One of the sites I stop by regularly, Functional Path Training, has a response to some crazy ultimate player asking for advice on how to prepare for a tournament.
The basics are to create a 9-week cycle of training. This actually approximates some of the Pike track workouts of 06, with some differences. The thing to note, of course, is that the thoughts given by Vern are not in concert with what actually happens near the end of an ultimate season, where, quite often, teams will play 2 (sometimes 3) tournaments a month against quality competition.
One thought on that is that you need to prioritize tournaments in terms of preparation-- playing at ECC/Labor Day/Tuneup/Chesapeake/whatever is NOT as important as Regionals, which, in turn, is not as important as Nationals. So, while some preparation should be given (and more importantly, ample rest afterward) for these tournaments, the focus must be series tournaments.
As the season progresses, I'll be tweaking the aforementioned Pike workouts to incorporate some of the ideas Vern put out there. Generally, his advice is pretty solid, and I think that this will only require minor adjustments to what I've already got planned.
Wednesday, February 14
Thoughts Tournament Training
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2 comments:
You read Gambetta's blog too, eh?
Definitely interesting thoughts, though I imagine he'd have more specific recommendations and thoughts if he really knew what it took to consistently go out and play at a high level.
I'd think in terms of adjustments for multiple tournaments, you could either incorporate a more varied training program, ie having conditioning/ultimate-specific work while emphasizing speed/power in the early goings so your team doesn't die at a tournament in week 3, or just outright stick to a non-periodic program where you work everything at once. Either way, you're not training in a vacuum and have to adjust to the fact that there are tournaments to play in regularly.
Over the summer when I was playing for Chuck Wagon I'd often have to work my training plans around tournaments--I think about halfway through the summer I decided instead of just doing the GPP-type work Crossfit mandated (I did Xfit semi-exclusively over the summer), I'd incorporate some more specific work, plyos and the like, into my warm-up, and it seemed I almost instantly benefited from it on the playing field.
I tried to post a comment to my own blog the other day and I apparently rejected myself. Not good times.
Anyway, the salient points, as I remember them, were:
-- This is more specific to slightly altering the Pike Track Workout of 06 than the overall workout plan. My overall plan will continue to contain elements of different sorts of strength (explosive vs endurance vs maximal etc). Some of the underpinnings of those workouts were exactly what Vern alluded to in his post. Only minor changes, nothing major.
-- Who gives a damn if I bomb in a week three tourney? It simply doesn't matter. All I need from those games is to learn, not to assert my dominance. That will come in the series.
-- I will be tapering workouts to a smaller scale for some of the major non-series tourneys, but not significantly. More likely is that I will plan to have lighter weeks as a scheduled part of the regimen that just happen to coincide with the bigger tournaments.
-- Crossfit is a great website. I feel that I was remiss in not mentioning it earlier.
-- Periodization is relatively minor in my preparation this year. I will alter percentages (As mentioned above) and change from general physical stuff to more sport-specific fitness and speed-oriented work as the time passes. I will not, however, eliminate all general work at any point. You've got to keep everything working if you want to be prepared for anything on the field.
-- I should remind that I do not plan on track-work until late July at the earliest. Then I will hit it in earnest and with dedicated intensity.
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