Coaches Corner
by Peter Lawless
November 2001

Introduction

Greetings Sportsfans!

It has been mentioned that perhaps a "Coaches Corner" would be a useful thing to have. Hopefully this will allow more athletes to access coaching services and increase their performance. I hope to put out a new "article" each month and will try to respond to any specific questions in a form that will allow everyone to benefit from both the question and the answer.

My hope is that by the end of the next 12 months we will have covered all of the parts of the athletics season. That way everyone will have been exposed to various training principles and learned how to apply them at different times of the year.

As this first article is being written for the month of November, just after our 2001 competitive season has concluded, it will deal with the switch from one season to the next and then on the things to do at the very beginning of the new season.

By way of background it is important to note that each season is broken down into different phases. Our year would look something like this:

The Preparatory and Competitive phases are further divided into two so that we can focus our efforts a little better. These smaller phases are as follows:

Each of these smaller phases may also be broken down so that at one point our focus may be on building maximum strength and at anther time we may want to concentrate on starting techniques. By breaking things down like this we can make sure we have covered all the things we need to cover and that if we need to get stronger we do it at a time that is most useful in terms of the rest of the season.

Transition Phase - 16 Oct - 15 Nov 2001

From Flatlands until 4 November would be properly classed as our "transition" season. A transition is the specific period in time where we transition for the end of one season (2001) to the beginning of the next season (2002). This 3 to 4 week break is designed so that everyone can get out of their race chairs, put them in the garage and basically let their body and mind recover from all the hard work that has been done for the past 8 - 10 months. This break also allows each of us to reflect on what we liked and didn't like about the past season and ways in which we can improve our performance in the upcoming year.

General Preparatory Phase 16 Nov 2001 - 30 Jan 2002

After this 3-4 week Transition, we move into the General Preparatory phase. This phase is designed to work on an athlete's aerobic base and general strength. Basically you want to "get fit" or improve your general fitness level. You do not need, at this point, to target specific things, such as handspeed etc.

In this phase it is important to work on aerobic capacity and an athlete's strength. It is not essential to be in your chair every day throughout this phase but it is important to be doing a "training" activity every day.

We will break this phase into 2 distinct parts. The first part General Prep Phase (GPP) #1 will concentrate on strength training and run until 30 Dec 2001. The second part, GPP #2, will run from 1 Jan 2002 until 30 January 2002 and be focussed on building your aerobic base.

The most important training activity in GPP #1 is going to the gym. It would be optimum for you to get to the gym 3 - 4 days per week and focus your efforts on building maximum strength. Later in the season we will be using the gym for endurance strength and speed strength but right now the goal is to "get stronger". This is done, in a simplistic fashion, by using small repetitions of high weights (3 sets of 8-12 reps).

There is nothing wrong, at all with being in your racing chair during GPP #1 but your focus should be on the Gym. We have a long season and there will be lots of time spent in the chairs so we should all enjoy our time in gym!

Goal Setting

At this stage of the season it is also essential to figure out what your goals are for the coming year. Do you want to attend every race? Do you want to place in the top 3 in every race? Do you want to qualify for the Olympics or Paralympics? Just like everything else we do we need to have a plan and a big part of a plan is being focussed on a goal.

When you are setting your goals for the upcoming season you should include your "ultimate goal" (ie. Going to Athens in 2004) and then set intermediate goals to help you get there. After you have your intermediate goals set you should figure out what things you need to do in the upcoming season to achieve all these things.

It needs to be kept in mind that it is just as important to set goals that relate to training as it is to set performance based goals.

Finally, when setting goals you should try to be sure that they are achievable, but not super easy.

A final note with respect to setting goals is that it is often very easy to say "I want to win a gold medal" or "I want to come in the top 3 of that race". These types of goals are called "results-based goals". The problem with them is that, no matter how well you perform at the event, if you don't win the race, or place in the top 3 you will feel like you haven't met your goal and that therefore you have not been successful.

A better way of setting a goal is to make it performance based: That is, to set a goal that is achievable in the absence of other people. An example of this would be "my goal is to beat my 2001 Sun Run time by 30 seconds" or "my goal is to improve my 100m time to 81% of the world record". By setting your goals in this way it is more likely that you will be able to ensure you achieve them. The other athletes or participants have no "say" regarding your performance.

For example:

Joe/Jane Wheeler is a provincial level athlete who has been pushing for 3 years. Her/His ultimate goal is to make the Paralympic team in 2008. Intermediate goals include making the National team in 2006; attending the National Team Training Camps from 2002 to 2008 and attending the 2004 Paralympic Trials.

Joe/Jane's goals for 2002 are:

1. to attend every event in the Western Canadian Race Series, the BC Road Race Series and the BC Track Series;
2. to train 3 - 4 days per week;
3. to not miss more than 1 practice a month;
4. to eat properly (according to the Canada Food Guide) at least 6 days per week;
5. to improve his/her average performance to XX% of the world record in a particular event; and
6. To break 30 minutes at the Flatlands 10 k.

Joe/Jane's goals for GPP #1 are:

1 to join a local gym and train there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the whole phase;
2 to ask a staff person at the gym how to best build strength for the next 6 weeks;
3 to push twice a week for 40 minutes at 75%; and
4 to keep his/her training diary up to date.

Conclusion

So we are now in the transition phase and are going to be "transitioning" into the General Preparatory Phase" at the beginning of the new season. The objective during the Transition is to set out, in writing, what your goals are. Take a piece of paper and write out what you want to accomplish in terms of your Ultimate Goal, Intermediate goals, and Season/Phase Goals. This piece of paper should then be kept in your training diary and you should look at it from time to time, to remind yourself why you are training instead of going to the movies with a friend, or having a second piece of apple pie!

The first objective during the General Preparatory Phase is to build up your maximum strength. This means getting to the gym at least 3, and preferably 4 days per week.

By the time GPP #1 starts you should have a very clear picture of what you want to do in this next year and be motivated by those goals to train hard and make the most out of the upcoming season.