, 17, 231-238.
11) Goodall, S., & Howatson, G. (2008). The effects of cold water immersions on indices of muscle damage. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 7, 235-241.
12) Lane, K.N., & Wenger, H.A. (2004). Effect of selected recovery conditions on performance of repeated bouts of intermittent cycling separated by 24 hours. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 18, 855-860.
13) MacIntyre, D.L., Reid, D.W. & McKenzie, D.C. (1995). Delayed Muscle Soreness. The inflammatory response to muscle injury and its clinical implications. Sports Medicine, 20, 24-40.
14) Patterson, S.M., Udermann, B.E., Doberstein, S.T., & Reinke, D.M. (2008). The effects of cold whirlpool on power, agility and range of motion. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 7, 387-394.
15) Rowsell, G.J., Coutts, A.J., Reaburn, P. & Hill-Haas, S. (2011). Effect of post-match cold-water immersion on subsequent match running performance in junior soccer players during tournament play. Journal of Sports Sciences, 29, 1-6.
16) Sellwood, K.L., Brukner, P., Williams, D., Nicol, A., & Hinman, R. (2007). Ice-water immersion and delayed onset muscle soreness: A randomised control trial. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 41, 392-397.
17) Skurvydas, A., Sipaviciene, S., Krutulyte, G., Gailiuniele, A., Stasiulis, A, Mamkus, G., & Stanislovaitis, A. (2006). Cooling of leg muscles affects dynamics of indirect indicators of skeletal muscle damage. Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 19, 141-151.
18) Vaile, J.M., Gill, N.D., & Blazevich, A.J. (2007). The effect of contrast water therapy on symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research,21, 697-702.
19) Vaile, J.M., Halson, S., Gill, N.D., & Dawson, B. (2008). Effect of hydrotherapy on recovery from fatigue. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 29, 539-544.
20) Wilcock, I.M., Cronin, J.B., & Hing, W.A. (2006). Physiological response to water immersion: A method for recovery? Sports Medicine, 36, 747-765.
Periodisation is the term given to the practice of breaking down an athlete’s conditioning plan into specific phases of training. Block periodisation is one version of this.
By varying the emphasis of the training at regular time intervals, periodisation attempts to produce optimal gains in strength, power and endurance.
Periodisation aims to optimise both short term (e.g. weeks, months) and long term (e.g. years, over a career) goals. Competitive athletes will aim to peak their physical performance for major competitions on a weekly basis (e.g. Football, Rugby) or for a major competition (e.g. Athletics, Tennis).
Although young athletes are often competing in matches and tournaments, the goal should always be long term progression and periodisation should be devised to develop quality as well as quantity of physical performance.
The training variables that can be manipulated in an attempt to optimize the training program include:
Volume of work done (e.g. sets and reps, number of sessions)
Load (e.g. heavy or light resistance)
Rest periods between exercises
Types of exercises used (e.g. platform based exercises, multi-directional movements, technique based exercises).
Does periodisation work?
Despite the popularity of periodised training, there is little research examining its efficacy. A handful of studies have examined the effectiveness of a periodised resistance training programme on increasing strength and power.
Studies lasting between 6 and 24 weeks have repeatedly shown that athletes using programmes progressing from high volume and low intensity to low volume and high intensity increased strength (load lifted) and power (vertical jump/cycling force production) compared to constant training
intensity (1,2,3,4,5,6).
Interestingly, many of these studies showed that both groups increased strength in equal amounts up until the periodisation group began a phase of lower volume.
At this point the periodisation group began to see increases in strength significantly greater than the control group.
This supports the Delayed Transformation concept which suggests that a period of low volume is needed for optimum adaptation to take place.
One major limitation of these studies is the relatively short period over which they were conducted. Future research could investigate the longitudinal effects of periodisation to determine its efficacy for long term progression.
Does Periodisation Work for Young Athletes?
A weight lifting programme for boy or girl
Periodisation for young athletes is difficult in practice. Many factors affect the ability of teenagers to attend training, not least school commitments and the increasing importance of academic achievement in society. Youngsters also rely heavily on parents for transport and funding coaching and equipment which could be barriers to regular participation.
