• theory - What - What is S&C - principles behind it
• utility - why - Why is it needed, who for, purpose
• intervention - how to implement it for different athletes.

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• Periodisation (macrocycle phases) Gen prep, specific, competition, off season

To Do:

• Athlete template for everyone
• Example of completed athlete template
• Images for explanation - force velocity curve,
• rules of thumb - norms, ques, body positions etc
• open up for questions and take questions away and then follow up with studies/links etc

Questions:

• Any in depth questions, make notes and then i can go away and put together a piece for you with more detail

What is Strength and Conditioning?

In essence, the selection and development of dynamic & static exercises used to improve physical performance and reduce chances of injury

Primary Objectives of a Strength and Conditioning coach?�

• Primary – to increase the performance of each required performance quality needed within the athletes chosen sport (e.g vertical jump height, push power etc)
• Primary – to prevent injuries in athletes by identifying and reducing potential high-injury risk factors (e.g loss of torso integrity when landing etc)
• Design training programs/cycles based on the team/ individual athletes/ sport needs
• Continuously assessing performance against current and previous statistics
• To supervise and motivate athletes
• Monitor and manage athlete wellbeing
• Assess and manage training loads to help minimize and reduce chance of injury

Some of the the things we look to develop

• Strength = Ability to exert force
• Power = The ability to perform a skill explosively
• Muscular endurance = The ability to continue contracting a muscle or group of muscles, against resistance such as weights or bodyweight over a period of time
• Plyometrics = Based on the understanding that a concentric muscular contraction is much stronger if it immediately follows an eccentric contraction of the same muscle. (Stretch Shortening Cycle) (hence the need for speed)
• Speed = The ability to move all or part of the body as quickly as possible.
• Agility = Ability to change velocity (Accelerate & Decelerate) & direction as quick and efficient as possible

Needs Analysis – What is needed from an Athlete and sport perspective to compete. i.e athlete needs certain movement pattern or physical ability (power) for their specific sport

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Points to note:

• During this process,we are getting a feel for the athlete and their perspective and expectations etc
• Are they critical of themselves, are they driven, where is their focus, what feelings do we get regarding their mindset and how they approach training/competing, can they reflect on the past and current
• IT'S ALL RELEVANT - we aren't just responsible for physical wellbeing but also the psychological well being. We are here to push and develop the individual/team but also manage expectations

Needs Analysis - required for sport

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Athlete movement assessment

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Periodization, what is it and why it is important?

• A way to organise, an athletes training
• Microcycle = week
• Mesocycle = month (or block )
• Macrocycle = Year
• Always build backwards from end/main competition (reverse engineer the macrocycle)
• General prep phase - building general physical preparedness
• Specific prep phase - Focus now on sport/movement specific training
• Competition phase - looking to maintain physical preparedness and also manage the athletes load
• Transition (off season) phase - rest/recovery but not stagnation. Encourage new/different sports that will develop different skills that may transfer over into progression of the athletes abilities

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periodisation - how we plan

• Competition date for example and then build back (reverse engineer) blocks.
• As soon as we have blocked the program (including the gen prep, specific prep etc) we can then plan our volume & intensity approach.
• Approach - linear & or undulating
• Linear - starting with high volume and low intensity, working towards low volume and high intensity. linear refers to the sequential progression of the program.
• Undulating - volume and intensity go up and down, either weekly or daily within the training program

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Questions?

Strength

• Development of force production by lifting heavier loads (>80% 1RM)
• Strength is the foundation for the development of power and speed
• Use of multi joint compound exercises that will transfer to sport/ movement
• DO NOT add strength to dysfunction (if we have disfunction and then add strength, we strengthen disfunction not athletic performance)
• Strength underpins all we do, without strength we will not be able to fulfil our full potential regarding developing other athletic qualities

Ways to develop strength

• Maximal effort method - lifting near maximal weights
• The repeated effort methods - submaximal loads lifted for repetitions at or close to failure
• The sub-maximal effort method - submaximal loads lifted for low repetitions,perfect technique and minimal fatigue (good for movement efficiency)
• The dynamic effort method - sub maximal loads accelerated with maximal intent

Maximal effort method

• High intensity loads, low reps, moderate to high sets
• %of 1RM - 85-95%, 1-5RM loads
• One compound exercise - very strong, focused stimulus
• High levels of fatigue
• Intensification focus - aim for KG on the bar
• Advanced training method for an experienced athlete that requires intense stimulus for adaptation
• Popular methods - texas method or bill star (5x5), jim wendler method (powerlifting) (5/3/1) (WK1- 3x5 , WK2 - 3x3 ,WK3 1x5 1x3,1x1) 90%

