Structuring Your Own Training Program, Part 3
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Loading ...Supplemental work, in my mind, refers to work or mini-workouts that you do in addition to your normal routine(s).
This can refer to grip training, for instance–not enough to be called a “workout” in its own right, really, but it goes great as a finisher after a lifting session. Other things you might consider supplemental work:
- Forearm work. Slightly different from grip, but also very important for putting good snap on your throws. Think forearm curls, with the palm facing towards or away from you. Think wrist rolls, and bar twists (with extra leverage as you improve–hold the bar further and further off-center). A good ultimate player, more often than not, has well-developed forearms, or at least one on his throwing arm.
- Core work (but see here for a discussion of what core training really is, and give some thought to the work you’re doing)
- Single-leg work (this can make its own workout as well, but things like stability ball squats, while good for balance/proprioception/etc, generally tend to be followed with heavier/more intense work)
- Working on your weaknesses, for instance your posture–lot of fun reading to be had there, if you’re interested…otherwise, short version–you probably need to do more external rotation work for your shoulders and develop range of motion in your hips and thoracic spine so you can stabilize your lumbar (core) more. The latter range of motion comes from practicing proper squat form (I opt for olympic style squats more often than not–the extra range of motion and getting more strength from less weight both mean fewer injuries in the long term). If you’ve been benching for years and years and your back is lacking as a result, you might consider doing pull-ups or rows to try and deal with it as supplemental work (ie, a little every day) rather than as a part of your regular workout.
- Practicing lifting technique. Seriously. If you haven’t squatted or deadlifted before, practicing the form should precede any lift, and you should start light–and even after you’ve gotten a good hand on either/both, a bit of extra work on the range of motion will only help. Similarly, if you’re looking to get into olympic lifting (check snatches and the clean & press on the crossfit exercises page), practicing the form before you get into working out proper will go a long ways towards keeping you healthy.
- This also refers to recovery work…foam rolling, yoga, whatever suits your fancy. I call it “supplemental” but really it’s pretty essential stuff to do if you’re at all serious about your performance and health. Stretch before bed.
As for overtraining…this ties in to doing recovery work. Keep in mind that “overtraining” has become something of a buzzword to be avoided in fitness these days, but that overtraining (or, rather, over-reaching) can and should be part of any good exercise plan–you have to push your body beyond what it’s used to if you want to see good results. The trick is not to over-reach for too long–that’s when the physical symptoms appear, your testosterone level drops, and you start to see symptoms like mild depression, a loss of motivation, and a decrease in training returns, all of which can take weeks or months to adequately recover from. Again, the occasional period of under-reaching–intentionally doing less than you are capable of to give your body room to recover and grow–will go a long way toward ensuring you aren’t taken down for the count by overtraining. PLAN on under-reaching and recovering. And be willing to be flexible if your body tells you to back off sooner.
Again, when I talk about over-training I really mean over-reaching, a temporary plateau. If you’re curious about physiological overtraining, which is a treatable medical condition (requiring more than just rest and recovery, though that is also a big part of it), the NYT has a nice article on it you might find interesting.
Finally, applying training more specifically to ultimate. When you condition, seek to incorporate more game-specific work–you’ve surely done drills that involve lots of running along with catching and throwing. That’s the sort of thing I mean.
Outside of conditioning, or outside of using a disc, you can incorporate visualization–seeing game situations; for instance, when you do speed work envision running down on the pull or chasing a huck; when you do plyos, see yourself covering a defender and having to keep quick feet to respond to her, or leaping to sky for the disc. When you do track workouts, consider starting your reps with a quick one-two in the direction opposite your sprint, to emulate the stop-and-go of actual cutting. Practice accelerating from the dynamic positions you will be in in-game rather than the same old starting stance you take every time on the track.
In the gym lifting, you can gear your training more towards ultimate–this flows as a consequence of your goal setting. If your goals include catching or throwing, it would probably behoove you to work some grip work in to your training (stability for your head while running will also help with catching, as I recently posted about).
