This article is a compilation of numerous email exchanges with Clare McSweeney, a therapist and coach in Ireland. I spent some time with Clare in Phoenix last year and we have kept in touch ever sense. She will be returning to Altis in February 2016 to attend our Performance Therapy Program and to continue learning our methodologies and philosophies.
Clare works with a group of 16-18 year old male 100-400m runners. A few were in the top 8 nationally in their age group this past year and 3 were part of the school team that won the National 4 x 100m in the senior school category.
Let’s begin…
Clare: So, I am drawing on my knowledge as a therapist and experience as a 400-800m athlete, to guide my athletes. I have less difficulty integrating the performance / track side therapy into the program and keeping them injury-free – funny that! But as regards programming of training, I am a newbie. I really want to ensure that I am doing right by them so they progress – hence many of the questions!
One of my main concerns would be getting the blend of training wrong in each part of the season and then arriving at pre-competition phase with the realisation that I should have done X, Y, Z earlier in the season. Perhaps you could give me some guidance around this?
Answer: In terms of the blend of training, a couple of aspects I would factor in are:
1. Work on acceleration mechanics all year. Accelerating is a skill that must be performed extensively to find improvement. It seems that many coaches will spend far too much time “building a base” and leave acceleration mechanics to the last few weeks of training prior to competition. It is a long process to progress through the phases of stimulate, adapt, stabilize, and actualize.
2. Work on weaknesses in the early season and progress to work on strengths as you get closer to the competitive season. Working exclusively on athletes’ weaknesses will likely lead to excessive fatigue and a negative mental outlook. These traits can be managed through early season training but are detrimental when entering competition. By shifting more towards an athletes strengths, you will have an easier time of managing fatigue and you will produce a more confident and ready to perform athlete.
3. In the weight-room load with more work capacity (Zone 2) and max strength (Zone 3) in the early season and more dynamic strength (Zone 1) in the comp phase. Max strength can be maintained and even improved upon for months on end without touching loads over 85%.
Clare: For the S&C sessions, 3-4 exercises were listed per workout at Altis. Can you offer insight into why this is the case? Is this used all-yr round?
Answer: Utilizing 3-4 exercises per training session is a theme all year long. A major player in our philosophy is “Mastery of the Basics”. We determine what we deem to be most important for an athlete, hit it, and get out. The weight-room is meant to supplement the work we do on the track therefore we want to make sure we manage fatigue in the weight room.
Clare: What approach/philosophy do you take to designing sessions for this time of year (General Prep) in terms of S&C prescription? Do you use the zone method? What is the overall periodisation scheme? What is the exercise selection used and what is the rationale? Is the loading consistent from cycle to cycle and why? Very broad question, I know! And I understand that programming must be fluid.
Answer: We still use the zonal method and complex periodization in the weight-room all year long. Extra emphasis on Zone 2 (work capacity) and Zone 3 (max strength) will be present this time of year. As we shift closer to competitive season Zone 2 will drop off, Zone 3 will be performed once every 7-10 days and Zone 1 (dynamic effort) will take over the bulk of the workload.
Exercise selection at this time of year is based off which movements fit best into which zones. Zone 3 will include squats, presses and deadlifts. Zone 2 includes single-leg and single-arm work with an increased time under tension. Zone 1 includes exercises with a long range of motion that allow for a high velocity. As we progress this through the year we will begin to work more towards athletes strengths to facilitate comfort and confidence leading into competitions. A general weight room program will include a double-leg pulling movement (i.e. deadlift), a single-leg pushing movement (i.e. split squat), and an upper body press.
Clare: On the training program posted, wickets are listed in an intro to upright mechanics. What is the athlete focusing on while performing these? Is there a prescribed distance apart, the wickets are set and why?
Answer: The focus on the wickets is vertical force production, limited time on the ground with an appropriate knee lift, and hitting front-side positions. The distance between the wickets grows as you progress through the run. Therefore, we are looking for them to hit a good run-in and build speed as they go throughout. We will play with different distances to fit athletes so there is nothing set in that regard but again it will typically progress every two to three wickets and ranges from around 5.5 feet to 7.5 feet.
The following link will lead you to a short video from Altis Sprint/Hurdle Coach Andreas Behm explaining the wicket runs.
