WHEN LESS IS MORE

Throwing far isn’t about luck…

it’s about learning how to train RIGHT- in & out of the ring

You work hard…. really hard!

… you spend a ton of time in the weight room and at the rings, but the overall your plan doesn’t seems to deliver as much as you put in- sound familiar?

I hear you, and I’ve been there.

If you are training hard in the weight room, and are throwing far during practice, BUT you are NOT hitting the numbers you want during competition time, then keep reading!

Strength training for maximum results has real complexity.

The Key to success is simplification.

Now that we are in the middle of November, we are in the middle of what is referred to as the “preparation phase” of training in Block Periodization ( that means Off-season Training), we now begin the preseason phase for the shot put and the discus.

My ATN® throwers for the last week have been focused on strength training:

• Perfecting their lifting technique
• Working on addressing specific areas of weakness
• and tying in how these weaknesses in strength levels directly effects their ability to perform their drills correctly

which in turn effects their throw- it’s all connected!

These are the structures of Block Periodization that I cover in our ATN® course: Strength Training and Program Design for Throwers.

Here’s the thing, when we talk about creating training blocks, we need to realize that the body responds better to less stimuli, or rather adapts faster to less stimuli.

If you lift, drill, run, sprint, and do plyos, you are covering all the bases, but what’s better?

Covering all the bases at one time, or covering all the bases over a period of weeks and months?

The research and my empirical evidence show the latter.

This is essentially the crux of Block Periodization.

The Entire focus of strength training for throwers in the TCR® System  is the Central Nervous System (CNS)…

… and using the principles of Pavlov, less stimuli creates a faster adaptive response.

This means, you are better off with fewer exercises, or lifts done with more frequency than a lot of exercises done only once a week.

Where confusion arises is due to the influence of things like the fitness and body building industry creeping into performance training for athletes.

Where terms like “Muscle confusion” creep into the athletic training world.

But here’s the thing,

…  there is no perfect strength training system.

In my experience as a strength & throws coach, what is near to perfect is the principles of Block Periodization.

Essentially it boils down to this…

There is a window of time to focus on:

• Volume to gain size and build a base: i.e. More load in the weight room/ More throwing reps
• Intensity to gain strength: i.e Heavier weight, but a reduction in total weight room volume
• Competition Speed. Throwing far, and working speed in the weight room. Like in the 25-55% 1RM range.

And it’s critical to focus on these items in block.

When you try to do too much at one time, it’s harder for the body to adapt and that’s the opposite of athletic training.

Strength Training athletes is about repetition. Repeating the athletic task over and over to perfect it; programming the body to do it.

When coaches and throwers begin doing their research, they start to see tons of things that can be done to get stronger, and that tends to lead to doing too much in an effort to make sure all the bases are covered.

Block periodization is about understanding how to organize and cover all the bases over a period of weeks rather than days, and simplify, simplify, simplify 😉

Each year, ATN® Club athletes:

• on average,PR  4-5 times a season.
• over 85% of ATN® throwers PR during the championship phase of the season.
• 100% ATN® throwers get stronger, faster and more explosive!

That’s no accident… That’s done by design.

The organization of what to do and when, makes my success more consistent & repeatable.

The TCR® Strength Training for Throwers program allows you to perform at the highest level

When great throwing technique meets a great lifting programming…YOU GET BIG PR’s

• Accumulation.
• Transmutation.
• Realization phases.

….. These are your blocks.

Focus on the specifics goal of each block and you begin to achieve predictable results.

And here are just a few clips of what the various lifts look like.  This video is a few years old, but it’s still a good clip of some lifts and how to coach them…

The key isn’t so much about how much lift at a time, but how you create the training load over time.

That’s the real key to success!

Books I recommend on Block Periodization and sport specific training to add to your TCR® system learning:

• Block Periodization- Vladimir Issurin
• Transfer of Training is Sports-  Anatoliy Bondarchuk

Train Hard, Train Smart & Throw Far

Coach Johnson.