Structuring Your Own Training Program, Part 2
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...You want to be smart about your training. Again, you can look through my previous summer workout materials for some further guidance to this end–check out my initial summer workout post for an idea of what my training schedule was once like. You can work consistently without overtraining if you’re smart about structure and know when too much is too much. A few guidelines to that end:
-Lifting: If you do body part splits (whether you choose to do this or not should depend on your goals–I always opted for more of a full-body routine), you can work on back-to-back days; otherwise give yourself a day away from lifting between heavy lifts (anything taxing on you in terms of focus–conditioning work with light weight, while taxing, does not burn you out for lifting the next day).
-Conditioning: Depending on the extent and intensity with which you condition, you can do this almost every day. I’ve often found a good conditioning workout to be the perfect panacea to DOMS the day after a taxing lift. As a matter of fact, I would heavily recommend throwing some GPP in following your lifts–it’ll get your body working in new ways as different muscle groups are still recovering from the efforts of the previous day, and in my opinion this allows you to work through some deficiencies you might not have been compensating for when at 100% strength. Ironing out the kinks will make you that much better when you do get back to full strength. Note that DOMS has not been shown to have any actual adverse effects other than being uncomfortable–work out and work through it, and force your body to improve.
-Plyos: In contrast to conditioning, Plyos should be done on a more conservative schedule. While you can always power through a conditioning session, “powering through” plyos usually means piss-poor form and an increased injury risk (the same is true for lifting heavy–don’t wait playing “how much is too much” with yourself; be proactive and protect your body instead). Do plyos when you’re fresh. This includes speed work, and really heavy lifting (we’re talking 1 rep max and stuff in the <3 range). DOMS is not a complete nonstarter here, but make sure you can focus enough to work though it--sometimes it can sap your focus, and other times the DOMS is a sign of some fatigue and it really is a nonstarter.
Do plyos/speed work either immediately before your lifting, or immediately after (if you’re not killing yourself lifting–this allows you to take advantage of the complex effect whereby the shortening of your muscles from lifting allows for generation of more explosiveness. Again, make sure you’re fresh enough to really focus on what you’re doing–the nervous system is the primary beneficiary of this sort of training, and it won’t learn if it’s too fatigued.
-Overall Structure: You can power through 4 or 5 (or potentially more) days of hard training a week for a good while, but without proper focus on recovery you’ll find yourself plateauing before too long. A couple good ways to ensure your body is getting enough recovery to deal with cumulative fatigue buildup include doing proper flexibility and recovery work (massage, yoga and the like–activities that are lower-impact and generate bloodflow) on your off days or following workouts, and every so often (once every 4 to 6 weeks–this will vary depending on how much training experience you have, and generally gets shorter as you get more experienced and can therefore work with more intensity per workout) inserting an “off” or “recovery” week, where in lieu of the usual intense workouts, you give your body a bit of a rest. I don’t mean taking the week off entirely, I mean instead of lifting super-heavy, lifting a little lighter for significantly reduced reps/sets–don’t tax your body to the limit, merely rev it up and then ease back down to normal mode. Condition, but condition for half as long or with less intense exercises. Plyos, use your discretion–if you notice your vertical falling, for instance, you might leave them be entirely and give your body a true break there. The idea, as with recovery activities, is to get the blood flowing more than to push your limits. In so doing you give your body room to adjust to the stress that’s been placed upon it, and you’re likely to find that you come back much stronger/faster/more explosive the next week.
Additionally, to avoid mental burnout taking an actual off week every couple months is not a terrible idea. Remember that it’s recovery, not work itself, that makes you stronger–so while you can and should work your ass off, if you do so consistently you should know that a bit of down time will do more good than harm.
-Finally: TRACK YOUR PROGRESS. As with goal setting, this is absolutely essential. Think of program design, in its entirety, as a big blueprint, the workouts themselves as the construction, and tracking of progress as quality control (or as a foreman). If you’re not checking to make sure the blueprint is being adhered to during construction, how can you be sure you’re going to get the intended result? Goal setting and program design give you an initial heading…keeping a workout log gives you a map of where you’ve been and where you’re going. Getting a little metaphor-heavy here, but you get my gist.
