Getting Started Pt4

What do we do and when do we do it?

I would bet that at least a few of you are taking over a new program, as I’m doing. And if not, it’s likely that most of you are looking for tweaks or upgrades to make leading into this fall season. So here are some quick notes on how I’m getting started here in Korea. I bet a bunch of it will apply to your program.

The three previous parts were entirely paywalled. This one has a free preview, but the specific applications are behind the paywall. Enjoy!

Previous Posts
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The Training “Week”

Most NCAA teams are completing their pre-season schedules and preparing for conference play. There’s some difference between your pre-season or off-season training blocks, your pre-season/non-conference play, and your conference season. Most conferences have some sort of regular rhythm to their in-conference schedule. In NCAA volleyball, Thursday/Saturday either both-home or both-away is a pretty regular rhythm.

My pre-season training camp is approaching the end and I’m preparing for the start of the regular season. Our training camp has a fairly regular rhythm, but the regular season is a bit less regular. Most weeks we play 2 matches, but some weeks we only play one. The most common interval between matches is 3 days, but there’s a lot of 2 and 4-day intervals and a few times where we have a week between matches.

Regardless, I use the same basic approach to build a training “week” or, to be more accurate, training cycles.

High-Low

I’ve discussed High-Low Theory before:

The idea there is that the mid-range of anything is often less fulfilling and useful than the end ranges. I use the same idea for scheduling.

I use High Days and Low Days to organize training here, both for training camp and looking forward to the regular season. What do I mean by High Days and Low Days? Let’s take a look at a few of the factors that could be either High or Low?

1. Training Intensiveness - How hard are you going? My standard here is an important match. An epic practice environment might get you close to the intensity of an important match, but there’s no question that nothing quite replaces the physiological and psychological output of a match. A 6v6 scrimmage in practice is a standard highly-intensive activity, although there’s quite a few methods you can use to get more intensive than that: adding consequences, multiple-ball wash drills, getting super-hyped, etc.

2. Training Intensity - Some of the terms from physiology get a little wonky and technically intensity refers to “% of maximum output.” This is related to (1) but there’s also speed/force factors. Simply put: an activity like maximum sprinting or hitting a spike serve as hard as you can are more intense (in terms of recovery needed) than receiving serve, even if your mental state is like really intense while you’re passing.

3. Training Volume - How much work you do. One 15-point set might be pretty intensive and intense but low-volume. A 5-set match is intense and extremely intensive and the volume will be high, although it’s common for teams to have higher volume in training than even a 5-set match. Your outsides might get set 40 times (and hit another 20-30 balls in warmups) and make 40 block moves in a 5-set match, but I’ve seen plenty of practices where players spike over 100 balls in practice.

4. Learning Environment - A relaxed, exploratory environment in training is going to have a different effect than a hyped-up practice where the team needs to get X Sideouts in Y chances or they have to run. And this can vary from player to player even within the same practice. Your 2nd and 3rd outsides battling in a position tournament might perceive the learning environment of that drill differently than your star OH1. This isn’t a verdict on which learning environment is better, it’s just a commentary on whether the stress is high or low.

5. Energy Systems - Anaerobic training takes longer to recover from than Aerobic training. And in particular, lactic training is brutal on your body. This is why players are keeling over after long rallies. It doesn’t matter how good your conditioning is, you’re wiped after a maximal effort over 40s or so. Also: you might want to reconsider having your players do drills where they are trying to sustain a maximal power output for 40s+. You’re asking for dead legs the next day. This is relevant for strength and conditioning training (probably don’t want to run your team through that sick Crossfit WOD the day before a match) but also drill design.

The common thread here is effect on recovery. The higher you go up the scale in each of these 5 categories, the longer you need to recover. The lower, the easier. Now, imagine a rough partition into 2 buckets:

High Days
Training is intensive and competitive.
Training is high-intensity.
Training is high-volume.
Training is psychologically more stressful and less tolerant of mistakes.
Training is very anaerobic.

Low Days
Training is less-intensive and less-competitive.
Training is relatively lower-intensity.
Training is low(er)-volume.
Training is more relaxed and exploratory.
Training incorporates a bit more aerobic elements.

In this way, we synch up multiple elements: (1) practice environment (2) drill design (3) strength and conditioning so that they are complimentary rather than competing. Okay, let’s look at some specific applications.