In this video blog, I offer some viewpoints on how to better organize your training to overcome plateaus, reach higher performance ceilings, and peak when it counts.
Periodization often gets a bit of a “bad rap”, but this is going to always be referring to the “over-planning” of training in a rigid manner. There are some things that coaches really should have a solid idea of when laying out training across the course of a 8-15 week time span, as well as the training year at large.
I’m not a fan of writing out every training session for an athlete across the course of a long period of time because this assumes that the coach knows exactly how the athlete will respond to all this work!
Over time, I’ve gained lessons in writing out training programs, as well as being a part of a coaching staff in track and field and swimming that have helped me to further understand what matters, and what isn’t quite as important when writing better programs.
Some of my greatest mentors in the programming and training space have been Yuri Verkhoshansky, Tudor Bompa (even though I don’t run his classical periodization system), Nelio Moura, The Inno-Sport material, Cal Dietz, Anatoli Bondarchuk, Dan Pfaff, and my knowledge of the Tony Wells training system.
Before we get to the tips, it’s important that regardless of your methodology, athletes know that you have a plan, and you know where you are going with the training. If you can’t communicate why you are in the training phase you are in, and where you are going with it, belief in the program will falter.
With that said, here are my 5 tips for better programming and training organization.
Use Early Training Cycles to Learn How Athletes Respond to the Basics
- Volume
- Density and intensity
- Force and velocity
When it comes to the training program, you need to use your early training cycles to get a handle on how athletes are adapting to the workload you have set. Test some sort of KPI fairly regularly to see how their improvement curve pans out over time.
I talk about individualization in regards to these variables, such as force and velocity, in more length in my book “Speed Strength“.
Know the Principles of Basic Program Building Blocks
There are nearly infinite ways to create a training program, and you don’t need to learn every single system out there. In reality, the basics of training blocks, in working with beginner to advanced athletes is key. Some samples would be as follows:
- 5 or 6 to 1 (beginners)
- 3/1 (intermediate)
- 2/1 (advanced)
- 7,14,21 Day Cycles
- 2 Day, 3 Day, 4 Day/week, Auto-Regulation and Factorization densities
- Bondarchuk style (go until you “adapt” and then run a cleansing or deloading period)
You can start to get more creative from these points forward. Unless you have a framework, it’s hard to assess the means behind the results you are getting.
Have Somewhere to Go: Don’t Desensitize Early!
This is a big one. If you throw out all your “top shelf” training means early in an athletes season or career, those means will be less effective later on. Some of these means would include things like depth jumps, over-speed sprints, French Contrast training, maximal overcoming isometrics and partials, etc.
These training means are best “saved” until later in a season or career so that the response to them will be greater when it counts, since everything in life has reduced sensitivity over time, and training is no exception.
Don’t Over-do GPP Phases and Know How to use GPP Well
General physical preparation with an emphasis on conditioning, movement and multilateral development is very important, but it is often over-done, especially with advanced athletes who do not need as much of this type of work relatively speaking.
Have a Plan Not Only in Regards to “Force” but also Motor Learning!
We look at training largely in regards to maximal force outputs, but at the end of the day, we need to have a plan for skill development as well, as this is equally, if not more important than simply saying “get more forceful and produce it more quickly” since those are too general of terms for skilled athletes.
- How are you nurturing the skills you want to be better at?
- Using special strength, and filling in the gaps
- Using complexes early to build a more robust motor program
About Joel Smith
Joel Smith is an NCAA Division I Strength Coach working in the PAC12 conference. A track coach of 11 years, Joel is also a coach for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level.
Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.
In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field.
Prior to working in the PAC12 conference, Joel spent 6 years in the realms of coaching, college lecturing, personal training, and thesis research. Joel’s certifications include Neurological and Physical Typing from BATI, CSCS, MAT Jumpstart, and NKT level 1, as well as USA Track and Field credentials. Joel is also well-versed in the Be-Activated protocols as taught by Douglas Heel, and has been extensively mentored by sprint and sport movement coach Adarian Barr.
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