Next Saturday, look for a third and final post touching a bit on supplemental work, overtraining, and ways to apply your training more specifically to ultimate.
Cutting Thought: On Being the Primary Cut, and Not Cutting
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...Jim Parinella lays it out in simple terms that belie his wisdom (emphasis mine):
Individually, cutters today may give themselves two options and make a hot read, but it’s not that hard to pick up from the sideline who the first and second downfield cutters are going to be from the way they set themselves up (or the way the others take themselves out of the way). When not in the play, I often try to mix it up by acting as if I am the primary cutter, but definitely not every time.
Simple, but potent. This is similar to something I’ve done as a cutter for a while now. Cutting is as much about fooling your defender as it is about flat-out beating him, and one man’s cut is enabled by the work of six others making space for him to have a play.
The value of confusing the defense’s expectations is rather large for the offense. Wiggins gets the value of a predictable offense to the defense:
…[Truck Stop has] an extremely efficient offense, but one that basically keeps their players in their strongest positions for the entire game. Advantage; they are always using their strengths (Moldenhauer going deep, Morgan cutting, McComb handling, etc). However, this does make it easier to match up in important, late-game points; you can adapt your matchups to focus on the places on the field that they are going to be.
(And you can poach intelligently if you know who the playmakers are and aren’t).
One strategic notion that I think is very undervalued and underutilized is to use variety in offensive options to keep a defense guessing and continually exploit their weaknesses. Seigs was (and is–any Dartmouth O guys from last year read my blog?) probably the best play-caller I know because he takes efforts to use the variety of options an offense has and uses–just varying the 3-4 (in terms of who’s cutting in a given 7, which 7 are on the line in the first place, who’s the 3 and who’s the 4) on a semi-regular basis allows you to put rested legs on display and potentially exploit the weaker defenders on the opponent’s team. What good does a stud defender do if she’s out of the play?
Similarly, if you’re being covered by Stud Defender or Lane Poacher, keeping her busy thinking you’re the immediate threat when you’re not is a big part of “making space” for your teammates. And the converse–making her think you’re out of the play–can be valuable for setting up opportunity cuts when the look to help elsewhere.
This is especially important in spread offenses, which are designed to create isolations and use the matchups advantageously. If you man knows you’re not in the play right now and can drop off to poach, it’s killing your team’s offense. If you’re not going to set up and act like you’re about to cut, at least force him to keep repositioning or looking to you instead of the play–things like a slow jog to his blind spot, with the occasional start-stop (like you’d see a base stealer do during pitches to throw off the pitcher/catcher)…demand attention, and if it isn’t given to you…go where they ain’t, and get the disc.
Think about the opportunities that are created (and taken away) by your opponent’s attention on an ultimate field (if you’re really thinking, you could extend this to disrupting a team’s sideline help, too–but don’t be a douche), and strive to use that as much as you would use their acceleration or your patented drop-step shoulder juke.
I <3 Gwen Ambler. Or, What Kind of Handler/Cutter are You?
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...More often than not, I find myself completely agreeing with what she says, and there are some great gems in her bit on subbing:
Divide your handlers up into groups of those who generate offense with their throws (big breaks and/or big hucks) and those who generate offense with their legs (effectively get the disc up-the-line and are always open for resets). You’ll want some players from each category on every line.
Divide your downfielders into groups of those who can get open with jukes off of a stopped-disc and those who are great at getting open in flow with timing and filling spaces. Again, you’ll want some players from each category on every line.
The whole issue on subbing is a great opportunity to apply a new lens to yourself as a player: how would somebody in charge of subbing view your abilities? Gwen’s bit here touches on it the most explicitly, I think…what kind of player are you? Do you create offense or augment offense? Are you a big playmaker or a solid contributor? How versatile are you, offensively, defensively? What are some flaws that might lead to you getting less play time (e.g., lack of height/athleticism/conditioning, inconsistent throws in the wind, an inclination towards high-risk shots, etc)?
