Professional Documents
Culture Documents
O4 Notes
O4 Notes
O4 Notes
● Aerobic Training:
○ Continuous / uniform
■ Continuous training involves non-stop exercise for a set period of time or
distance
● E.g. rowing, cycling, running, swimming, kayaking
● Team sport athletes go for a 10km road run to build aerobic
endurance
○ This run would be a ‘steady state’ activity at 75% of max
HR
○ Fartlek training
■ Continuous exercise interspeed with ‘sprints’ of varying distances
■ Also referred to as ‘speed play’, often involves hilly terrain
● E.g. a 45 min cycle that includes 10 reps of high intensity spurts
for 30 -60 seconds
○ Long interval
■ There are two types of interval training:
● Continuous intervals, which involve low-intensity exercise between
the higher intensity repetitions
● Stop-start intervals, which have a prescribed rest period between
repetitions
■ Interval training is an excellent way to improve aerobic fitness
■ Manipulating the duration, number and intensity of repetitions, as well as
recovery periods, will provide overload.
■ A popular form of continuous interval is very effective for fat burning and
increasing aerobic power
■ This type of training increases resting metabolic rate
● E.g. include a 15-20 minutes of 30 second sprints and 60-90
seconds of jogging (after a warm up)
● E.g. example of stop-start intervals would be 10 x 150 metre
sprints with 2 minutes of recovery time between repetitions
○ Peaking
■ Athletes cannot maintain peak fitness for long periods of time
■ Athletes in individual sports plan to peak for a particular race or
tournament by working hard on their skills and fitness, then following this
up with a taper.
● These athletes can build up on the foundation they have
developed in the earlier phase of training without having to be
concerned about earlier competition results.
■ This is not the case with team sport athletes
● They have to compete on a weekly basis for a number of months
● It performance is not maintained at a particular level, the team will
have a decreased chance of the making the playoffs.
● This makes it more difficult to plan for peak performance in a team
sport
○ Tapering
■ A taper period is scheduled just prior to an important event or competition
so the athlete will compete in an optimum or ‘unfatigued’ state
■ The aim of the training phases is to give the body time to recover
● From physiological psychological stress
● It also aims to replenish glycogen stores by decreasing training
without causing a detraining effect
■ When designing a taper for an athlete, a coach needs to consider
duration, volume, intensity, and frequency of training.
■ Research recommends decreasing the training volume by 40-60% during
a taper period
■ Best achieved by decreasing the duration and workload in a training
session rather than altering the training frequency
● Example: the only exception to this is elite athletes who train twice
a day - a coach in this case may decide to reduce the number of
sessions per week by a max of 20%
● Greater reductions in training frequency may result in a loss of
‘feel’ in competitive athletes.
■ Training intensity should be maintained, as research has indicated lower
intensities may have a detrimental effect on performance
■ Tapers of 8-14 days have been effective / successful
■ A performance improvement of 3% generally results from an effective
taper - due to the improved psychological, hormonal, and metabolic
status of athletes.
■ An athlete must maintain a high carbohydrate diet while still monitoring
caloric intake
● Example tapering:
○ If an athlete trains for less than 5 hours per week, a coach
does not need to prescribe a true taper - as 1 - 2 days of
prior to the competition will be sufficient for the athlete to
be fully recovered
○ If the athlete trains 6 - 10 hours per week, a 7 day taper
may be sufficient
○ While athletes who train for more than 10 hours per week
may need a tape of 14 - 21 days to enhance performance
○ Sport-specific subphases (fitness components, skill requirements)
● Elements to be considered when designing a training session
○ Health and safety considerations
○ Providing an overview of the session to athletes (goal specific)
○ Warm up and cool down
○ Skill instruction and practice
○ Conditioning
○ Evaluation
● Planning to avoid overtraining
○ Amount and intensity of training
○ Physiological considerations, e.g. lethargy, injury
○ Psychological considerations, e.g. loss of motivation
● Use of drugs
○ The dangers of performance enhancing drug use, e.g. physical effects, loss of
reputation, sponsorship and income
○ For strength (human growth hormone, anabolic steroids)
○ For aerobic performance (EPO)
○ To mask other drugs (diuretics, alcohol)
○ Benefits and limitations of drug testing
● Use of technology
○ Training innovation, e.g. lactate threshold testing, biomechanical analysis
○ Equipment advances, e.g. swimsuits, golf ball