EDITORIAL
Lenford G. Levy (JAM)
MESSAGE FROM THE AREA REPRESENTATIVE
Neville "Teddy" McCook (JAM)
RDC
REPORT
Lenford G. Levy (JAM)
SPEED
AND POWER-ORIENTED TRAINING FOR YOUNG ATHLETES
Dr. Gudrun Lenz and
Dr. Hans Jürgen Frolich (Germany)
ENDURANCE
TRAINING FOR THE TEENAGER ATHLETE
ENDURANCE
TRAINING FOR THE TEENAGER ATHLETE
Dave Sunderland
(GBR), explains how, having laid the foundation he continues with the development
and progression of teenage endurance athletes.
Having established
the foundation for the development of young athletes dedicated to endurance events,
we must consider their development and progression in the coming years.
Firstly,
we need to re emphasize the base we laid with the young athlete. At this age we
are trying to develop all-round athletes. To ensure this, we must include in the
development programme flexibility to improve the athlete's range of movement.
We must put in place a good technical model, where relaxation is the key, so that
when the athlete's technique is put under pressure it does not break down.
Then
the basic ingredients required for the distance runner: endurance, speed, strength,
power, strength endurance are all included progressively, taking into account
the athlete's biological and not chronological development (age). The environment
the coach creates must be enjoyable for the athlete. Therefore, an overview of
the training programme for the young endurance athlete would look similar to what
you see in the following table:
| 11 - 13 years | 13
- 15 years |
| Endurance runs 5/6K | Endurance
runs 8/10 K |
| Fast Aerobic Runs 4/5 K | Fast Aerobic Runs
5/6 K |
| Daily mobility | Daily mobility |
| Technique work | Technique work |
| Fartlek 20/30 minutes | Fartlek
30/40 minutes |
| Speed Work 60-80 meters | Speed work +
drills |
| Mild strength work | Strength
work |
| (Partner work) | (Circuit / Medicine balls) |
| Repetition work | Repetition work |
| (3 x 1000
3 mins. recovery) | 2 x (3 x 1000 3/10 mins)* |
| Other Athletic
Events | Plyometics - Hopping * |
| Other Sports | Resistance
work - Hills |
| | Anaerobic work |
| | (4x300m
- 5 mins recovery) * |
* To be used sparingly with this age
group
Please note the number of sessions / kilometers is determined
by the athlete's maturity, sex and athletic background. The above are only guidelines.
What is important is that all the ingredients should be included in your athlete's
development programme, the ratios and amounts being determined by the athlete's
strengths and weakness.
Each session should commence with a warm up and conclude
with a cool down session. It is also important that at this stage the coach ensures
that there is a great deal of variety in training. The good coach should always
be asking: Where do we train? How do we train? Do I ensure that there is variety
in training? Do I place the athletes into homogeneous groups irrespective of age
or sex? Do I vary training environment? Do I ensure that the correct energy pathway
is being trained or the correct time of year? Above all do I make it fun?
Good
coaches should always be asking these and other questions. Once these foundations
and building blocks outlined above are in place the coach is then in an excellent
position to make the transition with the athletes to the next level or age group.
Coaching
junior (under 20) athletes is completely different to coaching in their formative
years.
We should now be at the stage where chronological development should\
be the same level as biological development. However, there will always be exceptions
to the rule and there maybe some late developers.
The athlete should have
moved through puberty, skeletal growth, muscular growth and cardiovascular growth
should be complete. The coach should, at this stage of the athlete's development,
be looking to raise the number of sessions undertaken by the athlete, raise the
intensity of certain sessions, particularly anaerobic sessions, increase the number
of repetitions in certain sessions and raise the number of kilometer/miles in
training. This must all be done progressively and bearing in mind that each athlete
is an individual and should be treated as such in all respect.
It is easier
firstly to look at an overview of each particular ingredient required by the endurance
runner and how these progress as the athlete moves through the intermediate youth
and junior age groups.
Secondly, to look in more specific detail at the
key ingredients of the endurance runner.
There are basically eleven (11)
ingredient which need to be considered and mixed correctly to ensure the athlete
progresses correctly.
Mobility is greatly neglected, but important to ensure
the range of movement, and to help with the prevention of, and recovery from injury.
Static and passive exercises including a full range of movement are to be recommended.