What kind of player do you want to be? If you’re a coach or a mentor for other players, what kind of player do you see them becoming/what kind of player would make them the most useful? The notion of subbing also harkens to making cuts and forming your team’s identity and strategy in the first place. Lot of good stuff to consider for anybody who fancies themself a team leader/decision maker.
Structuring Your Own Training Program, Part 1
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...This is far too deep to be covered in a single post.
But perhaps you’re interested in training and have been looking through some materials. There’s an absolute shitton of resources out there. Some of it’s crap, some of it’s useful–you can learn by doing and you can also cull wisdom from that which is repeated throughout many sources (usually–sometimes bad advice gets repeated. Use your discretion).
The big question, however, is how exactly do you go about structuring your training? I’ve already touched upon the essentials of this when I wrote about goal setting. If you haven’t set your goals, stop reading right now and figure them out. Honestly, if you don’t know what you’re working towards you’re just going to waste your time more often than not, unless you have somebody like a coach or a team to make goals for you. However, even those are not guaranteed to be in line with what you want, however, so take some time and think about it for yourself, too.
Structuring your training is like building a house. Your goals are the foundation upon which your progress will eventually be built. You can try building with a shitty foundation, but it’s likely to look pretty shitty when it’s done and be nothing close to what you expected, and will fall apart as easily. Get ‘em right–you can always refine later, but do it as well as you can from the get-go. Don’t be afraid to set ambitious goals; know that they can serve to motivate you more than setting no goals will.
Once you have your goals, you’re ready to plan. Where do you start from here?
Look at your goals. Let’s take a look at mine from two summers ago and use that as a framework:
.1. Eliminate Ankle/Knee woes
If you have pressing injury concerns, this should be at the forefront of your planning. For me, my ankle and knee issues were enough to limit how hard I could train in more general terms, limiting my range on squats for instance. I added a lot of single-leg work geared toward strengthening both, and TOOK CARE OF MY BODY. Get enough rest. Ice when it swells. Take ibuprofen if necessary. Braces are a question that depends on your needs–if you really need it or really need to perform now, go for it. Otherwise, aim to wean yourself off of it–even if you still feel compared to wear a brace, say, when playing, if you can get comfortable training without it you’re that much less likely to have the brace fail you as a sole support.
Injury prevention work means doing (pre)habilitation work before every workout. Even 5 or 10 minutes will help keep you from overdoing it and setting yourself back. It also means flexibility work. More on that later.
2. Get into “Better Shape.
These are covered in more detail in the actual blog, but whatever your general fitness goals are will determine what direction your training should go in. Of course, a balanced program is best–one that doesn’t focus on strength to the point of sacrificing conditioning, etc. But keep in mind what your current needs are as well–sometimes a bit of sacrifice to shore up your weaknesses (or further augment your strengths) will ultimately lead to better results.
If your goals tend towards the explosive (ie, improving your vertical), you should focus on plyos. HOWEVER, focusing on the plyos alone won’t do it unless you’re out of shape–your absolute potential for being explosive is limited by your strength, so you should also include strength work. If you can’t squat your bodyweight, you shouldn’t be doing plyos. If you can’t squat at least 1.5 times your bodyweight, you shouldn’t be doing exclusively plyos. If you can’t squat 2x your bodyweight, you should not be doing too much of the really high-impact plyos (one-legged depth jumps and the like). Just trust me on this one, unless you want to shell out $40 for the VJDB to get the same info.
If your goals are more grounded in strength (this is often in addition to other goals), hit the weights. It’s a little beyond the scope of this entry to go into that in too much detail–but if you’ve never lifted before (and I mean on a regular basis–if you’re trying to structure your own program without knowing how and are reading this, you probably haven’t lifted in the way I mean), start with a focus on the basics–squat. Deadlift. Bench (if you’re inclined–and balance it out with some rows). Work in one-legged versions of the first two and a one-armed version of the last one. Train your core. I touch upon a bit more detail here as far as rep schemes go…if you’re in doubt, try 5×5. If you’re still learning the motions, go lighter and try for 3×8 or 3×10. Shoot for a total of between 20-30 reps (not counting warm-ups if you start light) on a given exercise in a given workout.
