To Plan Or Not To Plan A Program

It is now week 11 in our sports coaching pedagogy course and Friday’s topic was planning a program.

To start off our lecture we focused on the idea of a coach and athlete in control, working like a control room.

I just thought I would show you some pictures that illustrate that this doesn’t happen all the time, as coaches we lose control weather it is right or wrong it happens.

An interesting idea that was raised about Moroccan runners and there idea of adaptive training, training volume, intensity was based on how they were feeling on that day as a collective group.

In exploring specificity, overload and reversibility, we tend to freeze dry each of these sessions rather than linking them together to monitor training. It is important that a program is viewed as a whole rather than individually as a program has an accumulative effect on athletes.  As mentioned throughout the lecture power out is a great sensor to detecting infection and fatigue.

The most important thing to remember during a training program is that it can be adapted to the athlete. There is no point going though with a training program if the athlete is physically or psychological unwell.

Why stick to a plan if it is not working?