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Training/Coaching - a planned approach

Have you ever asked yourself why you want to undergo training/coaching? If you did, presumably the answer would be that you want to improve your performance in order to achieve higher goals.

The next question is therefore, what is your goal? If you don't have a specific goal asked yourself two basic questions:

1. What do I want to achieve?
2. When do I want to achieve it?

Having defined you goal you can now work back from your goal to the present situation and plan how you will achieve you goal. Remember - “Failure to plan = plan for failure”

Your basic plan should consist of four stages:

General Preparation - The objective of General Preparation is to establish a solid foundation in all of the various components of performance and in the relationships between the various components.  This would include general strength and fitness as well as co-ordination. General preparation would include activities away from the athlete’s specific sport such as swimming for a Hurdles athlete. The emphasis is on the whole, and not on specific components, of the athlete’s preparation.

Specific Preparation – Here we focus on the sport specific components of performance and of the relationship between them. The preparation is correlated to the chosen sport and would include drills and exercises that improve technique and physical capability and range. The objective is to perfect the individual components of a specific sports techniques while developing a level of fitness also specific to the sport. An example would be Discus training whereby the athlete is drilled exclusively on the throwing technique and may also work on strength capabilities (resistance/weights) in the gym.

Pre Competition - The objective is to prepare the athlete for the physical and mental pressures of competition by subjecting the athlete to situations where technique is completely rehearsed, where possible, in actual competition situations. This area of training incorporates portions of Specific Preparation as well as actual competition.

Competition - During the Competition phase the objective is on the maintenance and further refinement of the components of performance and the relationships between them. This is achieved by simulations of specific competition that prepares the athletes for the actual stress of competition including pre competition unloading; competition; and post competition recovery.

Check out the Principles of Training HERE!!