Week 3: Planning Programs

Hi all,

Another week and another basketball based tutorial, I had watched Keith's link to the Jeremy Lin foundation video prior to this and boy could I empathise with young Chris about lacking size and skill.

(Here's the link for those that haven't seen it)

This was the first thing that got me thinking about this week's theme of 'Planning Programs', how would Chris get better if he never got to play? Basketball, like most sports, is a multi-faceted game. One can't simply shoot the ball or have great fundamentals, they must be able to translate those into game situations.
Chris's frustration was with not being able to play with his brother and the older boys and test his skills, but as the video later points out, he wasn't that good and blamed external factors for his problems. Yet he put the work in and later, when circumstances allowed, he showed all of them that he was capable. I'm going to assume that the timespan of this film was one NBA season, with Lin showing up in Preseason and later after the season finished, this allows Chris ample time to hone his skills.

Back to Keith's lecture, and the concept of 'Athlete centred, coach-driven' training. I take this to mean that the focus is on the player to take control of their performance and training with the assistance of the coach.  Each athlete is different and not one coaching strategy is all encompassing.
I take the example of Calvin Smith, 2x World Champion 200 metre runner and once the fastest man alive, after leaving the University of Alabama and coach Wayne Williams, he never sought the help of another coach, simply using the techniques and strategies that Williams had taught him and assumed control of his own training.

The other theme of the lecture that I found interesting was the differing theories on training plans, block training versus linear periodisation and a more conservative approach because that is what had been done before. I take the example of Ivan Abdjiev, Bulgarian national weightlifting coach of the late 60's, 70's and 80's, his approach took a step away from the traditional percentage style training that had been done previously and implemented a wave-like training pattern where his lifters would go as heavy as possible in sessions, this was extremely successful and is now copied by national programs worldwide.

In terms of 'Planning Programs' it all boils down to who the athlete is or what the team is like. Many factors need to be considered before implementing any program and that is what separates good coaches from the rest, they need to be at the forefront of every aspect of the game, psychological as well as physical, and be well versed in all the facets of their sport that is the necessary requirement of building champions.

Next week: Observation and Augmented Information.


P.S. Abadjiev still lifts at 80+ years of age, here's a video of him playing around at training.