Wicket Runs Explained By Andreas Behm
Clare: I can completely understand the rationale in the approach to the work done in the weight room. Managing fatigue and mastering the basics are key points I took from you when I visited, especially from an injury prevention perspective. In my own personal experience, I have found that when I was prescribed lengthy S&C sessions, it compromised not just the quality within that session but spilled over to the quality of the work that was done on the track.
Do you incorporate much eccentric training into programs?
Answer: Eccentric training is a big aspect of our programming. Falling in line with the stretch-shortening cycle, as an athlete you are required to yield force (the stretch or eccentric portion) prior to generating force (the shortening or concentric). Therefore, if an athlete is unable to effectively yield the 5-7x bodyweight forces they experience when sprinting they will collapse on the track and subsequently be unable to produce any force.
I like to relate it to our sprint training as well. We work on the acceleration from day one because first off it is a skill but also, if a runner (particularly a short sprinter) does not have a good acceleration they run the risk of losing the race right off the bat. Just as we believe, why would you train the concentric contraction if you lose that ability by missing the eccentric contraction, why would you train the latter portion of the race if you can lose the race from the start?
We do not spend a ton of time with heavy, slow eccentric contractions. Rather, we progress fairly quickly into more reflexive and reactive eccentrics. The best example of this is the Ham-Glute Raise Single Leg drop and catch that we often perform. With this particular move we are looking for the athlete to relax their posterior chain as much as possible and then fire as quickly as possible. In theory, simulating ground contact in sprinting. The following link leads to a short video clip of this exercise.
Single Leg Ham-Glute Raise Reflexive Eccentric
Clare: How long does a cycle last? Does a recovery week follow? What does that entail – drop in volume and/or intensity, extra rest day?
Answer: Our training cycle lasts 3 weeks total with the third week being a “rest week”. Intensity does not change. You cannot accelerate, for example, at sub-maximal intensity without mechanics being altered. Volume MAY decrease slightly but most often we adjust density, meaning we take an extra day or two off during the week. Week 2 is our biggest week in terms of workload with week 1 being in-between weeks 2 and 3.
For example, say we want to alter volume for a particular exercise or drill it would look like this:
Week 1 – 3 sets
Week 2 – 4 sets
Week 3 – 2 sets
Clare: One burning question I have regarding the mechanics of sprinting is the contact with the ground. Is this coached as a claw-back action still? I was coached that way but I think this may have changed? One of the guys strikes the ground in an almost piston-like fashion of up-down with more vertical than horizontal projection.
Answer: Upright sprinting is not coached as a claw-back action in our model. It is the up and down piston action that you mentioned. Once an athlete reaches maximum velocity and is upright they are simply trying to hang on to the speed they developed through the acceleration. The downward pull of gravity is now the enemy and therefore we cue an up-down foot action similar to marching.
Clare: What does a potentiation session involve? Is it individual dependent? What are the goals of such a session?
Answer: Our potentiation sessions are performed on Mondays and involve explosive, concentric actions such as medicine ball throws, hurdle hops, power skips, Olympic lifts, etc.
The effects of potentiation are extremely individual. Matt Jordan, a strength coach in Calgary, Canada, has a nice presentation on this. You can check his website jordanstrength.com.
Clare: Is it important to perform this the day prior to acceleration development session or more optimal placed within the session, between the warm-up and acceleration runs?
Answer: The reason we potentiate an acceleration day on Tuesday with an explosive, concentric-based session on Monday is that we have found that it is difficult to get high-quality work from our athletes on a Monday following a complete day of rest. They typically shut down so completely on the Sunday and it takes a while to get firing again. Therefore, the acceleration is performed on Tuesday once the CNS is primed and there is a bit of tension within the system.
For more of a direct enhancement on performance we also like to potentiate individual repetitions of accelerations with an explosive, concentric movement like hurdle hops or med ball throws.
Clare: With dosage, is there an upper limit that should be respected for performance optimisation and injury avoidance?
Answer: Dosage, as with potentiation as a whole, is highly individual. The safest implementation is start on the low end, observe and adjust accordingly.
I hope this discussion between myself and Clare was able to provide an insight into the methodologies and philosophies that I have picked up from my time working at Altis. Carrying on lengthy discussions with other individuals in the field and more specifically, attempting to educate others on what we do at Altis is something I truly enjoy.