Today’s episode features track and field coach, and training organization expert Derek Evely. Derek made his original appearance on episode #43 of the podcast where he spoke extensively on the core principles of the Bondarchuk training system, and how it’s ideas it can be applied to sprint training. Derek is back now, talking on many more facets of the system, particularly in terms of understanding and tracking adaptation and exercise variation, which are two absolutely critical training variables when dealing with advanced athletes.
The Bondarchuk training system was invented, of course, by Anatoliy Bondarchuk, and has yielded the most consistent Olympic medal sweeps (in the hammer throw) by any country in history. The core of the training system is doing the same exact workout or workouts (composed of a specific exercise, CE, a special strength exercise, SDE a strength movement using the same prime muscles, SPE, and then basic general exercises that incorporate multiple planes of movement, GPE), and repeating that until an athlete reaches their peak performance with that “exercise set”. In this manner, many variables, such as the weight on the bar each day, are fixed, so that the effectiveness of each component of the cycle can be monitored as much as possible in terms of its contribution to the athletes’ adaptation.
Derek is a true master of training organization, and is considered by many to be the best in the world. He has trained world-class athletes such as Sultana Frizell, Dylan Armstrong and Gary Reed, and has the real-world success to go alongside his knowledge gained from experience and the practices of other world-class coaches. On the podcast today, we’ll talk about delayed transformation, the role of variation in producing overload, creating an optimal peaking cycle, and also a great discussion on the “parts” system, or complex training, in eliciting training gains out of already advanced athletes.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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Key Points:
- Derek’s recent happenings and his new Bondarchuk inspired training course
- Timing and sequence and interchange of maximal strength building and movement focused training
- Ideas on delayed transformation based on intentional overtraining
- The use of variation in producing overload and adaptation on the athlete
- How to decide emphasis on strength, etc. in each training season
- Going “Heavy to Light” or “Light to Heavy” in weight training
- How to gather information from the yearly training plan and write a championship cycle for best results”
- The “parts” program of the Bondarchuk system
- The value of keeping the barbell weight the same across a training cycle
“In every microcycle, you need to be working on all four exercise classifications”
“This is one of the big myths with Bondarchuk is that he is a non-beleiver in maximal strength”
“To me the issue really comes down to black and white thinking (in regards to maximal strength)”
“There are sports where you have no choice (in terms of utilizing delayed transformation and a large maximal strength oriented training block)”
“You have to be careful making assumptions about guys hearing rumors about their training programs”
“When you are doing the Bondarchuk system with a new athlete, it takes a leap of faith on their part”
“Probably the most difficult part of the Bondarchuk system to get my head around, and the last part I figured out was the rest cycles, because that has a huge impact on things”
“The amount of detraining that happens before you start the cycle has an impact on which of the reactions you are going to be (when you go through the developmental cycle)”
“You have to appreciate the impact that variation and change has on how an athlete reacts to training across the board”
“The only difference between the Bondarchuk system and any other system is we really manage that variation, we use a change of exercise set as a primary driver of adaptation”
“I’m not using GPE to drive specific form, I’m using GPE to maintain general abilities and promote recovery from session to session”
“That championship PDSF has to be the best cycle I’ve every written, it has to have the most transfer.“
“No matter how good the exercise is at stimulating adaptation, they adapt to it, so over the long term, you can’t keep going back to the same exercises, because, they won’t improve”
“The higher the level of the athlete, the more important this (variation, as well as the parts sytem) is”
“The better athletes come into form really really quickly, you have to be able to react to it”
“The more you can (control variables in the weightroom) the more you can make inferences on how the athlete adapts”
“It’s not about the specifics of what you are doing, it is the actual change that is important”
About Derek Evely
Derek Evely is a Canadian track and field coach and a renowned expert on periodization, planning and organization of training.
Derek was the Head Coach of the Kamloops Track and Field Club (where developed international athletes and medalists Shane Niemi, Gary Reed, and Dylan Armstrong, amongst others), before moving to Edmonton to work alongside Kevin Tyler as the Sport Science Manager at the Canadian Athletics Coaching Centre (CACC).
In 2009 Derek became the Centre Director of the Loughborough High Performance Centre. Additionally, Derek coached a young group of throwers in the UK, including Sophie Hitchon, who under his tutelage won a World Junior Championship, broke the British Record in the hammer at 19 years old, and qualified for the Olympic Final in 2012 at the age of 21!
Since 2012 Derek has returned to Kamloops and started a small training group focusing on the hammer throw. In 2014 he guided Sultana Frizell to a Commonwealth and North American record, as well as a Commonwealth Games gold medal and also worked with Olympic hammer thrower Heather Steacy.
Through his coaching career, Derek has been named to 4 World Championship Teams, 2 Olympic Teams, the European Championships, European Team Championships, European under-23 championships, and many others.
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