Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

Originally posted by jumpscoachmike
One more for you Mike…..this is from an earlier thread:

"Yes, we operate on a 7 day work week (microcycle) with one complete rest day on Sunday. A typical mesocycle lasts 4 weeks (3 loading and 1 unloading). High demand CNS days are typically Monday, Wednesday, and Friday."

Our season schedule just happens to be set up where every 4th week (end of each mesocycle), we have a larger, important meet…looking at your comment above, would I then load those first 3 weeks and unload significantly that 4th week (week of big competition)??   

Sounds like an ideal situation to me.

Gracias Mike…...That med ball description helps alot!

Mike, Todd, anyone…..

During my unloading week at the end of each meso., what kind of intensities/volumes should I be looking at implementing in my plan?  If I have my athletes lift M-W during the unload week and I have them doing clean, squat, press….how should I set it up?  Is this a low volume AND low intensity week theoretically?

More specifically, I guess I'm looking for how many sets/reps and at what intensity should the lifting be done at. 

Thanks again.:tumble:

Hard to answer because only you will know, based on which meso and your progression, how the athlete looks and most importantly, how the athlete responds.

I coach women only and in my few years of experience, a drop in intensity and volume in the same week, has not yielded as positive results as seen when only volume is dropped.

I understand that point. 

Todd, I'm thinking during the first meso. - 4th week (leading up to our indoor conference meet) to unload to the tune of low volume and moderate-high intensity….maybe last sets somewhere in the range of 75% of max.  Like you said, it depends on where the athletes are at and how they are/have been responding….

I tentatively planned the week prior to this (3rd week of first meso.) working up to 90% on the core lifts…with high intensity and low total volume. (sets of 2-3 reps for volume).

I coach both girls and guys but I've mentioned to you my one female athlete who is very special….we're rolling along quite nicely in her training right now.  The next biggest thing with her is gaining more and more practice with power/hang cleans so I can fully implement them into her program.

I'll stop rambling….any thoughts on above ideas?

Mike-

i found this post from you from a while back….

"As for plyos, we have 11 jumps circuits that really aren't different from anyone elses."

...Can you share what these jumps circuits look like/consist of??

They range from 4-15 exercises and each has a general theme or purpose (such as recovery or the ability to overcome inertia) . I do however use them and tweak them in various ways throughout the year which allows each circuit to be altered to stress a certain factor depending upon the goal of the session (technical development, vertical force production, horizontal force production, recovery, etc.).

Mike would be more qualified to answer, here's my answer.
Click here for old thread on jumpers lifting
I'm a little confused, if it is truly the first training meso of the year for her, then week three at 90% with 2's is blasting along pretty well.
If she has a lot of training built in already, as it sounds like you are doing and what you are calling meso 1 of three mesos, is really much further along, then what you have could be adequate.  Your loading patterns will determine that better though.

Thanks to you both.

Todd-sorry about getting off on the tangent about the one female athlete….what I was trying to get at was just my plan for my jumpers as a group during meso 1 for the upcoming season…this will run March 8-April 2 of next year. 

Putting my program together, and going off some specific set/rep schemes that Mike has provided, I'll do some "higher" rep sets the first 2 weeks of the season.  Then in week 3 I'm going to drop reps fairly dramatically and increase intensity to 80-85%....what I was wondering is if 90% or a little higher (<95%) is too much at this point in the season?  It may be for some…

I think, however, that I am being redundant and that you've answered my question.  (I will have to see how the athlete feels and responds when that time comes). 

And finally, that first unloading week (4th week of season) I had planned on dropping to 75% intensity….question here is does this seem like too much a drop off?  I know you said recently that you have had more success with your women athletes by dropping volume only.  Well, I guess the bottom line is we'll see what happens…I feel very confident with the suggestions you and Mike have given to me and the total program will come together nicely… I can already see that. 

Originally posted by jumpscoachmike

what are you looking for when you are recruiting in the horizontal jumps?

Just curious….

do you ever look at where the athlete is situated? up in canada good conditions are as rare as snow in FL…so do u take that into consideration as well?

bump

flight-

I would think that in a handful of cases D1 coaches will look at where you are coming from (such as Canada)... where T&F conditions are, like you said, less than ideal most of the year.  Maybe Mike, Todd, KT, Ron or any other coaches at this level could answer this with more accuracy though.