Repeated effort method

• Moderate to high reps, moderate loads, high sets
• Non maximal load to failure
• % of 1RM - 70-85%, 6-12 rep
• Useful in season or with developing athletes
• Building volume or frequency focus - building tonnage
• Can train multiple exercises and movements in a session
• Useful if hypertrophy is a goal
• Popular schemes - Plateau loading (4x8 @75%) , Undulating plateau (12/8/10/6)
• Drop sets
• Escalating density training

Sub-maximal effort method

• The skill of strength - perfect technique with minimal fatigue
• Low reps, moderate load, high sets
• % of 1RM - 70-80%, 6-12 rep loads
• Building volume & frequency focus - reps under belt
• Good for retention loads/ beginners
• Can train multiple exercises and movements in a session
• Popular schemes - similar to repeated effort method

Dynamic effort method

• Used to improve the rate of force development and explosive strength
• lends itself to power and speed development
• Specific approach: address positional demands
• Example: imagine set up for a bench press but with bar resting on safety bars, a band around each end inside of the weight plate and then as explosive as possible completing the movement

Questions?

Power -what is power?

• The ability to perform a skill explosively
• Power = force (weight) x Velocity (speed)
• Rate of force development is a key component of expressing power (force velocity curve)
• To develop power an athlete must either:
• Move the same weight with more speed OR
• Move more weight at the same speed
• Max power = (40-60% 1RM)
• Ballistic power = (20-40% 1RM)
• Speed power = (0-20% 1RM)

Force velocity curve

Methods of training Power

• Complex method
• Compound method
• Contrast Method

Complex Method (power)

• Performed strength - and speed based sets in the same session
• In pairs, that is 1 strength exercise set followed by 1 speed-based exercise set
• Use Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) to hack neural system to produce bigger output
• Example: Back Squat x3 - 4 min rest - Plyo exercise (box jump) - BSx3 - 4 min - Plyo - BSx3 - 4 min - Plyo

Compound Method (power)

• The compound method requires your slow-speed, high-load (i.e strength) and high-speed, low-load (power) training to be completed on alternate days
• Example:
• Day 1 - Box Squats @ 85% & Bench Press @ 85%
• Day 2 - Squat Jumps @ 30% & Bench Throws @ 30%

Contrast Method

• Combination of heavy (>80%) and light loads (<30%)
• High load exercises at the beginning of the session
• Light load exercises at the end of the session
• Example:
• Squat, bench, power-clean

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• Box jumps, med ball throws, drop jumps

What is Plyometrics (or shock training)

• Used to develop tendon stiffness & stretch shortening cycle/reactive strength index
• Often utilises bounds, hops and jumps
• Slow or fast plyo - slow greater or equal to 251 milliseconds, fast less or equal to 250 milliseconds of ground contact time
• Often confused with ballistic training that involves the trajectory of objects ( there is a degree of crossover where some movements are considered both plyo and ballistic)

Stretch Shortening Cycle

• Eccentric phase, or landing phase, involves the pre-loading (energy is stored) of the agonist muscle groups
• Amortisation phase, or transition phase, is the time between the concentric and eccentric phases. This time needs to be as short as possible otherwise the energy stored during the eccentric phase dissipates, reducing the plyometric effect
• Concentric phase, or take-off phase, uses the stored energy to increase the force of the movement

Plyometrics - Ready to complete

• Coordination - test coordination (A walk, A skip, B walk, B skip)
• Force absorption - Do they have the ability to land and absorb force ( stiffness/ stick landing) not moving down with landing. Both bi-lateral and unilateral. Complete Pogos (8/12 in row good)
• Plyo strength - ability to produce the force required for repeated movements. Bi-lateral single jump, progress to unilateral single leg, progress to drop & depth jump. (can they express force with fast ground contact time)
• Plyometrics - progressing onto repeated movements

Plyometrics Practical – demonstration

• Snap back position - correct landing position
• Pogos
• Tuck jumps – single then progress to repeated (ques – snappy, fast, springy, high knees)
• Drop jumps
• Depth jumps
• Broad jumps
• Lateral hops

Plyometric exercises

• Double leg - (double leg jumps)
• Single leg – (single leg jumps)
• Tuck Jumps
• Lateral hops
• Alternate leg hops/bounds
• Single leg hops/bounds
• Depth jumps
• Drop jumps

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Plyometrics Practical - Brief 15/20 mins?

• Take each other through the ready to compete process (for purpose of time assume coordination is acceptable)
• Pause before depth and drop jumps so we can all partake and coach each other

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Extras for Strength: Ashraf request

• Clusters for strength - 20 minute timer - Athlete completes a cluster (3 reps) every 90 seconds until the 20 mins is up.

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• Wave - Athlete completes 2x90%, 2x95%,1x100% of 1RM and then repeat 3 sets in total

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• Lots of different ideas and opinions, but this can be positive as not all are right, not all are wrong. But conversation can lead to positive changes and development of ideas within the industry