I‘m responsible for more than a dozen teams at Notre Dame High School. A lot of universities would be jealous with the facility we have, but no matter how large the space or fancy the equipment, the biggest constraint in session design is time. We typically get a group of 30+ athletes for just 45 minutes. The biggest question for us is: how can we accomplish the most in this time? It all comes down to organization.
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A lot of information is out there about session planning for strength training. But that is only part of the equation for athletes and coaches. A bigger question is how can we better plan skills training to enhance motor learning? On this week‘s episode Professor Kevin Becker joins us again to brainstorm how we can rethink traditional session plans to help athletes acquire and improve skills.
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Reading is pretty easy. Most of us have done it so long it’s second nature. But being able to read doesn‘t mean you can write a good novel. The same goes with training. Training is pretty easy. We‘ve all done physical activity our entire lives. But that doesn‘t mean every athlete can pull great training sessions out of their back pocket.
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Good training sessions have a flow. A flow in intensity, a flow in organization, and they help athletes find a flow state as well. On this week’s podcast we sit down with Steve Myrland to exchange ideas on session planning and a few tricks we all have to optimize training session planning and execution.
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The individual session is the core element of training. It is how coaches deliver their programs, build athletes, and connect with people. On this week’s GAINcast we look in detail about how we can rethink and improve upon training session and microcycle design.
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Warm-up and cooldown are essential parts of the whole training process. It is helpful to think of the warm-up as preparation for training and cooldown as a reset to prepare the body for the next training sessions. The workout begins with the warm-up! The subsequent training sessions do not actually begin with that sessions warm-up rather it begins with prior sessions cooldown. Conceptually this is based on the unity of training sessions and that no workout stands alone.
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The achievement of optimal sport performance at all levels of competition requires that athletes undertake physical, technical, tactical and psychological preparation over an extended period of time. With limited time and energy, it’s no wonder that athletes and coaches can feel they are engaged in a tug of war scenario. As Gandalf said: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
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I see workouts posted online that make no sense to me. I am always learning so I look at these things and try to figure out a reason. There seems to be no logic. Read more
It is always interesting to see how great teams and great athletes always find a way to prevail. They can be banged up, tired and off their game and yet they still perform at a high level. To me that is a crucial difference between good and great. Read more
Have clearly defined goals and outcomes/expectations for the session. They should be specific, observable and measurable. Read more