Endurance
is obviously a pre requisite of any endurance athlete, whatever their event. This
should include steady state aerobic running with heart rate in the 120 160 bpm
area. This type of running should include varied distances, varied terrain, and
different types of endurance, including alternating paced runs, tempo runs and
repetition running as well steady state running.
Speed or a-lactate training
is possibly the most crucial ingredient as it is a requirement of all endurance
events.
It should be part of the athlete's programme from an early age and
should include drills, 60m runs, shuttle runs and ups and down the track sessions.
Strength
and conditioning tend to be other neglected ingredients but they are beneficial
elements particularly for the middle distance runner. This can involve free standing
weights, multi gyms, circuit training, medicine ball work or a combination of
them.
It is imperative that the exercises should be running related with
a particular emphasis on the legs, as this is the area used most by the endurance
runner.
Speed endurance or anaerobic type training is essential to all endurance
runners. Even in the longer races, with alternating pace and races being wound
up in speed towards the finish, it is an ingredient that is required and often
found wanting.
The sort of work involved is quality repetition work small
number of repetitions at high intensity with long recoveries differential repetitions,
high intensity repetitions, hill work, fartlek, tired surge repetition and pace
injector repetitions.
I will give specific examples of these later.
Strength
endurance becomes an important ingredient for the complete endurance athlete,
Strong well conditioned athletes will be able to cope with the number of rounds
required at championship level because they have done the correct strength endurance
work. This will involve repetition running, hill work, circuit trainings, Oregon
Circuits, stage training and resistance trainings, both against the environment
and against force.
TACTICAL ABILITY
Power or elastic strength
(speed strength) whichever terms is used, is essential for the middle distance
runner, particularly for an explosive finish or acceleration.
The type of
training required here is plyometrics (multiple hopping exercises), weight training,
hill work, and with the mature athlete jumping and if correctly supervised, possibly
depth jumps.
With the number of paced races available to cater for fast
times athletes can, if they are not careful, lose the art of racing. Therefore,
tactical ability is an important part of the athlete's armory.
The athlete
must not only know their own strengths and weaknesses but also, if possible those
of their opponents and assess and use it formulating a race plan.
Technique
is the basis upon which all the above training will either flourish of fall apart.
A good technical model is something that each athlete should strive towards from
the moment they commence training and should be part of their training programme.
It
must be refined and developed from an early age. Incorrect technique is both wasteful
and tiring. Think how many times a deficiency in a technique is compounded in
a long endurance race or how the inability to relax badly affects an athlete's
technique, particularly at the end of a race.
To bring all these
ingredient to fruition the coach and athlete should have both short and long term
planning objectives. These should take into account the demands of the athlete's
chosen event, take into consideration the athlete's strengths and weaknesses,
the athlete competitive programme and the setting of realistic and attainable
goals.
However, none of the above in isolation is key to the athlete's success.
It is the ability of the coach to mix these ingredients correctly, progressively
and successfully that will achieve the desired aims or goals. But even these will
not be achieved, no matter how talented the athlete may be, unless they have the
inner desire to succeed and the mutual toughness to follow these through.
As
the athlete enters into the youth intermediate and junior age groups the coach
should be building up support systems around the athlete.
These should include
a doctor (blood tests), a physiotherapist, and if possible a physiologist (physiological
testing eg. lactate testing), a dietitian and if possible a psychologist.
One
of the many problems a coach will have to deal with is the competitive structure.
Too often there are too many demands on the athlete from clubs, schools, counties,
areas and from clubs, schools, counties, areas and parens, often to the detriment
of the developing runner. It is important that the coach and athlete take this
into account when planning the programme and setting the goals, always bearing
in mind that the athlete always comes first.
KEY SESSIONS
The
other problem for the coach with an emerging athlete is finding the quality race
at the correct time and with the correct weather conditions when the athlete requires
it. This is not an easy task in this country.
Let's now look at in more
detail the type of sessions the emerging teenage (1720) requires in the key ingredient
areas of endurance running.
The endurance or oxygen transport system will
have been built up over the preceding year and can be split into three basic forms:
short term endurance, medium term and long term endurance.
Short term endurance
is between eight minutes in duration and of interval training over a short distance,
large number of repetitions and recovery. The other method is over set distances,
with a small repetition and 1:3 recovery. The overview below, where all recovery
is jogged:
| | Long/Slow Intervals | Short/Fast
Intervals | Repetitions |
| Intensity | 80-85% | 85-90% | 90-95% |
| Duration | 30 sec. - 2 mins. | 5-30
sec. | 30 sec. - 1 min. |
| Recuperation | 1:1
/ 1:2 | 1:3 | 1:5 |
| Number | 8-15 | 6-8 | 1:3 |
Because of the number of repetitions and the short recovery, the
repetitions should be of a high intensity, and therefore anaerobic running and
heart beat over 170 bpm.
