Training Method Planning: The Coach’s Roadmap to Rome

By Dave Caster

(English Version)

This article was originally published in Olympian’s News, #59, 2003 http://www.olympian.it/on/59_6.cfm

Coaches love to debate over training methods. If you assembled a group of ten coaches for a roundtable discussion on specific training methods, the chances are good that you would end up with ten differing opinions.  Such diversity of opinion can lead to frustration and confusion, especially for the younger coach who is actively engaged in the learning process.

Coaches oftentimes agree to disagree.  It is usually at this point of disagreement that the age-old axiom, “all roads lead to Rome ,” is brought forth. 

There is an element of truth to that statement.  When planning a training strategy, a coach must respect the unique requirements of the individual being trained, as they apply to the sport they compete in.  However, if it is indeed true that “all roads lead to Rome ,” then perhaps some of the more perilous routes along the way should be identified to help the coach and the athlete avoid some of the more common pitfalls in the training method planning process.

The thinking coach, through research, experience, and trial and error, will develop his own personal Coach’s Roadmap to Rome . 

Here are some of the popular routes to be wary of as you develop your own Roadmap.  These observations are based on numerous educational personal experiences along these routes.  

The Uphill Route

The Uphill Route is one that is characterized by the aggressive push to continually increase training volumes.  Training volumes for the sake of this discussion can be weight training volumes (tons lifted per cycle), aggregate repetitions or measurements of other specific training exercises (throws, jumps, or meters sprinted per cycle) or any other measurable training practice.  While the general correlation between increasing training volumes and improving contest performances in sport cannot be disputed, there are numerous training factors that can influence or limit the level of general and specific training volume that is appropriate for your athlete.  These factors include, but are not limited to, the following characteristics as they pertain to the athlete: 

Biological age

Training age

Capacities levels

Nature of the sport

Nature of the training tactic under discussion

Level of qualification of the athlete in the sport

Fine motor skill acquisition

Periodization scheme

Volume and intensity fluctuations

Injury profile

Ergogenic aid profile

Psychological profile

The degree to which an increase in training volume can positively influence contest performance has to be carefully evaluated in terms of how the increase will affect each of these factors.  No change in training strategy occurs in isolation; there are all sorts of possible short-term and long-term positive and negative side effects that follow general increases in training volume.

Some of the problems that can be caused by an excessively high training volume include, but are not limited to:

Physical fatigue and impairment of recovery

Overuse injuries

Mental fatigue

Impairment of fine motor skills

Overemphasis on training targets of secondary importance

The most vocal proponents of the Uphill Route usually cite the training programs of famous elite athletes as their best case for the continuous increase of training volumes.  They may not be the best example to use for the general training populace however, as elite athletes typically possess:

-         the ideal biological age for their sport;

-         an advanced training age with many years of training experience;

-         capacities levels that are unusually high;

-         a well thought out periodization plan of a multi-year nature in which the building of certain qualities is carefully managed on a cycle-to-cycle basis so as to peak them at just the right time;

-         unique psychological profiles,

-         ergogenic profiles that are akin to a state secret, and

-         unique genetic gifts.

Proponents of the Uphill Route tend to see the increase in training volume as the primary tactic to elicit performance increase.  As you would guess, these same proponents also downplay the importance of training periodization and the importance of the ongoing management of general and specific exercise selections, volumes, intensities, rest cycles and all the other variables that are manipulated so that the well-trained athlete to reach a peak condition at the desired time.  

The Mountain Goat Route

This route can only be traveled by those born to travel it.  As a mountain goat is uniquely equipped to traverse craggy mountain slopes, the genetically gifted athlete is uniquely equipped to do things that they, and few else, can do. 

