Are Fitness Sessions Neglected in Session and Training Programmes?

In this post I will discuss whether the fitness component is being neglected in sessions and training programmes, the post will also look into the experiences I have had as an athlete and a coach in terms of delivering and taking part in fitness work. The benefits and repercussions will be explored to highlight the impact of fitness training. 

In my opinion I don't think coaches pay enough attention to fitness within their sessions and to be honest I never really thought too much about it. Over the last few months this had become more apparent to me because I have witnessed children between the ages of 8-13 not being able to run a lap around the track without stopping. Another example is watching a friend's football team who are  under 14's, I found that a few of the players where getting fatigued 20 minutes into a game, this was really surprising because the game was a friendly so the intensity of the match was lower than usual. 

As a coach this made me think about what I do in terms of fitness with my athletes, currently I don't really do too much circuit work due to facilities and the age of my participants however, in the new meso cycle I have planned a lot more fitness/circuit stations that I will incorporate into my sessions. For example a few circuit stations that are planned within the next few weeks will consist of activities such as; skipping, burpees, speed bounce, step ups, medicine balls, squats and I am looking to invest in some resistance bands. 

As an athlete I have experienced first hand the benefits of circuit sessions, they help focus and train other aspects of your training for example core stability. As a young distance runner I never really understood how important core stability really was until i became a coach and studied sports coaching at university. by having a stable core you are able to utilise and use all the benefit from a movement without wasting any unnecessary energy. Circuit sessions can be fun because you can work with partners and the stations are different every time so motivation is high. 

There are a lot of benefits of physical and circuit training, if the athlete or player is physically fitter and stronger theoretically they should be able to execute skills longer into competition and perform to a higher intensity. Also circuit sessions can help athletes develop and improve their technique in a range of activities for example, using medicine balls to help with explosive movements which can aid events such as; shot put and hammer etc. Circuit sessions are also helpful in injury prevention as specific exercises can help strengthen tendons and ligaments. There is an opening to work on muscular endurance and muscular strength in this type of training and this opportunity can be rare for many coaches because of facilities and equipment. Circuits can train all parts of the body where as if you did a normal sport specific session a few muscles groups will be missed or not be worked as much as they should. 

Some repercussions of circuit training are that the athletes must be able to perform the movements correctly as incorrect movements can cause injuries. The coach has to be cautious when using weights with young athletes as again incorrect movements can result in injury. Circuit training is seen to be too generic and this is one of the reasons that coaches don't pay much attention to it but the beauty of this type of training is that you can develop it and make as specific as you like. 

In conclusion, I don't think athletes and players do enough fitness work in terms of aerobic and circuit training. I as a coach have also neglected this area by not giving circuit and fitness training as much attention as I should in the past, however i will make a real effort to present my athletes with the benefits that circuit training brings in future sessions as from experience i have found that circuit sessions are fun and engaging because it challenges the performer in a different way. 

Trying to Teach Young Athletes about Pace Judgment

Over the last two years I have made a real effort to try and coach my athletes how to pace themselves properly. This is because when I ask the athletes to jog a lap of the track for the warm up it turns into a race and they comeback out of breathe. I don't attend competitions due to work commitments and the fact that parents and other coaches put far too much pressure on young athletes. Only events I attend are the cross countries and that is because I usually race later on in the day. 2 years ago I watched an under 11's cross country and witnessed something really disturbing, there were athletes crying when they were running. The reason for this was the athletes knew they were coming last and also they were really tired. Bare in mine this was when they were less than halfway round the one mile course. The start is ridiculously quick, even the senior men don't start as quick as them. I have made a real effort in the last year to equip my athletes with the experience to be able to complete a cross country and that they compete in cross countries more often.

When I was planning how I was going to tackle the pacing problem I looked into games that developed the athlete's pace judgment. I found a game called the gears game, this game helps the athletes feel 4 different paces. Gear 1 is walk, Gear 2 is slow jog, Gear 3 is fast jog and Gear 4 is sprint. The area used is 4 lanes and the athletes use gear 1 up the first lane then come down lane 2 in gear 2 and so on till they get to gear 4. The picture demonstrates this better. This game is effective because the athlete can experience different speeds and once they feel the speeds, they understand what pace you want them to run in. The coach can play around with the sequence instead of lane 1 being gear 1 etc. lane 1 can be gear 3, lane 2 can be gear 1 etc. 

The next game is an activity that I have developed myself and it is called the A-Z game, the athletes run around a track or a circuit with a partner. The first partner says A for Apple and the next partner says B for Banana and so on till they get to Z. When they get to Z they should have been running for at least 5 mins. To make the athletes run for longer or shorter you adapt the topic so instead of doing A-Z the athletes could do footballers and football clubs. The harder the topic the longer the athletes run for and this works the other way round. This game works alongside the gears game because when I do this activity i get the athletes to run in gear 2 because If they run any faster they will struggle to talk to each other. The reason that talking is emphasized is because of the energy systems, to be able to talk when running you have to be using the aerobic system, this is because you need to be using oxygen. As a coach you can find out if the athletes are using the correct system by asking them questions, if they can not answer due to being out of breathe they are in the lactic system rather than the areobic system. This games helps the athletes gain experience in running for a length of time and also helps them to relax when running. They relax because they don't think about running because their mind is concentrating on the game rather than how long they have been running for. 

