Since the sports season just began, I wanted to reinforce that proper planning for a season or year is not only crucial but essential for a successful sports program.
My worst experience was as an assistant coach in university-level elite swimming, when the head coach told me, “All his plans were in his head.” There was no official training plan document… ever… and “unfortunately, I was not talented enough to read his head (sarcasm here).
From the beginning, I have been well organized and have always believed in proper planning to ensure transparency and accountability.
The Daily Training Plan is a framework that provides general and specific information for professional transparency and serves as a modus operandi in case of liability, with detailed programming and coaching content, methods, age-appropriate exercises, and sound progressions. By the way, I was once an expert witness in a 1 million-dollar lawsuit where negligence (training method) and a lack of age-appropriate planning (no plans) became decisive factors.
Store all seasonal and annual plans in a binder and make them accessible to everyone involved in the program, including club administrators and parents. Additionally, any substitute coach must have access to or a copy of the plan in case the head coach is unavailable due to illness or absence. As mentioned, this provides accountability and transparency in case of legal issues or questions from parents, administrators, or others. Annual and seasonal training plans follow the same framework, with each training segment assigned a specific percentage of the total available workout time.
General Plan Framework
In 2021, the Canadian Coaching Association/National Coaching Certification
Program (NCCP) relabeled the traditional Warm-up and Cool-down as “Pre-training and Post-training phases.”What does this mean?
Plan Segments
The Introduction
Stating and explaining the training objectives and goals for the day.
Pre-training Phase (former Warm-up)
General Movement Competencies
We teach and train general movement competencies, which encompass physical attributes and components (formerly known as general athleticism), based on the Long-term Athlete Development Model (LTAD) and the ABCs of Physical Literacy (Agility, Balance, Coordination, and Speed). Coaches select the most needed or suitable components based on the annual or seasonal cycle. Training general movement competencies includes dynamic moving and dynamic stationary exercises, as well as game-like activities.
Sport-specific Movement Competencies
Here, we teach and train physical competencies essential to the physical and technical skill requirements of the specific sport. Choose activities that incorporate both dynamic and stationary elements, and make sure they are FUN!
Training Session-specific Movement Competencies.
We link the general and sport-specific components directly to the imminent training session to support teaching and training physical or technical skills and drills within it to improve performance. Overall, this is an ‘internal flow’designed to improve training and be more efficient, which allows more time to focus on technique and skill refinement. I have observed these activities as so-called warm-up exercises which had absolutely nothing to do with the training session that followed. Frequently, those rigorous arm circles and swings or jumping jacks are ineffective, and the latter is considered counterproductive. Instead, perform forward-backward stride jumps.
Exercises become counterproductive when their risk of injury heavily outweighs their biomechanical benefits, or when they are executed in a way that actively works against the expected fitness goals.
Main Theme
This is the main training session with physical and technical skill learning/training; reviewing skills; refining skills; new skills or technical training; selected drills and exercises; number of repetitions and sets; volume and intensity.
Post-training Phase (former Cool-down)
This phase helps you ‘come down’ physically and physiologically from the stress of training. It targets the muscles or muscle groups used predominantly in the session and provides practical, functional exercises for limbering down or warming down during the transition from intense physical activity.
It is again designed to further enhance selected general and sport-specific movement competencies and includes additional physical components, such as combinations like strength plus balance or balance plus flexibility, PNF exercises, modified ballet exercises, cross-training activities, etc.
Enhancing Activities
This phase includes activities directed toward mental wellness, such as Progressive Relaxation, Yoga, Pilates, or similar methods, and mental focus and concentration exercises.
Evaluation
The post-training phase closes with the evaluation of the training session. This should occur immediately after the session is finished, as it is the building block for the next session. The evaluation involves several determinants:
Athletes
Coach/Coaches
Session Completion and Success
I developed “The Skills Acquisition Model” to help plan each individual training session and to identify: DNPs (dominant movement pattern of skill[s]; the purpose of skill[s]; biomechanical principles involved; physical attributes needed; prerequisite or lead-up skill[s]; progressions for skill[s]; keywords or cues; variations of skill[s]; creative activity for skill[s]; transfer of skill[s].