If you’re going for GPP (known by most as “conditioning,”) you have a lot of options. Crossfit is a great source of workouts (and workout resources–check out their exercises page!). You know what a conditioning workout is like–work hard, rest little, get better. The key is to make sure you can either time your workout or do it with a time limit for number of reps/distance covered/etc–in this way you can track your progress.
So, your goals are the foundation. The exercises are your tools. When you know generally what kind of exercises/workouts you want to do (finding them is where the research comes in–check out the exercises page of Crossfit, and give T-nation a scouring (search for squat, deadlift, bench press, and dig a little) if you need help with coaching–or better yet, find somebody who knows what’s what and learn from them. I’m talking somebody you pay, or somebody who shows the results of their own work–your roomate probably thinks he knows how to squat, but just dips his butt a few inches), how you combine your exercises into workouts and place them throughout the weeks and months provides the framework for your improvement. This is perhaps the trickiest part to master.
Anybody can go in to the gym and dick around for an hour or two every now and then. The reason why you set goals in the first place is because it is from this foundation that you can draw your motivation, and motivation is absolutely essential if you’re going to consistently work on the house that is your body and your athletic potential and make progress.
Next Saturday I’ll finish by talking more about specifics to how each component of training should be incorporated into a larger structure.
In the meantime, allow me to insert a plug for Ross Enamait. Quite frankly, my experience with program design is driven in large part by information I’ve gotten from his Infinite Intensity program. I recently purchased Never Gymless to guide my training here in Japan, and it has been equally helpful. Ross gives very broad guidelines and a number of specific exercises for you to pick and choose from (and a sample 50-day program if you’re a sheep and don’t want to bother to think for yourself–I’m not judging you, I swear), all of which are likely to do far more to enhance your training than my ramblings. The dude doesn’t pay me to give him shoutouts (Hah! Like I get enough traffic to warrant such a thing), this is just me speaking from my own experience.
What’s the only thing more intimidating than one guy sprinting down on the pull?
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...Field Sense
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...This thing called “field sense” is, at it’s most basic level, an awareness of space–of open space on the field, motion into and out of space, and what I’ll call “closed” space where there’s congestion or for whatever reason the space is not directly relevant to the motion of the disc.
I’ve already talked about this a bit in the context of anticipating on defense–the “intuitive sense” I refer to is what we tend to call field sense.
How does one develop this intuitive sense? Look here for a nice perspective on the matter (originally found this through Parinella’s blog, by the by). It’s hard to teach, but something that can be developed and intuited with time. You can, of course, offer guidelines to guide this development–your team’s offensive or defensive structure, a player’s progression of looks, etc. But I agree with the premise of the article–loose, free-form play is one of the best ways to develop field sense.
At Dartmouth, we play boot (apparently the San Francisco variation). I’m not going to say it’s directly responsible for the development and success of some of our players…but I will say that the ’08s played a lot of boot over our four years at Dartmouth, and this year our handling corps was anchored by those same ’08s–and any team we played against can attest to the degree of chemistry our handling corps had this year.
Play. Please don’t just play ultimate, either! Boot is a wonderful small-group game. I’ve heard hotbox, goalty, and mini are also very popular, and all encourage the sort of fast-paced free-flowing decision making that you don’t get nearly the same exposure to over the course of an ultimate game. Experiment. Develop a feel for what works and what doesn’t and what you might want to look for. Know what you want, and then find it.
More off of the regularly-scheduled track: Crossfit
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...The Crossfit Journal has been revamped. All of their materials are being made available to subscribers ($25/year–I’m subscribed, FYI), but you should also give the basics section a look–there’s some pretty good information to be had there and a lot of those articles are free regardless. Make sure you download the full article on the right if you find anything of interest.
(Dartmouth folk, if you can’t download something, shoot me an email and I’ll get it for you. Non-Dartmouth folk…well, you can ask).
