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The Structure of Training in relation to competition (How do we achieve optimal performance?)
Training, apart from providing an adaptive stimulus, also provides a negative fatigue generating stimulus that can result in a reduced performance capacity. IE If fitness is high but fatigue is also high the athlete will not be capable of their best performance; the best performance will result when fitness is high and fatigue low. As a general rule to produce a positive adaptation to training a stimulus needs to be imposed for 4- 6 week period in order to produce a measurable change in a performance characteristic. The full recovery from a fatiguing stimulus, however, appears to have a shorter time-frame and may be in the 3-10 day range. The above information provides a number of potential conflicts that the coach must manage. These include: The key to optimising the management of the athlete’s preparation is to have the criterion and other events and major travel periods defined prior to the start of the development of the annual cycle. This allows the coach to “reverse engineer” the annual training structure by entering in the taper periods prior to the criterion competitions and then, progressively adding the travel, training and maintenance/recovery phases of the annual plan. During this phase of the planning the coach must take into account both the time required to provide a stimulus and the time required to both recover and taper. Too little time between criterion events or too many events in the annual plan may compromise performance through either not allowing the athlete to undertake the appropriate type and volume of training or not allowing sufficient maintenance and taper time to reduce the fatigue induced by the training. Another negative influence on performance may be the addition of events or travel into the annual program that again influence the training and recovery structure or introduce an extra stress not accounted for, and not compensated for, in the annual plan. What it means is that, as much as possible the annual plan should contain a minimum number of identified criterion events spaced in a way that maximises the athlete’s training time and reduces the time “lost” through travel, recovery and taper periods. Alternatively if the criterion events are part of a selection process the duration of training blocks may need to be adjusted to provide a transitional structure within one block of training. In this model the two major foci of training are merged to give a block that provides stimuli to different areas of the athlete prior to a maintenance/recovery period. Where appropriate the final recovery block can be replaced by an extended taper which combines both a recovery as well as a “freshening” component normally this would be of 17-21 days duration. Additional events, if added into the annual plan, after it has commenced can cause the athlete to not to complete the volume of training required for long term success for that season. Alternatively the athlete and coach may consider the competition to be part of the volume of that training block, adjust other sessions appropriately, but also accept that the intensity and quality of performance may not occur in events attempted in the fatigued and non-tapered state.
The optimal preparation of an athlete requires a structured approach where the criterion events and travel are identified prior to the start of the annual plan. This planning should also take into account the time needed for the athlete to the respond to the imposed training, allow for maintenance/recovery blocks and the need for a structured taper into the criterion events.
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