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By
Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems |
| Although people engage
in fitness and sports activities for various reasons, the fact
remains that they are inherently physical activities. |
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So whether you exercise for stress
reduction, weight loss, or sport, it makes sense to train in a manner
which is consistent with accepted training principles and methodologies.
Doing so will make the outcome of training less haphazard and more
predictable. It will also enhance the appreciation of movement one
should derive from any form of physical activity.
As all coaches know, mastery of a
sport is accomplished by developing a foundation before progressing
to more advanced levels of training. As accepted as this principle
is, many people possess only a vague understanding of what
this means in concrete terms. The purpose of this article is to
expose the reader to foundational training concepts derived from
the world of sports science. And while you might not be a competitive
athlete, I believe you can benefit greatly from recent developments
in sport science.
One such development comes from Dr.
Tudor Bompa, former Romanian rowing coach and currently a professor
at York University in Toronto, Canada.
Bompa has developed a useful schema
called "The Training Factors Pyramid,"* which can be used
to develop long term training plans, based on a foundational progression
of factors over time.
The Training Factors Pyramid helps
to identify a logical sequence of training factors, and can be used
by athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike to identify objectives
and evaluate training programs and methods. When problems develop,
as they inevitably do, The Training Factors Pyramid can be used
to determine what level these problems originate from, which speeds
up the corrective process considerably.
The pyramid consists of four ascending
levels. The athlete enters the pyramid at the first level—physical
preparation. This level is the cornerstone of an athlete's training,
because without it, further progress is impossible. Physical preparation
refers to the development of what sports scientists call "biomotor
abilities"— strength, power, speed, balance, flexibility,
agility, endurance, and coordination.
The second level of the pyramid involves
technical preparation— or perfecting physical techniques.
While some techniques can be mastered with a low level of physical
preparation, many cannot. Many currently popular recreational
sporting activities, such as in-line skating and rock climbing,
to name two, require a fairly high level of physical development
before many skills can be practiced.
Of course, technical mastery is not
the final objective, for any athlete. We all know of athletes who
have beautiful and "correct" techniques, but who lack
the ability to apply them in a sport setting.
This brings us to the third level
of The Training Factors Pyramid: tactical preparation. Tactics
simply refer to the ability to successfully apply techniques in
a sport situation. It should be obvious to the reader at this point
that technically sound technique must be established before entering
level three. Further, the athlete must have a high level of physical
development before correct technique is possible.
The fourth and final stage is called
psychological preparation—a very important consideration
for athletes who hope to compete successfully. But clearly, psychological
preparedness— let's just call it confidence— cannot be
established if the athlete has not successfully ascended through
the previous three levels.
How can The Training Factors Pyramid
be used in an everyday, practical setting? Let's suppose you're
a serious recreational beach volleyball player, and you're having
problems with your spike. The first step is to determine whether
or not you can execute a technically correct spike in an isolated
situation (i.e., in practice).
If the answer is no, then we go down
a level and try to find faults your physical preparation— perhaps
you lacks adequate explosive strength to clear the net. Once your
physical attributes are improved, you should be more successful
in delivering the spike in competitive situations.
If the answer is yes (you can deliver
a proper spike), the problem lies in either tactical or psychological
development. Both areas are closely intertwined— a lack of
tactical skill can obviously impair confidence. And vice versa.
Athletes commonly progress well through physical and technical training,
but falter in tactical/psychological realms. The solution is more
time in the trenches, with careful progression through gradually
more difficult encounters. When tactical successes begin to outweigh
the failures, confidence increases along with tactical ability.
Although the four training factors
have been isolated for the sake of discussion, in reality, they
must be integrated if a successful outcome is desired.
For example, is a serve a technique
or a tactic? At novice levels of play, it is primarily technical,
but at high levels of skill, techniques and tactics are one and
the same. Also worth noting is the fact that the direction of influence
is not only ascending, but descending as well. For example, the
techniques you'll use affect
the physical preparation you'll need to do.
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Aside from day to day considerations,
The Training Factors Pyramid should also form a template
for long term planning, as well.
Accordingly, the first several
months of training should be dedicated to improving physical
attributes, although simple technical and tactical skills
may be presented as well. The second phase of training is
characterized by developing technical mastery of your sport
skills. Physical condition must be maintained, but this
involves less work than it took to develop it. Advanced
stages of training target tactical and psychological concerns,
with comparatively less time spent on physical and technical
development.
While achieving mastery in
sport involves years of hard work, those years yield far
more result when they are spent wisely. The time you spend
developing your foundation is miniscule compared to the
time it takes to correct long-entrenched errors from years
of poorly-conceived and executed training.
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About The Author
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His colleagues call him an iconoclast,
a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The
Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches
miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled
in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’
methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious
results. His counter-intuitive approach and self-effacing
demeanor have lead to appearances on NBC’s The TODAY
Show and The CBS Early Show.
Currently, Charles competes
in Olympic-style weightlifting on the master’s circuit,
with a 3-year goal of qualifying for the 2009 Master’s
World Championships.
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