Looking at the annual training plan, I thought I would break down my rationale for you a little.  Starting at the bottom, check out the “Key” section just so you know what you’re looking at.  For the date section, I based these dates off of William Paterson’s 2013-2014 season, and when conference post-season and NCAA tournament games would take place.  The vacation dates were loosely based on summer vacation, what college teams usually get for thanksgiving break, and Christmas break.  I didn’t add a spring break cause they are different for every school, but not hugely important as it would follow season and be the guys time off anyway.  The “Training Factors” section I based off of another annual training plan I saw on another blog at http://alrbasketballsandc.blogspot.com/p/annual-periodised-training.html.  I really liked how they included the numbers and the line graph so you have a good visual aide. 

Starting at the top of the chart, the months are listed with the date of the beginning of each week listed underneath.  Below that you see the “Competition Calendar”.  Here all the dates of testing, vacation, and games are listed.  This is a good quick summary the coach can use to see important dates that help organize workouts and deadlines. 

The bulk of the chart is made up of the “Periodization” section.  Here is where you can find more specific program details.  Working down the chart, you will first see the “Training Phase” which is made up of three sections according to Bompa; Transition, Prepatory, and Competition periods.  Transition is the period after competition when the athletes have a chance to rest mentally and physically before getting back into some very general workouts.  Workloads should be nearly half of the competitive season and all GPP work and cross-training.  The Prepatory phase is associated with higher volume and is when the athlete will begin to make workouts more specific to the sport and energy system.  This phase will usually last 3-6 months and as it nears the season specificity and intensity both increase.  Obviously the Competition period is when the season is underway.  These Training Phases can be broken down to “Sub-Phases”, transition excluded; General Prep and Specific Prep (Prepatory Phase), and Pre-Comp and Comp Phase (Competitive Phase).  General Prep is associated with higher volume work and lower intensity, shifting to Specific Prep where the opposite will be true.  Also, the type of workouts and exercise selection will shift from “general” to “specific” movements to the sport (lunges in General to vertical jumps in Specific).  In the Pre-Comp phase the intensity is still there but now with possible early season scrimmages the workload may drop to accommodate the extra stress of the games.  This is a mini transition phase from the Specific Prep phase to the competitive season.  Once the Competitive Season starts the maintenance portion of the program begins.  Usually there should be a few weeks of unloading as the stress of games and workouts will take a toll on the athlete.  The goal is to make sure the athletes feel good and “peak” at the end of the season, and not giving rest would make that difficult. 

Meso and Microcycles are listed to help make clear distinctions where certain aspects of the program will begin (like developing an energy system) and allow the coach to quickly find different things in the program.  For example, “When should I focus more on strength?   Meso 3 micro 15, because that’s when the Specific Phase begins.”

Using some of the information below helped me organize the energy system development portion of the chart.  Obviously for the Transition just building a solid aerobic base will allow for the athlete to have a better recovery rate while developing any of the energy systems.  However, emphasis switches during the Prepatory phase to more of a focus on Anaerobic Capacity work, such as repeated efforts of shorter sprints or tempo runs.  Like with a lot of factors the coach tries to develop, trying to increase intensity without a base or well developed capacity of the factor will only allow for a few all out efforts.  Developing capacity first allows for more reps of the training factor to be performed.  As season nears the energy systems focus more on shorter, more intense bouts, finishing right before season with anaerobic capacity and lactic buffering (directly mimicking game situations). 

