Plan Your Lifting Schedule to Peak When It Counts!(Even when the ---- hits the fan)

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Very Common Myths When It Comes to Planning Team Lifting for Throwers

• Not enough time to lift 2 days a week• You should lift heavy all season long.• You should lift for maximal strength at the end

of the year (powerlifting meet)• Impossible to lift when meets are in the

middle of the week or 2 meets per week• Every event, age group, and/or athlete needs

a custom lifting schedule and routine.

The Reality of the Situation is…

• Training twice a week is not only possible, it is easy to do!• Heavy lifting should only be the first third of your season

and the entire pre-season!• Every athlete, no matter what the event, should be lifting 2x

a week.• Lifting the day before a meet is necessary but only happens

during the early meets that don’t actually count for anything.

• Event specific/athlete specific training would be nice but the basics still work the best.– Don’t Major in the Minors!

Unfortunate Circumstances

• There are some things that unfortunately happen during the season that are out of your control (the proverbial ---- that hits the fan).– Sickness, athletes going on vacation, school

breaks, holiday closings, family responsibilities, work responsibilities, religious obligations, bad weather, SATs, graduation, senior events, etc.

• You can’t avoid them, but you can plan strategies for when they pop up.

How to Start Planning to Peak

• Starts the first day you receive your meet schedule.

• Get a giant desk calendar, tear out the months of the season, and tape it to your office wall.– Lots of room to write, it is always in your face,

gives a visual of the ENTIRE SEASON!• Plot in the first day of practice, the last day of

the season, every known school or personal vacation, and every meet you will be attending.

Set Up a Goal Meet

• For the majority of athletes, this is your state championship.

• This is the meet you will be peaking for.– Unfortunately, not everyone will go to the state meet

and their season will end a week or more before the state meet. What about them?• The harsh reality of being a coach! Peak your best athletes

for the biggest meet at the end of the season. Everyone else will improve and hit their season bests because they are trying to keep up.

• Goal for younger athletes is constant improvement!

Count The Weeks and Write them In

• Start counting how many Mondays happen between the start of the season and the last week of the season (include the Monday before the State Meet).– Usually 12-13 weeks in the cold weather states.

• Count backwards and mark the calendar.– Say you have a 12 week season. Monday before

States is week 12. Monday before that is week 11. Monday before that is week 10, etc.

Divide Your Season Into 3 Parts

• Just look at your schedule. Might already be done for you!– Last 3-4 weeks of the season is the

“Championship” time of year– Middle 3-4 weeks is where a lot of the bigger

invites start and the dual meets fizzle out.– First 4-5 weeks of the season there might be

smaller meets and dual meets scattered around the calendar.

PLOTTING YOUR LIFTING SCHEDULE

Plotting Championship Season

• Week of Championship Meet is a Deload week– Very easy light week of basically no lifting

• Week before that is Explosive Week 3• Week before that is Explosive Week 2• Week before that is Explosive Week 1• ***These are the last 4 weeks of your season,

counting backwards, on your calendar. Block these out as the CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON.***

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

MAY 2014

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

JUNE 2014

EXP WEEK 1

EXP WEEK 2

EXP WEEK 3

CH. DELOAD

Plotting the Middle of the Season

• The 4 weeks prior to Explosive Week 1 are the mid season training weeks.

• Week before Explosive Week 1 is Mini Deload• Week before that is Speed Strength Week 3• Week before that is Speed Strength Week 2• Week before that is Speed Strength Week 1– ***These weeks are not pure explosion and not

pure strength, it is a combination to lead you into the explosive phase.***

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30

APRIL 2014

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

MAY 2014

MID WEEK 1

MID WEEK 2

MID WEEK 3

MINI DELOAD

Plotting the Start of the Season

• Week before Middle Week 1 is Max Week• No matter how many weeks you have before

the middle 4 weeks of your season, that is how many weeks make up the start of the season.– Could be 4, 5, or even 6 weeks make up this part

of the season and that is OK (and actually, the more the better!)

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31

MARCH 2014

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

APRIL 2014

START WEEK 1

START WEEK 2

START WEEK 3

MAX WEEK!!!

PRESEASON

PRESEASON

Beginning of the Season

• Based on our calendar, we have 4 weeks:– Week 1 – Basic intro 5x5 lifting– Week 2 – Add more weight, trying to hit 5x5• Maybe on the last few sets you get 4 or 3 reps, no big

deal

– Week 3 – Add even more weight, trying to hit 5x5• Based on week 2, this won’t happen but it will give a

good estimate of your 1 rep max in squat and press

– Week 4 – Max Week – Find Your Actual 1RM

That’s Your General Guideline for the Beginning of the Season.

