Article CategoriesAFM Magazine
|
Pre-Season Conditioning and Speed Training – The Good, The Bad, The Indifferent – Part IIby: Dale BaskettFootball Speed Specialist © More from this issue We’ve clearly established that you need to consider using the proper energy system that delivers the greatest return for your training investment. I will not argue the choice you make as stated in part one of this article that you should or shouldn’t condition. That’s your choice. However, if you do condition at all, you need to come up to speed by selecting the right system available for your time spent. Anaerobic conditioning is the ability to perform at a rate faster than can be met by the incoming oxygen supply. It will put an athlete in a state of oxygen debt, which will be paid back later as he rests properly with the workload. Muscles require energy in order to contract, either slowly or fast. The contraction creates limb movement. I commend Pete Carroll with the Seattle Sea-hawks for being an innovator when it comes to quality and not quantity training which is what anaerobic application is about. When the head coach at USC, he indicated at a coaching clinic that less is more. He’s not a follower, but an innovator, always looking for the best way to affect consistent and positive results. Football gets high on exuding intense energy but let’s not forget that rest is paramount for balancing the metabolic ingredients required for quality performance. Exhaustion is often perceived as the way to get in shape. Hopefully, you now realize there’s different types of shape and that football shape is anaerobic because that’s the physical nature for playing the game. The anaerobic energy system must be trained by putting forth maximal intense energy, teamed together with proper rest recovery. If your players are out of anaerobic shape, it will take close to three minutes or a bit more to get to the 120 level. As you train each week you will find that a 1:00 to 1:15 seconds time of recovery will be the average, collectively. You’ll experience this level as their conditioning improves week to week. You must use the pulse method for a few weeks until your recovery rate produces the correct numbers. Then you’re able to use the 1:00 to 1:15 as a constant factor. Coaches try to put different workload to rest ratios in place but recover rate is not the same for each athlete when you have a large group. That’s why pulsing works best to be specific. The athletes who reach 120 BPM go to the front of the line and they fire off again on the next rep. The 130 to 140 athletes are still recovering while others proceed. But by the time it’s their turn, they’ll be at 120. Once you’ve established the series you’re going to use and the recovery rates are working you can mix intensity demands with variable running styles. Examples are laterals runs, lineal sprints, varying decelerations, and plants to assorted angles. Repeated lineal sprints don’t tap the energy system the way that direction changes and velocity changes will. Whenever momentum is altered in the form of a deceleration, direction change or running style changes the ATP will be tapped at an increasing rate. Momentum is an ally. When it’s interrupted the athlete must work harder to sustain the velocity required. This leads us to the rules for mixing cycles. They should be multiple in number on every run- through performed. Three to four changes, at a minimum, should be required for best results on every rep. How many reps are enough? When you see the limb speed becoming a bit of a challenge at the end of the reps, you should consider closing down for the day. The number of quality repetitions will get better as your conditioning base increases. Remember less is more. Time is on your side and you don’t have to cram it all in that day. A training effect takes 4-6 weeks to gain positive benefits. So stay steady and consistent with quality action over time. You’ll be much further ahead than if you slam volume into your athletes. You don’t train a thoroughbred like a mule unless you’re interested in having athletes run slow but can go forever. The key is sustained speed endurance through the entire four quarters. Playing the game is the optimal conditioning for the sport and you can’t emulate this with pure conditioning for football. Game shape comes from playing the game weekly. Players will be getting in better game shape due to the adrenaline elevating their performance drain. The drills schemes (Diagrams 1-5) are ONLY a sample of the type of runs for conditioning you can provide for your players. However, be creative week to week, as long as you’re within the guidelines of how the training and recovery works. Coaching Points: |
|
HOME |
MAGAZINE |
SUBSCRIBE | ONLINE COLUMNISTS | COACHING VIDEOS |
Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved