I had a conversation today regarding conditioning for athletes, it came up when discussing Joel Jameson’s latest cert for conditioning. When it comes to conditioning Joel is considered to be one of the world’s leading authorities, I was lucky enough to spend a day with him a few years back and his knowledge is off the charts, like he knows how conditioning and different methods are going to impact the body down to a cellular level better than anyone I know. Knowing the theory is great but there’s more to practical implication than sometimes the theory allows for.
Conditioning or Energy System Development (ESD) is one of the most botched forms of physical development there is. It’s rarely given much thought; it’s used for punishment and to ‘Build mental toughness’ which is bullshit. Today we’re going to break down some key considerations when it comes to programming ESD.
Not a Punishment
First and foremost, ESD must not be used as a punishment under any circumstance. What benefit can actually come out of physical punishment? It’s a problem that’s especially rampant in GAA, when a team performs poorly, the manager likes to run them into the ground but what are they actually learning from it? Their time would be much better spent in the changing room analyzing their performance and the weak points and using the time spent running on developing better tactics or skills. Remember, there should be absolutely nothing in your programme unless it serves to building a better athlete.
Buy in
Leading on from the previous point, buy in can be incredibly hard to get from athletes. When you have it the last thing you want to do is lose it. I said that Joel’s new conditioning course was the inspiration for this post and the reason is that some of his stuff is just going to make the athletes absolutely hate you and say “F**k you Coach” Obviously ESD needs to be tough so it can bring about adaptation but like it shouldn’t make anyone question you or lose faith in you. Education as to why you’re doing x distance sprints or whatever you’re doing and relating back to the sport, position and individual and how it’s going to help them develop will go a long way to helping the athlete but into you ESD programme. Athletes are smart, even if they don’t understand the how they will sniff out BS and you will lose their interest in a second.
Must Meet the Demands
There is absolutely zero point in doing energy system development work unless it’s for the better of performance on the pitch. The programme you develop should meet the demands being placed on the players in a game situation.
With the introduction of some top-level GPS systems into sport in recent years we can really improve our understanding of the demands the athlete endures. There has been some great research done on GAA in the last few years, especially from Damien Young of Tipperary, who is one of the game’s leading researchers. Damien has released some really great papers with information that allows us to quantify the average demands being placed on top level, inter-county hurlers during championship. Let’s take a look at the average numbers for a midfielder.
Total Distance (M)
7,346
Average Sprint Distance (M)
16
Total High-Speed running (M)
712
Total Sprint Distance (M)
294
Using these numbers, we should be able to develop a targeted ESD programme that has the progression up to championship level distances and demands.
Check out the average distance of a sprint, 16 meters. 16!!! So, tell me why would you make a lad or lady sprint the length of a pitch… for reps? Madness. You don’t need GPS to enforce this stuff, the data is there, it just takes some planning and preparation from you. Now, there is arguments to be made for 30-35m sprints so the athlete can achieve max velocity but end line to end line is crap.
Meeting the demands of the sport in question should be easier now more than ever. The amount of objective data on game-play in any sport is at it’s peak. We have more data than we know what to do with, but that data needs to be used. What works for soccer or American Football won’t work for camogie because the demands are all different.
I’ll say it again, any programme you make needs to create a better athlete for their sport.
Energy Systems in Play
You’ll see from the data on Hurling that less than 10% of the distance covered is high-speed running while only 4% of the total distance is sprinting. The rest is low level running, more aerobic based work. This means we need to train the aerobic system and give it just the same level of consideration as the alactic system.
The more efficient aerobic system helps us recover between high intensity bouts and helps us get around the field with greater ease.
Methods
Small sided games have proven to be really beneficial in re-creating match play scenarios. Obviously, the term ‘small sided games’ can mean a lot of things, so I recommend checking the research on your particular sport to see what parameters yield the best results. SSG have the added benefit of including skill and tactical work for the players too, which a great way to make ESD training more enjoyable and help keep the buy in from the team.
Tempo running is a great method for developing the aerobic system along with some low intensity stuff on days off such as bike work or swimming.
Conditioning is often a term that makes athletes wince in pain and quake in their boot but with higher levels of research and newer methods we can change what conditioning training is. No longer is it a cruel punishment. Now, conditioning is targeted based on what the highest level of the athlete’s sport demands of it’s top teams. We have the research to say “this is the level last season’s champions were at, let’s match them physically and out skill them tactically.”
As a profession we can make better judgements when it comes to ESD, we need to.
If anyone would like more info on how to up their conditioning game, please don’t hesitate to give me shout. The contact form at the top of this page will go straight to my email.
Until next time,
Rory.