• To develop and use a safe and effective training programme, you will need to use the principles of training as set out in your syllabus.

• These are– Overload– Specificity– Progression– Individual differences– Variation

– Reversibility– Frequency– Intensity– Time– Type

• This means that an athlete should work harder than they are used to in order to improve.

• The body has to adapt to the increase in training, and this causes improvement in the bodies systems.

• To improve the body’s systems a training programme must show overload.

• Without overload, the athlete will simply maintain the same level.

• Overload must be gradual.

• You can add overload in a number of ways– How often you train – Add a training session– How hard you train – Work harder in the training sessions– Duration – Increase how long you train for.

• Look at these examples – How could you provide overload for these people?– Norbert – Leads a sedentary life and hasn’t done any exercise for

three years. – Geoff – goes for a run three times a week for twenty minutes. He

runs at about 60% of his maximum speed. – Sharon – goes weight training 5 times a week. She does 20

exercises, 3 sets of 15 repetitions at 50% of her maximum weight.

• Overload must be gradual. If you add too much too soon, you will cause injury.

• Any gain in fitness will be specific to the muscles or system to which the overload is applied. – For example an athlete who trains by running for 20 minutes three

times a week will see improvements to aerobic endurance, muscular endurance and body composition in the muscles that work in running.

– They will not develop other areas such as power or flexibility. – By training for running, they may not help if they want to develop

fitness for cycling.

• The key to being specific, is to make sure that a training programme has clear goals.

• How could you make a training programme specific for the following individuals?: – Norbert – Wants to improve his strength and lose a bit of weight. – Geoff – Used to play a lot of football and has decided he wants to

play again next season. – Sharon – Wants to move on the next level and become a

international sprinter.

• Progression is a steady increase in the overload of a training programme. – The important element is being gradual in the overload;• Too much overload = injury • Too little overload = little or no

improvement. – You can increase frequency,

intensity and duration of exercise gradually to bring about progression.

• To be successful a training programme must look at the individual athlete.

• Athletes will have different objectives– So collecting information and setting

short, medium and long term goals, as well as SMART targets is essential.

• Athletes will have different preferences– Some will prefer different exercises or

training methods to others. • Athletes improve at different rates– This can be due to their genetic make up

• A training programme needs to be varied, so that the athlete doesn’t become bored.

• Try to change the training methods or style at least every 2 weeks to keep the athlete interested.

• This principle states that if fitness is not used regularly, then the body will revert back to its previous level of fitness.

• The rule use it or lose it would be a good indication of this principle.

• Rest, however, is essential. A training programme will need to have some rest periods each week, in order to allow the body to recover and consolidate the adaptations to training.

• Frequency – refers to how often the athlete will train in each week, month or year.– Beginners – 2-3 sessions per week. Can

increase to more than this after 3 months– Health and fitness – Training should not

exceed 5 days a week. This allows recovery time

– Elite athlete – 6 or 7 days a week. – Daley Thompson famously had one day off per year – Christmas day!

• Intensity – refers to how hard the athlete works in each session or repetition.

• It is usually expressed as a percentage of maximum. – For example in weight training – 60% of the maximum

weight you can lift. – For aerobic events this is often expressed as a

percentage of Maximum Heart Rate (220-Age)– Intensity can be increased by adding more weight, or

increasing the speed for running or cycling, for examples.

• Intensity principles. – To develop Aerobic endurance – work at approx 60% of max heart

rate• So for a 20 year old this would be 120 bpm (60% of MHR 200bpm)

– To develop Strength – work at around 80-100% of Maximum weights, but for only a few repetitions and sets

– To develop Muscular Endurance – work at around 60% of max weights/resistance for 15 repetitions in 3 sets.

– To develop power – Work at 70-80% of Maximum weight/resistance

– To develop speed – Work at 90-100% of max speed when running, or doing weights.

• Time – Refers to how long each training session lasts for.

– To improve aerobic fitness, training should last for a minimum of 20 minutes, for examples

• Type refers to the type of training in the training programme.

– This can depend on a number of things, such as• Athlete preferences• Athlete objectives• Equipment available• Time of year• Time available

• Is all about a structured cycle of training. It is normally split into 3 parts– Macrocycle – 1-4 year training cycle– Mesocycle – 4-15 week training cycle– Microcycle – weekly or individual

training sessions.

• At the end of this unit, you need to create a 6 week training programme. As such it is one mesocycle made up of 6 microcycles, that fits into a macrocycle.

• Periodisation is designed to help – Reduce chances of injury– Increase chances of peaking at the big

tournaments– Improve recovery from training

• The different cycles vary depending on the sport and the type of athlete. For example:

• Try to match the different statements below with the mesocycles on the left:

― Developing a base level of fitness – strength and aerobic

― Rest and recovery― Drills and Organisation― Maintaining a mix of drills

organisation and fitness levels.― Level mix of fitness, drills and

tactical awareness.

– For a football player:• Macrocycle is one year. It

splits into:• Mesocycle 1 – Pre season• Mesocycle 2 – Early season• Mesocycle 3 – Mid season• Mesocycle 4 – Late season• Mesocycle 5 – Off season• Each mesocycle splits into

microcycles that build up to weekly or twice weekly matches.

– Periodisation in Netball

• For an Olympic rower, – A macrocycle is four years.– They would still have Mesocycles of 4-

15 weeks, focussing on different aspects of training. These may be:• Strength• Power• Muscular endurance• Rest• Competition – They have annual

world championships, and would try to peak for these. However, their main focus would be the next Olympic Games.