One of the reasons (read excuses) we are hearing from more and more international coaches is about fatigue, either through long seasons, crazy travel requirements or even ‘hotel fatigue’.
It is not a new topic and contrary to popular belief, it is not only limited to top, professional athletes either.
The purpose of the this column is to share experiences and studies I have done or attended in the past – not only to help you understand issues better, but also possibly to help you with your own training schedule and performance even if it is just with social groups or teams you are involved with, or perhaps a team or athletes you are coaching, or even if it is your son you are trying to help reach optimum levels of fitness and conditioning.
There are many things which contributes to burn-out or athletes not performing at their peak when it really counts. Also it is quite important in a contact sport like rugby where injuries are part and parcel of the sport.
The idea for any athlete or coach, at any level to adopt strategies and methods to limit risk, and in this case the risk of player burn-out, underperformance and injury.
Traditional training principles usually covers things we all already know. Things like intensity, frequency, periodisation and overload are all common in these theories and applications, but the one I want to discuss is ‘Dose-Response’ training.
It is best described in an analogy where when someone is sick, he will go to a doctor, the doctor will prescribe him medicine and the medicine will come with instructions on how to use and for how long.
The ‘Dose’ will be; ”Take 2 tablets twice a day for 5 days”. Now just in this you already have intensity, frequency and duration (some training principles). Now assuming the diagnosis and ‘Dose’ is right, the response (result) is you are cured from whatever you suffered from.
If you however deviate from the dose, only partial treatment is achieved and similarly, if you overdose there are other dangers that come into play – the ‘Dose-Response’ theory works in the same way.
The athlete is unfit, that is the ‘illness’. Training is the dose and performing at their or your potential is the response.
Now of course practically you need to assess your fitness and performance levels to ensure you are not ‘overdosing’ or training too little to achieve your desired results. This is more difficult to assess and will also differ from athlete to athlete as some might take longer to recover or rest than others, but can easily be judged or assessed if you keep a complete record of your training schedule and improvements as you go along.
Certain athletes will also put more emphasis on certain aspects of their body in respect to their position or characteristics of their sport and/or role in a team like a rugby team, so it is vital that you set benchmarks for yourself which is achievable, but also challenging.
(Position specific benchmarks for pro-rugby players is available on request)
Most importantly however is that you keep a detailed record of your training and performance over the period of your program.
Of course in setting goals you will need to ask yourself a couple of questions before you work out your schedule. Questions like these might include;
• If this is my training schedule over the next couple of months, what level of performance could I expect to achieve at that time?
• What training do I need to undertake to achieve a certain level of performance by a certain time?
• I need to peak on a certain date in the future. How should I plan my training to achieve this result?
• I have several competitions on various dates, how should I plan my training so as not to unduly compromise performance at any one of them?
• This has been my training schedule over the last several months. What will happen if I begin tapering now?
• In order to obtain optimum performance on a certain future date, when would be the best time to train hard, and when would it be wasteful?
Of course knowing what to do is quite difficult. Just saying I want to run 20km or be able to do 20 pull-up’s is not good enough – you need a more scientific approach and specific measure that has been devised is something called TRIMP (TRaining IMPulse). Here is some of the essential features to implement and follow the ‘Dose-Response’ theory;
• Regular training induces both fitness (which is good for performance) and fatigue (which is bad for performance). Of course, periods of no training cause both fitness and fatigue to decline.
• Good performance occurs when fitness is high and fatigue is low relative to each other.
• Fitness reacts more slowly than fatigue both when you train regularly and when you take a rest period. This, therefore, is the central principle around which an athlete’s training schedule is managed. Different athletes have different rates, which make things awkward for team training.
• To discern these rates for any individual requires a period of closely monitoring their training dosages and their performance levels. Analysis of the resultant data will yield these rates, but specialist software is required.
• Starting from an unfit state, heavy training initially produces a short-term decline in performance before improvements are seen.
• The time course for thorough adaptation stretches over several months, and a saturation level can be detected in many individuals after about five months.
• For optimal performance, a short period of abstaining from heavy training is essential. We know this as tapering and the resulting improvement we call peaking.
• Bouts of heavy training with longer rest periods between them seem to be better than training a lesser amount every day. Optimal performance is improved and the overtraining risk seems lessened.
• These ideas have been researched and proven in practice, but the effort required is not trivial. They have yet to produce a world champion!
To reach your peak at your desired time requires intense monitoring of training loads to ensure you are not under-prepared or unfit or that you over-extended yourself. The above however will give you a scientific base for monitoring and implementation.
The practical aspects of this should also be very clear. This means that you should;
• Develop a more scientific means of recording the volume of training that you undertake. (Position specific in-season, pre-season and off-season programs can also be requested)
• Keep this accurate and up-to-date.
• Use this to know when it’s been (or needs to be) heavy and know when it’s been (or needs to be) light. (You would usually have two different alternative training sequences or sessions which you could follow each day and depending on how your body recovered you can switch between the two.)
• Use it to plan both training sessions and rest intervals.
• Recognise that you cannot perform optimally week-in week-out.
• Recognise the importance of rest: between training sessions, just prior to competition events, and on occasions through the season.
So there you have it, maybe the ‘Dose-Response’ training method will help you, your team (or son) or just a social team you support, train and perform better – hey one of you might just become the next Bok coach and it’s my duty to help you prepare!
