I have to hand it to Gary Winckler with his USATF Level 3 education in Las Vegas. Yesterday a legion of female hurdlers perform masterfully at Nationals and I frankly must apologize for not writing about some of the concepts Gary shared earlier. His impact on the USATF curriculum is clearly evident, and his mathematic mind is not left brained only. When the science is so well crafted it becomes an art. I have been focusing on mastering the basics for a long time, and 2006 is a long time ago for me to finally really make an emphasis on doing things beyond doing 4 x 150s with some olympic lifts later. It’s tempting to try to get into the cool stuff too early, but I really think some of the concepts that Gary shared in Las Vegas work well as I have seen beyond statistical impact of the concepts listed below. At first I was on brain drain since all of the information 10 years ago was overloading my set of choices and options. Do I go more of a contemporary approach or do I become aggressive like Tony Wells? Should I be conservative like the work by Bud Winter and focus more on relaxation rates and slow loading? Whatever one suggests I think Brooks Johnson understands the art of it and it’s up to us, the younger coaches with more information available to crack the music behind the science and practice.
A Sharp – Grouping by neuromuscular demand
B Sharp – Grouping by metabolic/energy system demand
C Sharp – Grouping by duration of power output
D Sharp – Grouping by coupling/force application timeframes
E Sharp – Grouping by technical commonality
F Sharp – Grouping by the static/dynamic nature of the activity
G Sharp – Grouping by the rhythm of the activity
Then we have the other notes.
A Flat – Complementation the training session by a day of rest
B Flat – Complementation the training session with a prescription of restoration activities
C Flat – Complementation with a training session featuring restorative units
D Flat – Complementation with a training session of the same theme, training those qualities deeper
E Flat – Complementation with a training session of the same theme, training those qualities shallower
F Flat – Complementation with a training session of the same theme, training those qualities in an alternatve manner
G Flat – Complementation with a training session of a differing theme with some contrasting quality
I think we are getting close to understanding training theory when we look to other older fields and comeback to science without getting too fancy. Gary’s suggestions above coupled with some music theory is my interpretation of what is happening with the harmony of training. Look to what he is suggesting and see what your own music style is doing.