Developing the Strength portion relies on three main components; “Anatomical Adaptation” (hypertrophy/ GPP), Strength, and Power.  The Anatomical Adaption that I got from Bompa describes just getting the body ready for the program- strengthening joints and ligaments, developing muscle size and strength, etc.  Starting the Prepatory phase with a Strength based component will help the athlete in developing all other factors and I have previously said in this blog- a strength will help the athlete be a better athlete.  It will allow him to stop quicker, cut harder, jump higher, etc.  This phase shifts to a Strength/Power and Power Phase.  During the Strength/Power phase the athletes will be performing exercises that require overcoming strength or as the chart above called, “takeoff power”.  Think of jumping from a dead stop, no momentum.  A strong start or takeoff will allow more powerful movements following that initial movement, which is why I switch to a power phase next.  Here those initial steps in a sprint or the movements following the initial “takeoff” will be developed.  As shown on Bompa’s chart of limiting factors, acceleration power is usually lacking.  Finally, immediately before the season you see the Power Endurance, which would just be repeated efforts of reps of the exercises.  Basketball is a game where powerful jumps and cuts are required for the entire 40 minutes, so having that endurance or capacity is crucial for the athlete (plus according to Bompa Power Endurance is usually lacking). 

In the Power portion of the Strength Components, you see how single, powerful movements (initial takeoff power) build on themselves and lead to multiple reps to build power endurance.  I also included basic sprints and jumps because Charlie Francis says how these movements induce a high motor unit involvement, as does the med ball throws.  Check out his chart below.

In the Speed portion of the Strength Component, starting the athletes by teaching basics of the sprints are really important.  From the basketball players I have seen, a lot don’t understand how to be light on the feet, which was really surprising to me.  Teaching them basic rhythm drills (jump rope) and teaching them to be “light and springy” (A Skips) is a good route to go to start the guys off.  After that, following CF short to long approach, build on the takeoff power in the beginning to the straight speed work.  Also, I included deceleration (need to be taught first so athlete doesn’t blow out knees later on), acceleration (acceleration power a limiting factor), and reactive and lateral drills (closer to season to mimic demands of game situations).  At Defranco’s most of the coaches don’t include those types of movments but I feel that an athlete needs to experience the movements to know how to effectively move during a game.  A great book Coach CJ put me on different classes and breakdowns of athletic movments is Gamespeed by Ian Jefferies.

The endurance section really just corresponds with the Energy System Development from the top of the chart.  For the power and speed work I really like the chart below by CF. Really hits on the demands of the different sports and gives really good examples of exercise selection.

As I said earlier, the volume and intensity chart idea I got from that one blog I gave earlier.  However, my numbers are based on the Phase the athletes are in (Transition, Prepatory, Competitive), the Sub-phases (Transition, General Prep, Specific Prep, Pre-Competitive, and Competitive), and what Strength Components (Anatomical Adaptation, Strength, Power) I am trying to develop.   

Still helping out with the high school team.  I really like working with those guys.  You can see them really buying into the program.  A few guys who we thought didn’t really care too much at first are really excelling and working really hard.  A bunch of guys are telling me the weights are starting to feel easy, and the sprinting is looking great from the guys now.  The biggest issue we have now is that they aren’t eating as much as they should, and they are so active some of the guys’ body weights aren’t really benefitting from the program yet.  We’ve had to advise them on some supplements to look into if they aren’t going to be able to eat in between spring practices or classes.  Hopefully they starting packing on more lbs soon, but outside of that the guys are looking great.

That’s about it…Next Il post my athlete Case Study for you guys to check out.  Got some resumes out there but still got my eyes open to see if anything comes up.  Just been working more with the construction.  I am still trying to throw some type of program together where I get some online programming/personal training together.  This would be ideal because it would allow me to do what I really like and work in the in the field but still allow me to work at my other job with the steady pay.

I have hit well over my internship hours at this point, and since I HAVE to start working again, I have begun to slow down my hours at Defranco's.  Actually at this point, I pretty much will be only going in to help out Coach CJ with the high school team.  I wish money wasn't an issue otherwise I would be at Defranco's all day to keep learning and being around the athletes, unfortunately money makes the world go round and I don't have any haha!  

