The principles of training

1. The principles of training

2. A training programme • To develop and use a safe and effective training programme, you will need to use the principles of training as set out in your syllabus. • These are • Overload • Specificity • Progression • Individual differences • Variation • Reversibility • Frequency • Intensity • Time • Type

3. Overload • To improve the body’s systems a training programme must show overload. • Without overload, the athlete will simply maintain the same level. • Overload must be gradual. • This means that an athlete should work harder than they are used to in order to improve. • The body has to adapt to the increase in training, and this causes improvement in the bodies systems. • You can add overload in a number of ways • How often you train – Add a training session • How hard you train – Work harder in the training sessions • Duration – Increase how long you train for.

4. Overload • Overload must be gradual. If you add too much too soon, you will cause injury. • Look at these examples – How could you provide overload for these people? • Norbert – Leads a sedentary life and hasn’t done any exercise for three years. • Geoff – goes for a run three times a week for twenty minutes. He runs at about 60% of his maximum speed. • Sharon – goes weight training 5 times a week. She does 20 exercises, 3 sets of 15 repetitions at 50% of her maximum weight.

5. Specificity • Any gain in fitness will be specific to the muscles or system to which the overload is applied. • For example an athlete who trains by running for 20 minutes three times a week will see improvements to aerobic endurance, muscular endurance and body composition in the muscles that work in running. • They will not develop other areas such as power or flexibility. • By training for running, they may not help if they want to develop fitness for cycling. • The key to being specific, is to make sure that a training programme has clear goals.

6. Specificity • How could you make a training programme specific for the following individuals?: • Norbert – Wants to improve his strength and lose a bit of weight. • Geoff – Used to play a lot of football and has decided he wants to play again next season. • Sharon – Wants to move on the next level and become a international sprinter.

7. Progression • Progression is a steady increase in the overload of a training programme. • The important element is being gradual in the overload; • Too much overload = injury • Too little overload = little or no improvement. • You can increase frequency, intensity and duration of exercise gradually to bring about progression.

8. Individual Differences • To be successful a training programme must look at the individual athlete. • Athletes will have different objectives • So collecting information and setting short, medium and long term goals, as well as SMART targets is essential. • Athletes will have different preferences • Some will prefer different exercises or training methods to others. • Athletes improve at different rates • This can be due to their genetic make up

9. Variation • A training programme needs to be varied, so that the athlete doesn’t become bored. • Try to change the training methods or style at least every 2 weeks to keep the athlete interested.

10. Reversibility • This principle states that if fitness is not used regularly, then the body will revert back to its previous level of fitness. • The rule use it or lose it would be a good indication of this principle. • Rest, however, is essential. A training programme will need to have some rest periods each week, in order to allow the body to recover and consolidate the adaptations to training.

11. The F.I.T.T. principle • Frequency – refers to how often the athlete will train in each week, month or year. • Beginners – 2-3 sessions per week. Can increase to more than this after 3 months • Health and fitness – Training should not exceed 5 days a week. This allows recovery time • Elite athlete – 6 or 7 days a week. – Daley Thompson famously had one day off per year – Christmas day!

12. The F.I.T.T. principle • Intensity – refers to how hard the athlete works in each session or repetition. • It is usually expressed as a percentage of maximum. • For example in weight training – 60% of the maximum weight you can lift. • For aerobic events this is often expressed as a percentage of Maximum Heart Rate (220-Age) • Intensity can be increased by adding more weight, or increasing the speed for running or cycling, for examples.

13. The F.I.T.T. principle • Intensity principles. • To develop Aerobic endurance – work at approx 60% of max heart rate • So for a 20 year old this would be 120 bpm (60% of MHR 200bpm) • To develop Strength – work at around 80-100% of Maximum weights, but for only a few repetitions and sets • To develop Muscular Endurance – work at around 60% of max weights/resistance for 15 repetitions in 3 sets. • To develop power – Work at 70-80% of Maximum weight/resistance • To develop speed – Work at 90-100% of max speed when running, or doing weights.

14. The F.I.T.T. principle • Time – Refers to how long each training session lasts for. • To improve aerobic fitness, training should last for a minimum of 20 minutes, for examples

15. The F.I.T.T. principle • Type refers to the type of training in the training programme. • This can depend on a number of things, such as • Athlete preferences • Athlete objectives • Equipment available • Time of year • Time available

16. Periodisation • At the end of this unit, you need to create a 6 week training programme. As such it is one mesocycle made up of 6 microcycles, that fits into a macrocycle. • Is all about a structured cycle of training. It is normally split into 3 parts • Macrocycle – 1-4 year training cycle • Mesocycle – 4-15 week training cycle • Microcycle – weekly or individual training sessions. • Periodisation is designed to help • Reduce chances of injury • Increase chances of peaking at the big tournaments • Improve recovery from training

17. Periodisation • Try to match the different statements below with the mesocycles on the left: • Developing a base level of fitness – strength and aerobic • Rest and recovery • Drills and Organisation • Maintaining a mix of drills organisation and fitness levels. • Level mix of fitness, drills and tactical awareness. • The different cycles vary depending on the sport and the type of athlete. For example: • For a football player: • Macrocycle is one year. It splits into: • Mesocycle 1 – Pre season • Mesocycle 2 – Early season • Mesocycle 3 – Mid season • Mesocycle 4 – Late season • Mesocycle 5 – Off season • Each mesocycle splits into microcycles that build up to weekly or twice weekly matches.

18. Periodisation • Periodisation in Netball

19. For an Olympic rower, • A macrocycle is four years. • They would still have Mesocycles of 4-15 weeks, focussing on different aspects of training. These may be: • Strength • Power • Muscular endurance • Rest • Competition – They have annual world championships, and would try to peak for these. However, their main focus would be the next Olympic Games. Periodisation