The
purpose of a Training Plan is to identify the work to be carried out to achieve
agreed objectives. Training Plans should be drawn up to identify long term (4
years) objectives as well as short term plans for the forth coming season. For
the rest of this topic I will concentrate on the development of the short term
annual Training Plan. In its simplest form the plan could comprise of a single,
A4 sheet identifying the overall plan for the year, and more detailed weekly
plans identifying the specific activities the athlete is to carry out.
Training year
The
start of the training year will depend upon the athlete's circumstances and
objectives, but this would generally be around October for track and field
athletics.
Information Gathering
The
first stage of preparing a Training Plan is to gather background information
about your athlete and the objectives for the forth coming season. The sort of
information to collect is as follows:
- Personal details
- Name, address, date of birth, telephone numbers, transport arrangements
- Objectives
- Performance (time, height, distance)
- Technical (development of event technique)
- Indoor and/or outdoor season
- Experience
- Personal best (PB's)
- Competition experience (club, county, national, country)
- Equipment
- Does the athlete have his own
equipment (e.g. starting blocks, javelin etc.)?
- Harness and tyre
- Elastic harness
- Weight jackets
- Video camera
- Distance, time, % effort
matrix chart
- Finance
- Where can grants be obtained
from?
- Competition
- Date of main competition
- National and Area
Championships
- School , University
competitions
- Required qualification times
for competitions
- Fixture lists - Club, County
etc.
- Open Meetings
- Competitors
- Who are the competition and
what are their PB's?
- Recent competition results
- Competition behaviour
- Athlete's other Commitments
- School, college, work, part
time jobs
- Family and partner
- Hobbies and other sports
- Time available for training
- Planned holidays
- Medical
- Previous injuries or illness
- Current problems (diabetes,
asthma etc.)
- Access to medical support
- Physiotherapy support
- On any medication - is it a
banned substance?
- Using asthma inhaler -
application to use Beta 2 agent inhalers
- Training facilities
- Tracks and other running
facilities (bad weather)
- Gymnasiums and weight training
- Swimming pools, saunas and
massage
- Coaching Workshops
- Last season
- What can be learnt from last
season - good and bad aspects
- Key questions for the athlete
- How serious are you about your
athletics?
- What do expect from your
coach?
Analysis of the last program
If
this is not the first program you have generated with the athlete then an
important activity to conduct is a SWOT analysis of the last training program:
- Strengths
- What were the best aspects of
the program and why?
- What did we do well and why?
- Weaknesses
- Are there gaps in the program?
- What did we not do very well
and why?
- Opportunities
- How can we enhance the program
to the benefit of the athlete?
- Threats
- What may prevent us achieving
the short and long term objectives?
Before
we can start to create a training program we need to analyse our athlete to
determine their strengths and weaknesses. The first step is to identify the
ideal attributes (e.g. body build, strength, endurance, speed, flexibility etc)
that will allow our athlete to achieve their agreed goals. The next step is to
assess our athlete against our ideal athlete to identify their strengths and
weaknesses (gap analysis). Addressing the gaps may require us to think in terms
of long term planning (4-8 years) but for this macrocycle we can set realistic
but challenging goals to start to address the gaps. The following link provides an example
form for this athlete analysis process.
Periodisation
Periodisation
is the method of organising the training year into phases where each phase has
its specific aims for the development of the athlete.
The phases of a training year
The
training year is divided into 6 phases as follows:
- Phase 1 - 16 weeks - Oct, Nov,
Dec, Jan
- Phase 2 - 8 weeks - Feb, Mar
- Phase 3 - 8 weeks - Apr, May
- Phase 4 - 8 weeks - Jun, Jul
- Phase 5 - 8 weeks - Jul, Aug
- Phase 6 - 4 weeks - Sep
This
assumes that the competition climax will be in August
Objectives of each phase
The
objectives of each phase are as follows:
- Phase 1 - General development
of strength, mobility, endurance and basic technique
- Phase 2 - Development of
specific fitness and advanced technical skills
- Phase 3 - Competition
experience - achievement of indoor objectives
- Phase 4 - Adjustment of
technical model, preparation for the main competition
- Phase 5 - Competition
experience and achievement of outdoor objectives
- Phase 6 - Active recovery -
planning preparation for next season
Activities of each Phase
The
athlete's physical needs that require development are:
- Basic body Conditioning
- General and Specific Strength
- General and Specific Technique
- General and Specific Mobility
- General and Specific Endurance
- Speed
Each
of these needs should be seen as a building block, where specific blocks need
to be in place before you progress to the next. Failure to do this may result
in injury. How you allocate
the blocks to each phase depends upon the athlete's weaknesses and strengths
and is for you as the coach to decide with the athlete.