I have even looked into changing the structure for cross country races for the under 11's because the main problem is the athletes run too fast into the first corner and then get fatigued. The athletes then start walking or they drop out. My solution to this is to change the race to a handi cap. The slower less experienced runners would run first and they would be set off in waves of 3 or 4 with a 30 second gap. I find that athletes are motivated when someone is going to catch them so they start running when they see someone gaining on them. The handicap would result in the race being closer in terms of finishing but also the emphasis on winning would be reduced. This is because it is about the time the athletes get rather than position. There are incentives for the faster more experienced runners because they can chase down runners in front and also in my opinion will help the middle pack improve a lot quicker by being able to stick with the faster runners when they reach them. This idea had mixed reactions, the coaches of the under 11s backed my idea and I had some really encouraging feedback however, the older members of the club are a bit more old fashioned and traditional because they explain that it defeats the object of a race. I totally agree with this point but it shouldn't be about racing at the age of 11 and under it should be about experience and enjoying cross county. 

To conclude; to get athletes to enjoy endurance work the emphasis has to be on fun, if the athletes don't enjoy endurance they will rapidly lose interest. From experience I have found it difficult to train my athletes to judge their paces however, I have found a little bit of success in terms of understanding, the athletes are starting to understand what paces they should run and when. Demonstrating this is a problem because they get a bit too excited and then they start to race each other. I have found that the A-Z game is very successful in getting the athletes to keep running without stopping for a few minutes and they run at a good pace which uses the correct energy system. Finally, if you have any advice or comments please share them or tweet me on @dannymaynard92 Thanks.

Feedback

Feedback is an element which is crucial in a athletes development, so many factors can influence the effectiveness of the feedback. These factors could be; how you say it, what you say, when you say it and who you say it to. These factors are all connected and to be able to deliver effective feedback you have to take all of them into consideration.

It is important you know your group of athletes and appreciate how they deal with feedback, some athletes like to be told straight what they did wrong and what they did right and they just want it said bluntly. Others deal with feedback a lot differently and can get disheartened when given critical or constructive feedback. So it is important you know your athletes and appreciate the way they deal with feedback. The timing of the feedback is crucial, the athlete needs to be allowed to make mistakes to an extent before the coach steps in, however some athletes don't understand that their are performing something incorrectly. My view on this is let the athlete make mistakes and then see if they can correct themselves before you jump in with solutions, they can watch others and they will start to realise and work it out for themselves. What you say is important and I touched on it with who you say it to, some of the athletes will respond differently to different ways of feedback. It's important you consider the language and content, tutors on coaching courses advise that you try and remain upbeat and focus a lot more on the positives and only touch on the negatives. The language is key to getting the response you want, the way you word the feedback can determine if its going to be effective or not. The last one Is how you say it, the way you say things can impact the athlete immensely, if you tell the athlete what they need to do they haven't learnt anything and will not understand why it was incorrect. It is crucial that the athlete understands why and this can be done by questioning. For example what did you do to get the javelin to go that far? Why did it land there? Tell me how you gripped it?

The best method I use in giving feedback to young children is the sandwich method, you tell them something positive about their performance, then something they need to work on and finally another positive. I have found this helps the athlete stay focused because they feel that they have succeeded and there is progress. One frustrating thing about coaching is trying to tell the athletes to be patient, they want to be the best and throw a javelin for example over a certain distance first time they throw it. I admire their attitude and enthusiasm but sometimes they get downhearted when they don't throw the javelin as far as the elite athletes do on the tele. Therefore this method helps nurture and control that enthusiasm by explaining that there is positives but also areas to work on.

There are 2 main feedback types; intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsic is where the body gives the athlete feedback; for example when I jumped off the board it felt really good. Extrinsic feedback is when something external provides feedback, so for example when the athlete completes their jump they can refer to the results to check if it was a good jump or not. So results, crowd, distance can provide external feedback. When I coach my athletes at my club i try to focus more on intrinsic feedback like; how did that feel? Rather than how far did that go? I find that they can reflect on their own performance and depending on the experience of the athlete they could provide their own feedback. After they have dealt with their intrinsic feedback this can be verified extrinsically via the distance or the results. This sometimes cements the point and helps highlight progression. Extrinsic feedback is used in my coaching to compare results of performances and show progression. For example if motivation is down I will show the athlete past results to highlight progress, I will show results from when they started to latest results to identify how far they have come and improved.

To summarise, when delivering feedback to athletes there are some factors to consider; how you say it, what you say, when you say it and who you say it to. One of the better methods of delivering feedback is to use the sandwich method. This is done by providing a positive on the athletes performance then touch onto a negative or an improvement, then finish with another positive. There are 2 types of feedback which are intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsic feedback comes from the athletes body and extrinsic is external so crowd, coaches and results. Any comments would be appreciated.