Intro

As a bit of reflective practice I’m going to lay out the pre-season so far with a group of alpine skiers I’ve been working with. I have been motivated to do this partly for a bit of open feedback from anyone reading this, but also out of frustration. There seems to tendency in our field to be very quick to criticise others, PTs in particular get a beating on Twitter from coaches who don’t like their methods. I find this to be negative. I wouldn’t like others doing it to me having viewed one part of my session and would openly invite anyone who has issue with any of my methods to discuss it with me, so please feel free. Hopefully we can start seeing Tweets about how we discussed a particular training method with someone and the outcome of that discussion.

Training plan

Firstly, some context. The skiers in the group are all male, 18-22 years old, have training histories incorporating loaded lifting ranging from 0.5-3 years, are national level competitors and the only prior injuries amongst the group have been anterior load related knee injuries, and small trauma injuries that are common amongst ski racers.

The layout of the preseason differs slightly among the group depending on when or if they are going to be skiing. Planning is tough as dates are far from set in stone so a rough outline and in depth planning from block to block is the only realistic way to go. I decided to go with 4 week blocks as it’s a layout I’ve had success with it in the past and I like the versatility it offers if we get short notice changes in date. Generally training loads reach a maximum in week 3 and have a large reduction in week 4 of the block. We are currently in week 2 of the third 4 week block which has a heavy strength focus. The previous blocks have had a higher volume with most lifts in the 8-10 rep range aimed at rebuilding tolerance to training and to cement quality in certain lifts that we will be loading heavily on later in the summer. I say rebuilding as, due to accessibility during the season, the guys hadn’t done any lifting in 4 months. The week layout varies depending on time available to train but it’s 3 sessions between Mon and Tues, rest Weds, double session thurs, extended session Fri (coached) and maybe a session Sat with rest on Sun.

At the beginning of the summer we tested 5RM front squats, 5RM bench press and maximum chins. We didn’t 5RM chins as the max range at bodyweight was 4-8, once the quality improves and they can lift added load we’ll pick up 5RMs later in the pre-season. I’m not a massive fan of 1RM testing with these guys, partly because I don’t see it as a necessary measure for the sport, success isn’t dependent on one absolute maximum effort. We also grabbed vertical jumps, counter movement and squat for EUR, as we do at the beginning of the weekly sessions I take with them. We do this to monitor progress and response to training. The idea is to establish norms over preseason that we can use in season to monitor fatigue. I’m also interested in any EUR shift over the season given the heavy eccentric and isometric demands of skiing.

Training content

As for the nuts and bolts, it’s very much a Boyle influenced layout. I like the session density offered and agree with many of the lift options with the heavy emphasis on single leg work. The only difficulty is selling it to the athletes who focus very much on the mass at the ends of the bar, front squats don’t get loaded as heavy as back squats. There was a fear that would effect other testing sessions with national squads across which there are a large variety of tests including 1RM back and overhead squats and a standing on a gym ball for 1 minute test. N.B. no athletes I work with train atop a gym ball. This was discussed with the athletes, they understand the reasoning behind it all and they buy into it.

Sessions start with foam rolling, mobility (particular attention for skiers paid to ankle mobility and lateral squat range of motion with which we’ve started to introduce some band based hip distraction work), activation, warm up and some bodyweight power work, primarily landing mechanics focused at the moment. Most lifting sessions also start with a power oriented lift including Olympic derivatives and there is always a core element to every session with more hip focus on those with the anterior knee issues.

Conditioning work so far has predominantly been running interval based. Work periods have ranged from 30 seconds to 2 minutes with a variety of rest periods. As tolerance increases and landing mechanics improve, we begin more change of direction as part of the training and more frontal plane work, the predominant movement plane for skiing. Where possible we avoid bike sessions as the mechanical differences between that and the sport are great, although we have used some to reduce lower limb loading. Another reason for the fairly simple conditioning work is contact time. I see them once a week for 2 hours and disseminating large amounts of information in that time is difficult. In the coached sessions we usually involve some metabolic work including slideboards, sleds, grappler etc, that makes me feel a bit better about them going for a carvery lunch!

