If you’ve been reading me for anything length of time, you know that I train my high school (and even college) athletes using a ‘Template Model’.
A given 45 – 70 minute training session will look as follows:
- Tissue Quality
- Mobility/Active Flexibility
- Torso
- Movement Prep
- Movement (S & Q)
- Strength Technique
- Strength/Power
- ROM/Active Flexibility
Each of these eight points receives a ‘minute’ or ‘percentage’ designation; essentially, I decide upfront and before the training day starts, how much time and energy is going to be spent within each category.
By holding in perspective the four paradigms of life mentioned previously (nutrition, emotional stress, sleep and regeneration) and while adding in other elements or factors (in-season, off-season, transitional time, etc) I can apply the ‘Art of Coaching’ to my programmatic structure in order to create a periodized model without deviating from the ‘8-Point’ guideline.
For example:
In-Season Training
- Tissue Quality (20%)
- Mobility/Active Flexibility (15%)
- Torso (5%)
- Movement Prep (15%)
- Movement (5%)
- Strength Technique (10%)
- Strength/Power (10%)
- ROM/Active Flexibility (20%)
Keeping young athletes injury free and performing optimally in-season, is my primary goal. Thus, a majority of time is spent on Tissue Quality, Mobility, and Dynamic (low-grade) Movement.
Yes, the ‘in-season’ can most certainly be a time in which ‘performance gains’ are made; the mistake we historically make is correlating ‘gains’ with nothing more than improvements in speed, strength or power.
Off-Season Training
- Tissue Quality (10%)
- Mobility/Active Flexibility (10%)
- Torso (5%)
- Movement Prep (10%)
- Movement (20%)
- Strength Technique (15%)
- Strength/Power (20%)
- ROM/Active Flexibility (10%)
This form of a periodized model can be scaled a number of ways and for a number of reasons (growth spurts when ROM and Mobility are decidedly more important than anything else or in short-gain sequences during which a strength increase in a short period of time is necessary, would be two such examples).
My strong suggestion is that you do the following:
-
Create a ‘Template Model’ of training with categories of your own (if you choose not to use the ones I’ve depicted for you).
-
Start using different ‘minute’ or ‘percentage’ models based on time of year, physical needs, observation of nutritional or sleep deprivations etc.
-
Monitor (i.e. write down) all your subjective findings; how your young athletes act and react to different percentages of focus based on their ‘x factors’ and how that plays out over a week.
-
Tweak, alter and ratify your system based on the findings or outcomes you track.
– Brian
Would You Like to Learn More About Our Exact Model for Periodization and Programming with High School Athletes?
Just Click Here: https://iyca.org/highschool/