Sequencing training for field sport athletes

As a strength athlete I have it pretty easy only need to worry about training one physical attribute – maximal force production.  As a games player or endurance athlete there are so many more physical attributes that need to be trained let’s look at a sport as an illustrative example.

Sport – Female Rugby

  Physical Attributes required.

• Speed
• Power
• Agility
• Strength
• Cardiovascular fitness
• Metabolic conditioning (lactate threshold / tolerance etc)
• Co-Ordination
• Skill mastery under pressure
• Proprioception and injury prevention
• Mobility and flexibility.

To train these attributes to their maximal capability we need to have bespoke sessions for the following areas in our training week.

• Sports Practice
• Speed, Plyometrics and Agility
• Strength and Power
• Cardiovascular Fitness
• Sports Specific fitness
• Mobility / Flexibility / Injury Prevention.

As you can appreciate this is a lot of things to concentrate on in a limited training week baring in mind if your a games player you also have competition every weekend for a prolonged period of time.  Therefore how it’s stringed together can have a massive effect on your ability to maximise your performance. As an amateur athlete you probably take care of your own complementary training (non sports specific training or skills practice) so you need to know how to put it together for the best results. For the sake of simplicity we will not delve into perodisation as a wider topic but we shall perform some basic perodisation of our training we shall call it. Block one – Off Season into Pre Season (gap between sports specific or competitive training emphasis. Block two – In Season (the period when we are in competitive mode and sports specific performance is at a premium).

Block one – Off Season into Pre Season

Attributes we are emphasising

• Maximal strength (force production)
• Hypertrophy (size / lean weight)
• Cardiovascular fitness (Aerobic capacity)
• Non Fatiguing sports skill (handling, passing, kicking, sprinting movement, weightlifting movements)
• Mobility / Flexibility

Attributes we will be maintaining

• Power
• Speed
• Sports specific fatiguing skill
• Injury prevention

Attributes we will be detraining

• Sports specific fitness

The Weekly Structure

Basic rational behind sequencing

• Mobility and skills are non fatiguing so can be performed daily and can also aid in recovery from hard training.
• Speed and lower body strength are complementary training interventions so having them together allows for better recover and higher levels of performance in sessions.
• 2x per week CV Sessions allows us to get fitter with out interfering with our strength training.
• Hypertrophy will come from strength sessions but having a session for important areas for performance (hamstrings for sprinting sports for example) helps us to boost our performance in season.

Block Two – Competitive Season.

Attributes we are emphasising

• Power
• Speed
• Sports specific fatiguing skill
• Injury prevention
• Sports Specific Fitness (game fitness)

Attributes we will be maintaining

• Maximal strength (force production)
• Cardiovascular fitness (Aerobic capacity)
• Non Fatiguing sports skill (handling, passing, kicking, sprinting movement, weightlifting movements)
• Mobility / Flexibility

Attributes we will be detraining

• Hypertrophy (size / lean weight)

The Weekly Structure

Basic Rational behind sequencing

• Sports practice needs to be prioritised everything else must be secondary or supportive
• You need to maintain your off season gains so front load the week for strength/fitness
• The gym training that you will notice on the pitch is power/speed based so prioritise it in season
• Injury prevention and maintenance of these factors are of the utmost importance to facilitate a healthy competitive season
• Prevent training monotony and accumulative loading by sequencing weeks – Heavy, Light, Very Heavy, Moderate.  This can allow for physical progress and aid recovery for competition.

This concludes our look at training sequencing hopefully this simplified model can allow your to understand and better utilise the organisation of your own training as an amateur athlete. Marc

Written by Marc Keys of Cast Iron Strength Marc is a full time strength and conditioning coach based in Edinburgh Scotland. Working in the field for 6 years he has accrued a wealth of experience working with professional & international rugby and cricket teams, Elite athletes from over 20 sports including Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic meadlists.Marc also spends his spare time working with non-elite and recreational athletes trying to help them improve as optimally as possible. He keeps a blog and website www.castironstrength.com where he is trying to develop a strength and power training education tool and community for athletes and coaches.Marc offers his services to anyone who has programming or training based problems he can be emailed via the following address speedpowerperformance@gmail.com with any queries.