• Start introducing movements.• Build up strength every week.• Max out the week before the middle of the

season.• Get a good idea of what individual athletes

need to improve upon.

Middle of the Season

• Blending Strength and Speed • I like combining 2 different exercises and

making a “couplet” out of them– Example Squats and Push Press or

Bench Press and Jumping Squats.• Week 1 – 60% Max Squat: 5 sets 6 / Push Press: 5 sets 4• Week 2 – 70% Max Squat: 5 sets 5 / Push Press: 5 sets 3• Week 3 – 80% Max Squat: 5 sets 4 / Push Press: 5 sets 2

That’s Your General Guideline for the Middle of the Season.

• Stick with same base movements (squat and bench).

• Not going to fatigue, sets and reps should be a challenge but not extremely difficult.– Leave 1 rep in the tank.

• Couple each base movement with an opposite explosive movement.

• Move quickly between exercises.

Championship Season

• Focus is on EXPLOSION and SPEED• First Movement of every day is an explosive

movement– I like Jumping Lunges and Explosive Push Ups

• You can pick anything you like!• Jumping Lunges – 5 sets of 5 per leg • Jumping Lunges – 5 sets of 4 per leg• Jumping Lunges – 5 sets of 3 per leg

– Following the explosive movements, finish with compound movements (squats and bench) working with lighter weights leaving a few reps in the tank.

Anything else in the weight room?

• Every athlete needs to do an assistance exercise and an exercise they absolutely hate/suck at to correct a weakness.

• Athlete X: Just completed his squats. Needs to move to an assistance exercise. Coach has assigned walking lunges.

• After walking lunges, coach tells athlete he needs to do core work because he has an extremely weak core. Assigns 1 or 2 core movements.

What About An Athlete With a Strong Core?

• Athlete Y: Just completed his squats. Needs to move to an assistance exercise. Coach has assigned walking lunges.

• After walking lunges, coach tells Athlete Y he has a strong core but very weak hamstrings. Has Athlete Y do Glute Ham Raises.– Every athlete will have a different weakness. Stick

with the same movement to correct weakness for 3 weeks and find another weakness.

Weekly Scheduling

• What days during the week will my team be in the weight room?– If you look at your calendar, you realize you have a TON

of free time.– First day of the week in the weight room is the furthest

day away from a meet that week.• Meet on Saturday, you lift on Monday

– Second day of the week in the weight room is approx 2 days after the first• Meet on Saturday, lifting on Monday, lift again on

Wednesday

Very Easy During Championship Season

• Most meets are on Saturdays– You can keep the Monday/Wednesday lifting

schedule the entire championship part of the season.

– Very similar to a college schedule.– Makes your job as a coach very easy.

DAY OFF LIFTING LIFTING MA TRACK

COACHES INVITE!!

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

DAY OFF SCHOOL HOLIDAY

NO PRACTICE

LIFTING LIFTING MA TRACK

COACHES INVITE!!

Middle of the Season…

• Not always easy.• Most bigger invitationals will be on Saturdays

but some dual meets happen during the week.– Try to schedule around these dual meets

remembering they are pretty much pointless and have no real bearing on the championship season.

DAY OFF LIFTING DUAL MEET

AGAINST WHO

CARES?

LIFTING MA TRACK

COACHES INVITE!!

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

DAY OFF LIFTING DUAL MEET

AGAINST WHO

CARES?

LIFTING MA TRACK

COACHES INVITE!!

Beginning of the Season…

• Most of the meets at the beginning of the season don’t count for anything, so you will more than likely have to lift the day before a track meet every week. – This is OK and is necessary to plan and peak your

athletes for the end of the year.

DAY OFF LIFTING DUAL MEET

AGAINST WHO

CARES?

DUAL MEET

AGAINST WHO

CARES?

LIFTING

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

DAY OFF LIFTING DUAL MEET

AGAINST WHO

CARES?

LIFTING DUAL MEET

AGAINST WHO

CARES?

I’M SO CONFUSED

• Understandably, this looks like a lot, but once the calendar is on the wall, it will take you 15 minutes.– First Day of Practice, Every Meet of the Season– Championship Goal Meet– Count the Weeks and Write Them In– Divide the Season into 3 Sections– Based around meets, plot days you should be in

the weight room.

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