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Plan Your Training Right!
As Team Today starts to post weekly training plans and training logs from the athletes of the USST, this is a good time for an explaination from head coach Trond Nystad as to the processes that go into these plans. Take some of the ideas you see in our training and try to integrate them into your training using the simple, fundamental ideas expressed below.
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\r\nPLANNING TRAINING THE RIGHT WAY
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\r\nMany probably wonder how we come up with training for the athletes that are on the national team. I will try to explain the process we use such that you can try it for yourself and for athletes that you coach.
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\r\nTraining is normally very easy. We all know that every athlete must train a lot and hard. The only thing that is tricky is to adjust training such that it fits each individual athlete. The worst thing anyone can do is to try to copy another persons training program.
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\r\nThe process of developing a new training program for our athletes starts in the middle of March. We then ask all the racers to evaluate their training and approach to skiing last year and come up with areas that they feel they need to work on to become better. It is important to notice that the athletes do not only evaluate training, rather their whole life. Perfect training can be spoiled by “life issues” such as family problems, work, lack of rest, nutrition, travel, etc.
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Obviously Trond needs to re-evaluate his training...he's losing this race...
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\r\nEach athlete presents their ideas for the next training year to the coaches. Based upon the information we collect, we then collectively (coaches and athlete) come up with training ideas for each athlete. Since the athletes are the only ones that know what is right for them, it is imperative that the athlete is part of the planning process. The goal with every athlete is to make them independent, such that the athlete does not receive a program that they follow blindly. An athlete needs to be able to set up a rough plan for the year and then execute and adjust this program on an ongoing basis. A training program is a working document that changes every day according to how the athlete feels and what kind of “life issues” come up. A training program is a guide, not the bible.
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\r\nWe have gone away from just looking at hours in the planning process. Instead we use the analysis from the athletes and come up with goals. The goals are what drive the training. An athlete that has decided that leg strength is an opportunity area and wants to become stronger in the legs will do more leg strength exercises to improve. It all sounds very easy; and it is. But by doing it this way we make sure that the athletes stay goal oriented and focus on specific tasks every time they are working out. If one only says train 20 hours this week, then it is easy to loose focus on how one should best use these hours to become better. When an athlete knows that leg strength and intensity training is the focus, then activities will be put together to address these specific goals. At the end of the week the athlete has improved and has as a bi-product also trained the prescribed hours. The process to follow is therefore: 1. create goals, 2. create a program with training that addresses the goals, 3. Execute training, 4 Evaluate the training and progress towards goals. 5. Re-adjust goals/training as necessary. When one does everything right, the hours will come by themselves.
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\r\nGood racers have already several hours under their belt in April and May. Get out and train, but stay goal oriented and most importantly: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Your body will tell you if you are doing too much or too little. If you ignore the signals of your body you will definitely fail in your quest to develop as a skier. Good luck with planning your training.
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Written By: TNystadDate Posted: 5/12/2004Number of Views: 364
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