I once trained a young powerlifter who excelled at the deadlift.  Every characteristic that this young man possessed favored that lift: long, powerful legs, short torso, long arms, big hands, trim but muscular waistline, erector spinae as thick as pillars, plenty of fast-twitch muscle fiber, tremendous work ethic and a very positive and fearless attitude in approaching the lift.  Because of these characteristics, any training strategy that he employed produced results.  One day, while doing ancillary work for his lower back (back raises with a barbell exceeding his bodyweight held at his neck, done for strict sets of 5 to 8 repetitions), another trainee came over to him and asked him why he was doing that lift with so much weight.  His response was, “because I can.”  His response was not intended to be arrogant, rather, he was simply acknowledging his ability to do something that he knew he was uniquely equipped to do.

His ability to do the exercise was complemented by his ability to quickly recover from it.   Rather than ending up over-trained and injured, he simply became stronger.  For him, the exercise was a logical selection.  For most anyone else, it would be considered a dangerous and insane circus stunt.

Philosophies on life can influence training practices and can falsely encourage an athlete and coach to elect an improper training strategy.  I live in America , where it is believed that anything is possible if you just work hard enough to achieve it.  The danger in this assumption is clear, especially in the world of sport.  If the coach, firmly believing that “anything is possible,” designs a routine for his athlete based on the tactics of a genetically gifted elite performer, he may put that trainee right on the Mountain Goat Route.  Unless his athlete possesses the same genetic gifts, the results may be less than optimal. 

Anyone who has attempted to follow a “Routines of the Champions” program in any sport has experience with the Mountain Goat Route .  It is a hard road.  It is along the Mountain Goat Route that many of the most catastrophic types of career-ending injuries occur.

The Indirect Route

This route utilizes non-traditional training means.  The Indirect Route calls for a reliance upon a heavy concentration of non-event specific conditioning practices.

Ironically, this route is favored by two distinctly different types of coaches. One group of coaches takes the Indirect Route on purpose, and one does not.

The Indirect Route is the purposeful favorite of the “creative” coach.  While creativity may bear fruit from time to time, and although creativity may also be a real weapon in the hands of the intuitive coach, the coach should always keep in mind that his number one priority is to increase his athlete’s performance.  It can be argued that the coach should never be concerned with creativity for creativity’s sake, unless he is more concerned in bringing attention and glory to himself rather than to his athlete.  Sometimes the most brilliant and productive strategies are the most basic ones, executed diligently.

With that being said, the “creative” coach will purposefully and vigorously use Indirect Route methods to produce results.  The creative coach habitually searches for weak points and regularly turns to weak point remediation tactics to solve training problems.  On its surface, this appears to be a valid strategy, especially in sports applications dealing with simple movement patterns.  The problem arises when the creative coach gets the athlete so far off the beaten path that he, and the athlete, lose touch with the primary athletic activity, and ultimately, with how to manage training and performance increases.

Imagine that you are a bench presser attempting to address a sticking point.  Your coach may have you employ special partial movement exercises with a very heavy load designed to combat the problem.  Once your results reach a plateau with this exercise, he may add special triceps exercises to your training program to help your performance in the special partial movement exercise, with the notion that this increase will help your bench press.  He may then add even more special exercises for the smaller muscles of the arms in order to aid the triceps exercise, in order to aid the partial movement exercise, in order to aid the bench press.  As exercises are added, work load increases, primary focuses shift, and any further stalemates in bench press performance now call for analysis not only of the bench press proper, but also of all the other exercises leading up to the bench press-and how all the exercises in that chain interrelate and correlate. 

Now imagine that you are a thrower, who wants to use the bench press as an ancillary exercise-and your “creative” coach puts you on this sort of regimen.

When would you find time to throw?

That is the Indirect Route as purposefully taken by the “creative” coach.  It is easy for this coach to end up perplexing himself rather than increasing his athlete’s performance.

The Indirect Route can also be inadvertently taken by the unimaginative coach who follows training tactics as if he were following a recipe out of a cookbook.

In the athletics event of shot put, some coaching systems have developed capacities charts that correlate shot put performance to performance in certain training exercises.  That is, these capacities charts suggest that if the athlete can bench press a certain amount, and snatch a certain amount, and run a short sprint in a given timeframe, and perform certain jumps within certain parameters, then the likelihood is greater that a certain shot put performance can be predicted.  Capacities charts are a great tool in the right coaching hands.  The experienced coach will use them as a general guideline to pinpoint weaknesses in his trainees.