Even on occasion when athletes are able to attend training, long school days (probably with inadequate nutrition and sleep) place a large amount strain on the body. This is not the best preparation for a training session possibly including heavy lifts or new complex techniques.
For this reason, flexibility within a training plan is vital, as is the ability of the coach to judge when to apply each exercise or training method.
Another consideration when coaching young athletes is the difference in growth and development rates(7). Individual’s rates of growth and maturation are largely unpredictable, thus making it hard to periodise a programme to peak at a specific time. This is also an important consideration when training groups of young athletes, as individuals will mature at different rates, making a progressive training programme difficult to plan.
In addition to this, periodising different phases of training may not even be necessary for a developing sportsperson. Young athletes have a high degree of neural plasticity and can therefore adapt to almost any training stimulus(8).
Even concurrently training competing physical qualities (such as maximal strength and anaerobic endurance) will result in a positive adaptation of both qualities to some extent.
Conclusion
Although Periodisation appears to be a valuable tool for maximising training of competitive athletes, rigidly sticking to a periodised plan is unrealistic for most developing athletes.
Numerous factors affect the ability of youngsters to train, affecting any opportunity to plan regular training. Physical and emotional stress of training and competing in different sports as well as juggling school work would mean adherence to a strict periodised plan could lead to overtraining and burnout.
Young athletes are also more able to adapt to multiple training stimuli, reducing the need for separate phases of training. Over time, however, as the athlete becomes better developed, training programmes should become more planned and focused.
Matt Durber
Periodisation for young athletes in practice.
At our Athletic Development Club we apply some structure and planning to the teenage athletes, in conjunction with the other sports they play.
For the younger athletes, we use a lot more guided discovery and never count sets or reps.
References
1) McGee, D., T.C. Jessee, M.H. Stone, & D. Blessing. (1992) Leg and hip endurance adaptations to three weight-training programs. J.Appl. Sport Sci. Res. 6:92–95.
2) O’Bryant, H.S., R. Byrd, & M.H. Stone. (1988) Cycle ergometer performance and maximum leg and hip strength adaptations to two different methods of weight-training. J. Appl. Sport Sci. Res. 2:27–30.
3) Stone, M.H., H. O’Bryant, & J. Garhammer. (1981) A hypothetical model for strength training. J. Sports Med. 21:342–351.
4) Stowers, T., J.McMillan, D. Scala, V. Davis, D. Wilson, & M. Stone. (1983) The short-term effects of three different strength–power training methods. Natl. Strength Cond. Assoc. J. 5:24–27.
5) Willoughby, D.S. (1992) A comparison of three selected weight training programs on the upper and lower body strength of trained males. Ann. J. Appl. Res. Coaching Athletics March:124–146.
6) Willoughby, D.S. (1993) The effects of meso-cycle-length weight training programs involving periodization and partially equated volumes on upper and lower body strength. J. Strength Cond. Res. 7:2–8.
7)Arsmtrong, N. & Welsman, J. () Training Young Athletes, In: Lee, M.J. eds. Coaching Children in Sport: Principles. pp191-203.
A phone call, text or email late in the day from the Mum, and your plans for the night’s training session are scuppered. This is extremely frustrating as a coach. It happened to me 3 times last week alone.
First off, it is important to remember that the young athlete is the Mum’s son or daughter. They will always be their child. We as coaches are temporary influences (hopefully positive) in their lives. The longest I have coached any single athlete is 7 years.
Realise that the world is bigger than our sport and our sessions. Ask the Mum and the athlete what else is happening in their lives.
Sometimes known as Generation Y, this group of people are the ones coming into the workplace since the Millennium.
The other side is mixing the social life into work and sport- well it is alright being best friends with everyone in the squad, but you are competing for places with them.
One drill I use as part of a progression is a series of quick lateral steps and then a single leg stick and hold. Start on your right leg and move rapidly to your left for 3-5 metres and stick the landing on your left leg.