Training review

I’m fairly happy with where we are so far. The original tested lifts are now exceeded for multiple sets and jump heights are nudging up, although I wasn’t anticipating increases until the end of this block due to fatigue. Landing mechanics still need work, particularly single leg and we’ll continue to work on it, although I think some hip adductor tightness is impacting here. Some areas I’ve started to think about as a result of training so far are variety in bilateral lifts and vertical pulls, although I’ll start to address this with eccentrics and band work later in the summer. I’m going try out front loading bulgarian split squats to see how that effects torso angle, potentially a similar way to the back/front squat.

For my own coaching development I’ve been working on my own communication skills by trying to implement some general ideas I picked up after reading Mindsight by Dan Siegel and also increasing the amount, and hopefully quality, of non-verbal communication throughout the session. I do this by allocating periods where I only communicate coaching points non-verbally.

The future

For the rest of the season, we’ll start a transition towards power development using lower load lifts for rate of force development, more plyos and agility work. We won’t leave strength training behind at any stage though and we’ll begin more lateral movements for greater crossover to skiing. The plan is also to utilise the hypoxic chambers available at perform centre where we train once they’re up and running. For my own development, I’m going to work on my word count, limiting the amount I use while I coach, the aim of this is turn me into a coaching sniper rifle rather than a machine gun. Toying with dictaphoning a session or 2 to check on this.

Cool. So I’ve laid it on the line, a bit long for a blog I know. If you made it this far well done and thanks. Feel free to question, critique and suggest. If anyone wants, I’m happy to jump on skype for a chat. It will certainly help me, but hopefully you guys will get something from it and we can continue to progress and grow our field. That will only happen if we engage positively with each other and with those outside of strength and conditioning.

I was in 2 minds as to whether I should write a blog on this subject or not. Partly because a lot has already been said on the subject and I was unsure what else I could add to the debate. That said, there are some aspects that maybe haven’t been addressed.

Firstly I want to leave to one side the unpaid internships directly and talk a little more about what they mean. I’ve tried to take a step back to look at the situation from a little more of a market standpoint. The main point is this: a service or commodity is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. Currently, outside of certain sports, the value that is placed on strength and conditioning as a field is low. That is generally speaking based not solely on elite sport but on general population and clinical fields. Hence there are a limited number of paid jobs outside of those sports.

Now, no matter how much you would like a job in a field, because it is something you are passionate about, that is not what governs demand. It sucks, but that is something that should be factored into your decisions when deciding on what to study. How many people outside of competitive sport or the field even know what S&C is and what a S&C coach does? Why should Joe Public choose a S&C coach over a personal trainer, what’s the difference to them? Until that is clearly understood, nothing will change.

Even if more sports begin to place value on it and create roles for coaches, there are only a finite number of teams and money and therefore a limited number of jobs. The market has to increase in the tiers below pro/elite sport to provide more positions. School, junior, amateur, general public and clinical based S&C are the areas that that growth can occur. But it’s not going to happen on it’s own. Simply complaining about a lack of jobs isn’t going to change anything, S&C has to prove it’s worth, justify it’s existence.

How to do this? It’s tough, marketing is a lot of work and can be expensive. Word of mouth works, but it takes a long time. Should this be something the UKSCA addresses? I think so. But we can all help, by spreading the word and doing good work that gets results and tracking those results. If we can do that as a field, we are in a position to justify payment and qualitatively show people the value of our work.

Looking through the jobs list on the UKsport website it’s easy to tell that it’s strength and conditioning internship season. There are a glut of football league clubs advertising for full time unpaid interns for help throughout pre-season. Funds must be tight at these clubs to not even offer expenses in return for 35 hours + work a week, either that or a lack of respect for the field. That snipe aside, I think this could be the start of a shift in S&C in the UK.

It makes no sense for every football, rugby and cricket club to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds into gym equipment and space for a, what, absolute maximum of 5 weights sessions per week at the busiest time of the season. I see a shift to an outsourcing of S&C provision as a much better option. A number S&C centric gyms exist around the country with much better facilities than the majority of clubs and individuals can afford or design themselves, and this number will grow.

The opportunity for these gyms to offer and allow general public to see and train alongside professional athletes using similar methods would be a relatively easy sell I think. I wouldn’t be surprised if a gym chain with a bit of financial clout looks at this as an opportunity, perhaps a Virgin perform gym popping up. In any case, the club outsources the S&C, if they’re not happy with the service, they don’t renew the contract. No hiring or firing issues and revolving door of back room staff. No investment in equipment needed. Good quality S&C for their teams when they need it, paying for the contact and planning time and no more.