One
approach is to progress the building blocks as follows:
- basic body conditioning
- general strength, endurance,
mobility and technique
- specific strength, endurance,
mobility and technique
- speed
When
progressing from one block to the next, remember to fade one out as the other
comes in and not to switch from one block to the next overnight. Some blocks
once started may continue to the end of the season but at a less intense level
e.g. mobility. Other blocks to consider are relaxation, visualisation and
psychology (mental attitude).
Volume, Intensity & Recovery
The
relationship of Volume of work, Intensity of the work and Recovery within the
session:
General Preparation
Phase |
Specific Preparation
Phase |
Pre-competition
Phase |
Competition
Phase |
|
Intensity
|
Low
|
Low
|
Medium
|
High
|
Volume
|
High
|
High
|
Medium
|
Low
|
Recovery
|
Low
|
Low
|
Medium
|
High
|
Preparing a plan
The
steps in producing a Training Plan are as follows:
- Gathering information
- Produce an overall plan
template and identify the months/weeks of the year
- Identify on the plan at the
appropriate period
- the main competition
- area, national, school etc.
championships
- qualification competitions
- club fixture meetings
- the 6 phases based on the main
competition in phase 5
- Identify on the plan
- the blocks (e.g. strength,
endurance) to be developed in each phase
- the period of development for
each block
- the intensity of training week
by week
- number of training sessions
per week
- evaluation points
to monitor progress
- Identify appropriate training
units for each block as appropriate to the phase of development.
- Group the training units for
each block into training schedules taking into consideration the number of
training sessions the athlete can complete per week, the required training
intensity and the phase of development.
As
an athlete matures, they are not only developing in terms of their sports but
also in terms of education, career, physical maturity and their relationships
with those around them. On average, an athlete is likely to face up to seven
transitions during their full athletic and perhaps the critical transition
occurs around the age of 20 when they may be:
- moving to university/college or
commencing in full time employment
- progressing to a high
performance level
- maturing through adolescence
- establishing relationships with
a partner
Coaches
must take into consideration these transitions when planning the annual
and long term training programs for their athletes.
Athlete
development model - Wylleman (2004)
Macrocycle
is a period of time (e.g. 11 months) defining the available preparation time up
to a major competition.
This
can be divided into developmental periods called Mesocycles. A mesocycle is
usually 4-8 weeks in duration and has a specific objective e.g. general
preparation, specific preparation, competition.
A
Microcycle is a shorter training period of about 7-10 days and includes more
detailed information on the intensity, frequency, duration and sequencing of
the Training Sessions.
The
following link provides an example of an Annual
Training Plan (Macrocycle, Mesocycle and Microcycle) to help
guide you with the planning of an athlete's training program.
A
training unit is a single activity (e.g. 6 × 60 metres at 90% effort with 2
minutes recovery) with a set objective (e.g. develop specific endurance). A training
session is made up of one or more training units e.g. warm up unit, Technique drillsunit,
Speed Endurance unit and a cool down unit.
A
training schedule (microcycle) comprises of a number of training sessions that
can span from 7 to 10 days.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is a
simple, yet often misused motivational technique that can provide some
structure for your training and competition program. Goals give a focus, and
there are two well known acronyms to guide goal setting.
- S - goals must be Specific
- M - training targets should be Measurable
- A - goals should be Adjustable
- R - goals must be Realistic
- T - training targets should be Time
based
- E - goals should be challenging
and Exciting
- R - goals should be Recorded
- S - goals must be Specific
- C - within the Control of
the athlete
- C - goals are Challenging
- A - goals must be Attainable
- M - training targets should be Measurable
- P - goals are Personal
The
basic principles of fitness training are summed up in the acronym F.I.T.T
- F - Frequency - how often
- I - Intensity - how hard
- T - Time - how long
- T - Type - the type of training
(strength, endurance etc.)
Training ages
When
developing a training program it is important, especially for young athletes,
to take into consideration the athlete's:
- Chronological age - age from
date of birth
- Development age - physical,
mental and emotional development
- Training age - number of years
they have been seriously training
Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) is
a sports development framework that matches training needs to an athlete's
growth and development.
General Annual Training Programs
The
following are examples of basic training programs suitable for the young
athlete or for the mature athlete who is just starting out in Track and Field
athletics:
- Sprint events -
100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres, 4 × 100 metre relay and 4 × 400 metre
relay.
- Throw events -
Discus, Shot, Javelin and Hammer
- Jump events -
High Jump, Long Jump, Triple Jump and Pole Vault
- Endurance
events - 800 metres, 1500 metres, 5km, 10km, Race Walking
and Steeplechase.
For
the experienced athlete select this
link for examples of event specific annual training programs.
1. WYLLEMAN, P. et al. (2004) Career Transitions in Sport. Psychology
of Sport and Exercise, 5 (1), p. 7-20
Page Reference
The
reference for this page is:
- MACKENZIE, B. (1997) Planning
the Training [WWW] Available from:
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/plan.htm [Accessed7/9/2011]