Working with the high schools guys has been great though.  We have gotten a few more additions because winter sports are officially done, but these guys are working just as hard after coming right out of their seasons.  Some of the guys are really impressing us in how strong they are.  We had two athletes box squat 405 with room left in the tank, and a few guys bench well over 250 (form was in check on all testing- no half reppin’ here)!  Some guys have a lot to gain from the program as well; a few guys were only squatting a couple pounds above 100, and some of the benches were only 95 lbs.  This is to be expected out of some 13-15 year old kids, after all the biological age on these guys are all over the place with puberty and all.  Now that we have everyone tested, we have bodyweight and squat/bench weight goals for everyone.  Some of the linemen need to lose a few pounds, but most of the team really needs to put on weight.  We should see the body weight really accumulating by Week 8-10 (currently Week 5).  The weights on the lifts will probably be shooting up pretty continually now that we have the forms really dialed in.  This was a huge point because early on we saw how the kids (like 90% of all other high school football teams) thought it was correct to really load up the weight and go until the weight was too heavy to lift.

We have a much more organized format with the guys now compared to their “pre-Defanco’s” days.  The program has since been tweaked since I first described to you.  It still runs based off of the vertical integration principal (running all training components such as sprinting, plyometrics, strength training simultaneously) with an emphasis on the strength training.  In talking with Coach CJ and others, a lot of times if you want to get a younger, weaker athlete more “athletic”, get them stronger.  Stronger athletes can drive off their legs harder during the sprint or generate more force when throwing a ball.  We are still keeping simple plyos like box jumps and also working on sprint technique through simple drills like A skips and prowler sprints. 

A skip teach proper rhythm when sprinting, how to stay elastic on the pop and not tighten up too much (it looks pretty funny if someone is too stiff), proper arm drive (face cheek to butt cheek), and staying upright in a nice relaxed position.

Prowler sprints help teach proper shin and body angle during the initial start of the sprint, how to keep the body in a straight line from the ankle of plant leg to the shoulders of the sprinter, and also reinforces the need to stay "springy".  If the athlete is too hard on their feet and doesn't use the elastic step of the previous step, they will look like Fred from the Flinstones driving his prehistoric car moving his feet 100 mph but going nowhere.  We want to see bounding like steps, think gazelle.

For the guys’ lower body strength work, we have them on a Triphasic style of programming and for the upper body we have them performing a Juggernaut style.  I have talked about the Triphasic I believe, but it’s essentially build on the concept of breaking down the athletic motion into three parts and developing each; the Eccentric phase, the Isometric phase, and the Concentric phase.  We will accomplish this through exercises like Eccentric Squats, Pause Squats (sitting “in the hole” with the weight), and regular explosive Squats.  For the Juggernaut, the program will really help put mass and size on the guys’ upper bodies.  The program calls for 4 waves of sets of 10, 8, 5, 3 always working at submax weight and trying to set new rep records on the last set of the wave. 

Taken from Triphasic Training by Cal Dietz and Ben Peterson.  Great book jammed with exceptional information.  Graph shows the Eccentric (downslope), Isometric (bottom of “V”), and the Concentric phases of an athletic movement of a superior athlete vs a regular athlete.

Taken from The Juggernaut Training System by Chad Wesley Smith.  Outline of percentages and sets/reps scheme. 

          I’ll keep you up to date with the guys’ progress.  I will be keeping busy outside of the team with my regular job doing the construction, trying to get a job in the field.  I have been pushing my resume out there but apparently the economy hit the training sector as well.  I thought with my educational background as well as practical experience might have given me a leg up, but I guess those only take you so far.  Speaking of my educational background, as a part of this course I have to come up with an annual training plan as well as a program for an individual athlete.  The athlete is actually in the high school program now so I will be using him as a part of my assignment.  For the annual training plan however, I came up with a plan for a men’s college basketball player.

I based a lot of this on Bompa’s book Periodization Theory and Methodology, Charlie Francis’ Key Concepts, as well as other online sources as templates for this.  Pre-Defranco’s this would have looked completely different (probably a lot worse haha).  Check it out let me know what you think- what you like, don’t like, would add or take out.  All comments welcome!