In-season performance training

Staying competitive during the season of any sport is difficult as well as getting better and peaking at the end of the season.  It's a difficult balance of development, practice and games.  Adding performance training to the mix will definitely make this easier.  During the season athletes need their performance program to adapt to the demands of the season.

Right now the most common approach is to train before and after the season.  While on the face these aren't bad or ineffective they do leave a hole in an athlete's periodization timetable.  Without any training their athletic performance is guaranteed to decline which will have a direct effect on their sport performance.

A better way is to schedule time for performance training which will include strength training, speed, agility and quickness training.  These scheduled days should be planned to take 30-45 minutes in duration.  By keeping them to this length of time makes sure that the athletes will have enough time to recover and not cause fatigue and effect their play.

In-season training should focus on strength endurance.  This maintenance of strength will ensure that athletes are able to perform at the best of their abilities for the full duration of the season.  It will also help to protect them from injuries including non-contact and rsi's (repetitive stress injuries).

Athletes will definitely see improvements in their performance and how well they are able to fight off fatigue to play to the best of their abilities for the entire season.

The importance of speed endurance training

There is definitely truth that in order to go where you haven't been you have to get out of your comfort zone.  This is definitely true for track sprinters who run the 100m, 200m and 400m races.  Over distance work will get them out of their comfort zone (even if don't want to).

Speed endurance training is widely used at the the elite level and is very effective.  The most important part to these workouts is to allow for complete recovery between.  This is due to the large amount of stress and demands that are placed on the body and the central nervous system.

For complete recovery 15-20 minutes should be allowed.  By allowing this much rest in between sets the athlete can perform at their best with all out effort.  These types of workouts will last last over 2 hours and require light recovery workouts in the days afterwards.

The coach of Marita Koch (woman's 400m wr record holder of 47.60 set at the 1985 Canberra World Cup) was asked what her toughest workout was.  It wasn't the 2x500m workout or the 4 sets of 6x60m workout.  Instead it was the speed endurance workout of 4x30m, 60m, 100m, 120m, 150m.  She said she felt "bagged" for the next few days.

Speed is obviously essential for any track sprinter but the ability to both reproduce it and maintain it are paramount.  These workouts are guaranteed to give the athlete the opportunity to do both.