Sunday, 24 June 2012

Trampoline Periodization Series: Intro


          Welcome to the first of a series of articles pertaining to the appropriate periodization of a trampoline athlete. There are many ways to periodize an athlete’s training program which is all dependant on their individual sport, the level of the athlete and of course the specific characteristics of the athlete themselves.  Each article of this series will discuss a particular phase of the periodization and list a sample program for an athlete of different levels. To save time I will only write a program each week for a Provincial level 1-4 and a Senior team member.

          First let us define periodization. This is the concept of systematically cycling different aspects of training to develop an athlete for competition.  Eastern block Countries were the first known users of periodization and after the 1960’s the concept migrated to the rest of the world. Periodization is intended for a four year Olympic cycle but has now been passed down to the majority of athletes for use. In the Case of a trampolinist we cannot look at a traditional case of periodization because our sport does not allow for it. Well, you can do a traditional style but most likely you will not get the same results. So what is a traditional style of periodization? It is the concept of going through a number of different phases in a yearlong training program and repeating these phases periodically.  Anyone that has done a wide range of sports understands that many sports allow for a significant time off, sometimes lasting a few months that consists of no training at all. Sports such as hockey and basketball do not have very long competition seasons and a lot of their preparation for games is done before the season even begins. Anyone who has done trampoline knows that if you are a senior team member you are not entitled to this grace period to allow the body to rest and rejuvenate. Our competitions basically go year round. Unlike a hockey player for instance we do not get an entire summer off before a gradual training stimulus is reset for the following year. Worlds is held in November and first qualification is usually sometime in January. This gives the athlete around 1-2 months to be ready to compete a high difficulty for the following year. I wonder who devised this competition schedule.  So this leaves a trampolinist with no real “off-season” and traditional periodization is based on the fact that you do not compete year round, so let’s find another method.
Linear Periodization

Figure 1: This is the traditional model of periodization. You can see the inverse relationship of volume to intensity which I will talk about later in the series.

           A trampolinist needs to be in top shape almost all year long. This of course cannot be the case, at least for most of us. This is why the first few qualifiers tend to be very sloppy at least for the seniors. A provincial athlete does have a long off period because while the seniors are constantly doing routines in preparation for worlds, provincial athletes have an entire summer and fall off with an invitational here or there. Some ask, “why don’t they just put all the world cups in a month or two and get it over with in August?” Well one reason could be because the few athletes that have to go to all of the world cups will not get any time at home for a life outside of the sport. In the case of let’s say baseball or hockey the teams generally stay within North America and find it easier to travel. Most world cups are in Asia or Europe and this can be quite a hassle for the athletes of Canada and the USA if they were to have 4 world cups in a space of 2 months.  So how can a trampolinist stay in tip top shape 90% of the year and still achieve results? It is a periodization plan that is not very common that comes to the rescue. This periodization plan requires the athlete to be at peak mental state within a month in between competitions and sometimes a week.
The general idea is that a senior trampolinist goes through every cycle of the year long periodization, every week.  Normally the different phases such as “Speed”, “Strength” and “Hypertrophy”, etc. fit somewhere into the above phases in figure 1 at the bottom of the graph. A senior trampolinist will have to train for every aspect of their sport every week so that certain aspects do not decrease. Once one area is weak either the other areas will follow suit or an injury will occur.  The aspects that are important to a trampolinist are as follows:
11)      Basic Strength
22)      Max Strength
33)      Hypertrophy
44)      Endurance
55)      Power
66)      Flexibility
77)      Mental techniques

          These seven phases need to be focused on regularly for an athlete to have the proper “off-trampoline” mechanics that will allow him or her to achieve on the trampoline. A provincial athlete will be able to focus more on these phases during their larger off season. In this Series I will be focusing on the program plan for each one of these phases as it pertains to provincial and senior athletes and am going to go into detail of how athletes and coaches can benefit from this form of periodization. Article 2 of the series will talk about the “Prepatory Phase” also known as “Basic Strength”.

ThanksJ

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