Conditioning for Team Sports: Common Faults in Conditioning

I want to talk about conditioning. In particular conditioning for athletes that are playing team sports. I’m going to be speaking from my own experiences with many sports, but most notably, basketball. This has been on my mind lately because, if conditioning is done correctly, that's one of the solutions to better performance that I’m supposed to deliver to my team.

But the big, BIG caveat with that is, most of my players in the WNBA are playing basketball year round, whereas in the NBA, those guys get a bit more time off. Rest is important for a team’s performance, as this allows the body to recover from a brutal season and gives us time to increase strength. See our earlier blog post on the importance of strength for why this is one of the most important times of year for my players.

When looking at training in the college setting, it is most common that the sports coach maintains some control of the training program depending on their experience. Typically these college coaches were on a successful team in the late 90s or early 2000s that may have won a conference championship or had a semi-successful NCAA Tournament run. Unsurprisingly,  that tends to mean they have a lot of experience with conditioning and not very much experience in the weight room.The conditioning while on this team was their coaches ran them into the ground and then ran them some more. This creates a positive association between extreme running based conditioning workouts and success. And the thing they all have in common is just the the unbelievable volume, and pounding on the athletes bodies, with very, very little rest.

And that's what I really want to focus on today: talking about is that a reasonable approach? Or is there a better way?

What all of these programs/coaches were asking for was the best of both worlds. Both worlds in that they want volume, because of the high mileage seen during the sports of soccer and lacrosse in particular, with basketball also having considerable mileage as well. But they also want to be fast, because there are all these bursts of speed within all this mileage on the field of play. So then they take those two concepts and say, well, we have to be fast, and we have to get a ton of mileage so logically, the only way to do that is to do those things every single day and combine them.

And this is where you get those 300 yards shuttles tests that you have to do 10 sets of in :60 with a brief recovery come from. Another favorite is the full field 110-yard sprint that must be completed in 16-17 seconds, you have a minute to jog back and rest then go again for around 10-12 sets.Those are just a few of the standard examples.

And the result is: a lot of overuse injuries. An inability of the athlete to recover. Not because these drills are difficult, but because they are unrealistic and we now know better ways to safely and effectively train athletes.This is problematic, because, if we have a pain point in one area of the body, the athlete starts to compensate, to try to lessen the pain as much as possible. Then a new pattern develops, a pattern that is weakening one area of the body, while over using a completely different part of the body. And that is how we effectively perpetuate this injury risk cycle.

These coaches do not typically have a notion of the effect different surfaces have on the injury risk of their athletes either. When coaches decide to condition athletes that are accustomed to being on grass or turf on a track, this can cause major problems. Field athletes are used to running on soft ground, in their cleats. They're not track athletes, they're not accustomed to that difference in joint stress. And these are things that you have to take into consideration. If you're going to do that with your team, or an athlete, or you want to do that yourself, you must respect the surface and you have to respect the volume that you're asking your athlete’s bodies to do.

One of the things that typically happens to these coaches when they want to start a conditioning program for their team is that they just throw them in the deep end. If this happens and the athlete struggles with the program, I recommend backing off a week from the real program and maybe reducing that workload, give it your best, and then see how you feel those next couple of days. This will give you a real sense on if you need to work yourself into the program or if you can just go ahead and get it started.

For example, if you do half the volume of the program, and you're crazy sore for two, three days afterwards, or you can't even really make it through at the times that you're supposed to hit, then that's a real clue that some things need to be adjusted for you. If you're overseeing athletes, you have got to make that adjustment, that is the smart, sensible thing to do. If you don’t you’re just begging for injuries down the road.

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March Madness: In-Season Training

Ah, the spring! (well, it would be if it wasn't snowing so much here in D.C.!) This means that the spring sports are ramping up. Schedules get tighter, days get longer, and the body takes a beating.

This month SAPT is going to provide stellar reasons why every athlete should continue their strength training in-season. Some of these include (but are not limited to):

- Prevention of strength and power decreases (both of which are rather important, especially during the end of the season during the play-offs. No good to be weak and slow!)

- Increase strength and power (see above reason)

- Prevention of over-use injuries. (How many times did you throw that ball today?)

- Mental breaks (ah, brain can relax.)

All that plus  a super special guest post JUST for coaches.

Check back later this week as we get rolling into a healthy, strong, and successful season!