Medium term endurance is between 8 and 30 minutes
and consists of three basic ares. These are repetition work as depicted above,
steady in rates between 120 140 bpm to consolidate the endurance base and to help
in recovery from intense sessions, and finally fast aerobic runs with heart rate
between 165 170 bpm.
Long term endurance training with a duration of 30
minutes or longer and again falls in three basic areas. These are continuous steady
stage running with heart rates in the 120 140 bpm area, running for a certain
length of time over a certain distance.
Alternating pace runs are steady
state running punctuated with fast running at different stages so that the heart
rate is constantly changing throughout the run, with it around 130 bpm during
the steady state running and 170 bpm for the fastest sections.
Finally,
fartlek tainining (speed play) is a system where the terrain and the environmental
car be utilized to the full, also the whole range of energy pathways during runs.
These
methods will continue to build up a good endurance base for the teenage athlete
as well as developing their maximum volume oxygen uptake.
The a lactic training
system is a crucial and neglected area and not fully understood by many endurance
coaches. The training is over distances up to 80m and does not include distances
up to 200m as most believe. This can be accomplished in many ways for the teenage
athlete using the following examples:
• Sprint drills
• 4 x (4x 60mts. walk back recovery with 5 mins. recovery between sets
• Up the clock sessions
60m/70m/80m/100m walk back
recovery
• Down the clock sessions
1110m/1100m/90m/80m/70m walk
back recovery
• Piramids
50m/60m/70m/80m/70m/60m walk
back recovery
The emphasis at all times is to be placed on technique relaxation.
Strength
endurance is also extremely important and the athlete's strength to bodyweight
is important.
Following are methods of improving strength endurance:
• Circuit
training with or without apparatus
• Medicine ball work
• Multi gym work
• Free light weights heavy
weight (80% small number of repetitions)
• Oregon Circuit
a running period for endurance runners
• Resistance training
- Hill runs
-
Sand training
- Towing
-
Weight belt
- harness
-
Cross skiing - they have the highest vol max competitors
•
Running sessions
- 10 x 400m - 45 secs.
recovery
- Back to begin eg. 2x5 (5 x
80) 5 sets / 2 mins. recovery
Finally and possible the most difficult
for the teenage athlete to come to terms with is speed endurance (anaerobic training).
There are various ways of using this ingredient in the training programme but
the intensity should always be high (90 100%), the number of repetitions should
be low (2 5), and full recoveries, particularly in the competition phase of the
season. Following are a variety of speed endurance sessions:
•
Up the clock sessions -
200m/300m/400m/500m/600m with 2, 3, 4, and 5 minutes
recovery
• Down the clock sessions -
1000m/800m/600m/400m/200m
with 8, 6, 4, and 2 minutes recovery
• Pyramid Sessions
150m/200m/300m/400m/300m/ 200m/150m with 2 3 minutes recovery between repetitions
• Split differentials - Eg. 4 x 400 in 60 secs. with 4 minutes
recovery.
The first 200m in 31 32 secs. and the second in 28 29 secs. This
helps with pace judgement and they always finish each repetition fast which is
what is required in the race situation.
• Quality repetitions
2 x 600m faster than race pace 12 15 mins. recovery. Flat out, three repetitions
with 6 10 mins. recovery
• Pace injectors 3 x 600m with 8 mins.
recovery. Aim for each run 90 secs. Each 200m is split into segments and runs
as follows 31 secs / 28 secs / 31 secs, so the injection of pace comes in the
middle of the competition.
The emphasis for all these types of sessions
are on intensity and quality and this can only be achieved with long jogged recoveries
to get rid of the waste products produced by the build up of lactic acid.
Once
the coach knows how to use the sessions for each of the various ingredients the
key is when and where in the year to use them and how to mix them correctly so
that the teenage athlete is in peak condition for the planned goal of the year.
There are no short cuts and the athlete should be progressed through each stage
and ingredient correctly. All athletes are individuals and therefore should at
this age be catered for with an individual training schedule and an individual
training plan.
Dave Suderland is a former National Events Coach and Olympic
and World Team Coach. He currently advises some of Britain's brightest young prospects