The coach with the “cookbook approach” to training planning oftentimes becomes focused on the training exercises rather than on the event itself.  This coach will devote a great amount of training time to the attainment of the “appropriate” snatch, bench press, jerk, squat, sprint and jump numbers, at the expense of the tactical and technical training of the event itself.  The coach then ends up with an incredibly well conditioned thrower with bad technique who may be regularly defeated by others possessing only a fraction of his strength but greater technical skill.  In these situations, the capacities charts take on a life of their own and end up dictating all training planning.

Regardless of whether the Indirect Route was taken on purpose or by mistake, it can result in a much longer, harder road to Rome than may be necessary.

The Strength Fetish Route

We have all known coaches who see strength increase as the magical answer to all training problems.  It cannot be disputed that the use of anabolic steroids in sports over the past 45 years, and the huge jumps in performances in all disciplines during that time, gives a certain level of validity to that belief.

The one positive aspect to the history of steroid use in sports is that it clearly displays the huge influence that an increase in strength can have on sports performance. 

Though strength is a critical variable in all sports requiring bodily locomotion, strength for strength’s sake should never rule over sport-specific training method planning.

The coach who takes the Strength Fetish Route can end up consulting experts in strength for training advice rather than experts in their specific sport. An experienced coach with a wide knowledge base may be able to safely do this by assessing the merits and drawbacks of a given strength strategy and then choosing to use only the sport applicable portions with his athlete.  This practice takes research, skill, experience and great insight.  The more novice coach can easily become enamored with strength training experts, and end up training his sprinters like powerlifters.

Usually those who end up on the Strength Fetish Route are introduced to this path by the fellows that we find on the next route:

The Guru Route

All sports have coaches and athletes whose reputation, knowledge and success transcends the norm. These individuals are the Gurus, the nearly mystical keepers of “secret” training knowledge.  Many of these Gurus are also very charismatic.  This combination of sports success and powerful persona creates a cult-like following amongst their disciples.

There are a great number of Gurus in the strength world.  Many of these Gurus are quite intelligent, and have a great deal of training wisdom to offer.  However, many of them also have products, books and strategies that they are attempting to sell.

Though these Gurus are usually extremely knowledgeable in their particular fields of expertise, they will not readily admit a lack of knowledge in other fields.

The unsuspecting coach can quickly find himself on the Guru Route once he falls under the Guru’s spell.  From there, the coach, and his unfortunate athletes, will invariably find themselves, at some point in time, treading upon every one of the previously mentioned paths. 

As most of the popular Gurus are strength experts, this guarantees a lengthy stroll down the Strength Fetish Route .  It is along this path that the coach is indoctrinated to the utter necessity of the procurement of unusually high strength levels.  From there, the coach and his charges can easily end up on the Indirect Route , feverishly searching out remedies for weak points both real and imagined.  When progress inevitably stalls, the coach and his charges find themselves unwittingly climbing the Uphill route, for by this time, an incredible array of exercises and volumes have been introduced into the training itinerary.

The last stop along the way is usually the Mountain Goat Route , as this is where the “secret training methods of the champions” can be found.

If you eventually make it to Rome , at the very least, you will have quite an interesting story to tell.  Hopefully your athlete arrives along with you, in one piece. 

Summary

It is important to recognize the fact that there is merit to each of the tactics found on every one of these Routes, and that you will doubtlessly utilize methods from each one of them over the course of your athletic or coaching careers.

The challenge for the coach is to choose tactics wisely rather than letting the tactics use you.  No tactic in and of itself is necessarily bad, rather, its value is largely dependent upon how the coach chooses to use it in the grand scheme, and in what dosage.  Choosing the appropriate volume of certain types of training is like seasoning a fine meal.  The right amount of spice can create a masterpiece.  Too much of a good thing is pure disaster.

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