The Fine Art of Team Warm-ups

Designing a warm-up for a large team looks easy if you're watching passively from the sidelines. Unfortunately, this ease is quite deceptive. There are actually several critical aspects that need to be taken into account if you want you're warm-up to go from adequate to Fine Art status:1. Time: how much do you have? I usually try to end a minute or two before I told the coach I would be done (think under-promise and over-deliver, coaches LOVVVVVE that!). 2. Efficiency: you never have much of #1 and you may have as many as 30+ players. So, how do you keep them all moving, engaged, and organized? You gotta be efficient! 3. Effectiveness: Numbers 1 & 2 are components of this, but effectiveness speaks to the QUALITY of what you’re doing. Are you getting the most “bang for your buck” per movement? If not, go back to the drawing board. Be sure to take into account the 3 planes of motion, what the team’s first drill of practice will be, and general fatigue level (where are they within the season and within the training week?).

Beginning this past Saturday, I’ve been standing on a soccer field for about 5 hours a day working hard on the start of, what is certain to be, a legendary sock/farmer’s tan combo. Regardless, that’s just a fantastic by-product of my point: We just started the preseason training time period for women’s soccer and I’ve put together several warm-ups I think are pretty darn good. I’m going to share the two I used on Monday, August 8th and point out a couple important things about the two of them:

AM Session (the 5th practice within 48 hours):

Team Jogs 1 Field Lap in two lines

Upon return have two lines split apart on the 18

(one line on end-line other line on 18, lines face)

65% Builder Sprint to Back Pedal (long reach)

• Walking Spiderman to Overhead Reach

• Yoga Pushup x5

• Skip backwards with Heel Lift

70% Builder Sprint to Gate Openers

• Knee Hugs

• Cross-behind Overhead Reverse Lunge x5/side

• Frankenstein Kicks

75% Builder Sprint to Walking Opposites

• Walking Quads

• Bowler Squat x5/leg

• Skip for Distance

80% Builder Sprint to Alternating Side Shuffle

• Walking Toe Touch

• Split-Stance Kneeling Adductor Rockbacks x5/side

• Cradle Walk

Lateral Broad Jump x3 to Turn & Sprint (both directions)

Stretch on Own

Notes:

• This practice was the tipping point for the team. At the time it started, it was the 5th practice they would be attending within 48 hours – that’s a lot of soccer in a short window!

• The previous two days had a portion of testing (think non-contact) that was significant enough that I knew they would still be feeling pretty good for this session.

• My warm-up “template” typically consists of 3 levels of warm-ups. One is fairly intense and is for pre-match or other situations when the group is fresh, the second is a mid-level warm-up that respects the training volume the team is currently enduring (or the point in the season), and the third is a very low-level warm-up that is appropriate for recovery and respects the teams general level of fatigue but still preps them for the drills to follow.

• The AM Session warm-up was a Level 2.

PM Session (the 6th practice within 54 hours):

Team Jogs 1 Field Lap in two lines

Upon return everyone grabs ball and circles up

Soccer Ball SMR :20-:30/location:

Calves

Hamstrings

Quads

Adductors

IT Band

Glutes

Squat Mobility Series x1

Team Lines up on Sideline:

2 Tuck Jumps to 65% Builder Sprint to Gateopeners

2 Tuck Jumps to 70% Builder Sprint to Frankensteins

2 Tuck Jumps to 75% Builder Sprint to Skip for Height

2 Tuck Jumps to 80% Builder Sprint to Alternating Side Shuffle

Stretch on Own

Notes:

• After a morning training session that lasted a full two-hours and was jam-packed with intense sprinting and full contact, I knew the team would be starting to get very sore and tired.

• I gave them as much time as I could (in this case only 8-minutes) to do some self-massage with the soccer ball and a mobility circuit before we started moving around to get the heart pumping.

• The PM Session warm-up was a Level 3.

Orchastrating an excellent warm-up day after day is certainly one of the less "sexy" aspects to the job of Strength & Conditioning Coach, but it is nonetheless extremely important. Keep in mind a solid dynamic warm-up on a regular basis is the opportunity to improve general fitness and work on power, strength, speed, change of direction, mobility, flexibility, and injury prevention... I think anyone would agree that's a great opportunity to have on a daily basis, so don't waste it by not planning properly!

As a side note, if you train with us in Fairfax, you may soon get to experience warm-ups similar to the AM session - did you hear we got TURF last week?!? If you don't already train with us and wish to experience the excellence that is SAPT, please contact us here for information on in-house performance coaching, distance coaching, Buttkamp, or any combination of the three!