**The original theory and studies were tested and published by Prof R. Hugh Morton of the Massey University. The ‘Dose-Response’ theory was initially studied for individual athletes but through the courses I attended and materials now available it has been adapted to work in team sports like rugby. Additional references or material available on request.
142 @KingPaul – ja, ek het gehoor Jack wou baie graag die CB wen, maar hy kon dit nie ‘n dag langer uithou met Luke nie. Die laaste strooi vir hom was glo die manier waarop Luke die wedstryd laas saterdag gehanteer het teen die BB. Jack het glo gesê: “Luke is seker die slegste skeidsregter waarmee ek nog te doen gehad het, aangesien sy fluitjie (Pro Legoete)net heeltyd eenkant toe geblaas het.”
@grootblousmile – Al wat af is is julle 😉
As die Bokke wil 3N kampioen wees, en oor 2 jaar WB kampioene, dan moet hul ‘n wedstryd kan wen soos saterdag s’n. Dit is so maklik soos dit.
My groot bekommernis is net dat daar ‘n paar spelers is wat nie heeltemal reg is nie, veral Spies en Habana. Ook nie gelukkig met die feit dat Januarie op die bank is, en nie WO nie. WO met sy dodelike verdediging sou baie beter opsie gewees het.
Nogsteeds glo ek die Bokke gaan dit maak.
Middag, iemand tuis ?
154@bdb –
ek weet nie,
ek dog jy’s by die hys!
King Paul,
I reckon the reason why GBS is out of sorts today is because he frequented a seafood restaurant last night and promptly pulled a mussel.
Should change his name to Grootblouhamstring…or something like that. 😉
155@Ashley – nei man, ek praat van hierdie ruppie-hys !
Eish, hier gaan amper so min aan op hierdie blog vanmiddag, as wat daar die afgelope 8 jaar in die WP se trofeekas aangegaan het …
OK, got to go. I’m like the butcher who accidently backed into his meat grinder. I’m getting a little behind in my work….
159@fender –
lmao!!!
@bdb – @bdb – 151
158
Jy was maar stil sedert verlede Saterdag. Het jou kitaar se enkel snaar Saterdagmiddag gebreek?
Lyk darem of jy hom nou met ‘n knoop gelas het – hy sal seker hou tot komende Saterdag middag 🙂
161 @SA Barbarians – nee, my vriend, daar is sommer baie snare wat ek bespeel, soos die 2003-2004, 2006 CB-snaar, en dan is daar die S14 2007 en 2009 snaar. En dan is daar die 75-14 snaar, en dan is daar die …, ens.
Wat ek egter baie vreemd vind, is dat daar ouens is van ‘n sekere span, met ‘n sekere naam wat heeltyd kitaar probeer speel vanaf 2002 … maar hul het geen enkele snaar om op te speel nie … en tog probeer hul musiek maak.
Ek ‘eish’ vir die dag wanneer hul wel ‘n snaartjie bykry, dan gaan ons nooit die einde van die geraas hoor nie.
🙂
@bdb –
Ons kan note hou!!!
162@bdb –
lol, skerp ben, skerp!!
😆
Ons hettie snare nodig op ons kitaar nie….. ons slaan sommer die kitaar !
@grootblousmile – Grootblouhamstringmosseletendekitaarslaner
167@isigidi –
of
grootblouwounogdiemosseleettoeslaaphyalkitaarslaner?
166@isigidi – Dis ‘n groot mossel se mondvol daai !
@bdb – Jy weet dan.
165 @grootblousmile – GBS, ek hoop nie my voorgevoel is verkeerd nie, maar ek dink ons spanne gaan jou gelukkig maak saterdag. Die A-span gaan help saam met die ander bokke om die 3N huistoe te bring, en die B-span gaan op Loftus die seisoen draai in een enkele wedstryd.
“The time has come …”
167@Ashley –
Ek wou nie maar ek moes
toe vat ek aan haar……… magie
(my arm was te kort)
@bdb – 162
Maar waaaa’s die 2008 S14 snaar dan?
Geen wonder dis so grof op die oor nie – jy moet AL die snare strum 🙄
@bdb – So die Bulle het 2 keer verloor verlede Saterdag?
“The time has come….to say your prayers” Diesel en Dust Midnight Oil
170@bdb – Kyk, ek is ‘n ewigdurende optimis…. maar ek het ‘n lastige gevoel oor die Bokke vir Saterdag…. ek dink die All Blacks is hongerder as die Bokke…
Hoop ek is verkeerd !
Wat die Bulle aanbetref…. moeilike game om te call….. damn blerrie moeilik.
I notice the fatigue levels on this thread have suddenly improved, Morne?
@grootblousmile – 174
‘n Paar moeilike games om te call die naweek
@fender – Mmmmmmmm……I wonder?………
172@SA Barbarians – WP se storie die afgelope dekade….
Ek speel kitaar
op my een balhaar
ping sê die snaar
..en af is die haar
@SA Barbarians – Yip, I reckon the WP win is the easiest.
176@SA Barbarians – Ja, moeilik… maar WP is amper altyd die Staat se “bogey-span”…. so ek dink om op Bru ‘n WP wen te roep
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