11
03
2019

Sports Specific Classes

By admin 0

Do you play Soccer / Rugby / Football / Hurling / Camogie / Hockey or compete in MMA/ BJJ / Boxing and are looking for a competitive edge?

Are you unable to commit to training multiple times per week outside of your sports training?

Are you rehabbing from injury or are you looking to ‘bullet-proof’ yourself and prevent injury?

Well we just might have the answer!

Introducing our Field Athlete and Combat Athlete sessions! These have been in the pipeline for a while and I have been mulling over the best way to run them here since we hosted William Wayland of Powering-Through Performance for a seminar towards the end of last year.

These classes will be designed to offer more specificity for athletes that are involved in sports outside of the gym and also for those that cannot commit to multiple classes per week due to team / training commitments.

The main training methodology used for these sessions will be that of Cal Dietz’ Triphasic Training.

What exactly is Triphasic Training?

In sports or any dynamic movement, there are three (TRIphasic) separate phases – Eccentric, Isometric and Concentric. Each of these have different contraction styles and are programmed differently by the brain. For optimal performance we need to develop a systematic approach to training each phase and maximising adaptation and results.

Why is this important? 

It was through William’s work that I really began to look into Triphasic Training and how it is so applicable for field athletes and especially athletes involved in sports where speed is of paramount importance – and lets face it, that is pretty much all of them!

Most traditional ‘sports specific’ workouts mainly focus on the concentric phase – learning only how to expend energy. Although truthfully, most sports specific sessions that I have talked about with athletes in the past have mainly sounded like circuit classes, so focusing on developing absolute strength would be a start BUT it is not enough. Focusing on building absolute strength alone will have diminishing returns.

On the field, being strong is one thing but generally the athlete that will thrive is the one that can express their strength as fast as possible in the shortest time possible, thus improving the Rate of Force Development! This is essentially the goal of these classes. By training each phase sequentially, the athlete is able to decelerate faster and with improved isometric strength, use this stored force to generate more speed and explosiveness.

The three phases…

Eccentric phase – this helps improve rate of force absorption, which will in turn helps prevent injuries.  Injuries occur when the force to be absorbed is greater than tissue tolerance. This type of loading has also been show to help remodel tissues and help rehab injuries.

Isometric phase – the ability to stop suddenly but also store the energy from an eccentric contraction and use this in the following concentric phase. It is a basic analogy but more developed isometric strength will be similar to bouncing a ball off a hard surface as opposed to bouncing it off a pillow. Which will go higher?

Concentric phase – learning how to express this strength. Being strong is one thing but if the neurologic pathways have not been developed and the stretch shortening cycle not been optimised, the athlete will still be operating on limited potential.

Improving the qualities of the nervous system to process these patterns sequentially, allows for faster and more efficient athletes!

Another advantage of these sessions and training here at SDSC is that there will be coaches in each session to assess your movement in real time. We often get asked to train athletes or teams online but ultimately we prefer athletes training here as it means movements can be adapted and assessed in real time.

It is not uncommon for coaches and managers to ask us to send them a workout for their team but we feel this misses the point of specific training entirely. Each athlete will be different in terms of movement, strengths and weaknesses, exercise history, stress tolerance and then of course there will be different demands for each position.

Whether you are in-season or off-season, injured or not, these classes will be beneficial.

Over the years we have seen teams and individuals make the mistake of easing off their strength and conditioning work during the season and they were essentially de-training themselves and increasing the risk of injury. It is far more beneficial to keep the training intensity high and the volume down if and when needed. We will use state of the art technology like the Push Band to monitor fatigue and training readiness throughout the training – taking guesswork and ambiguity out of the process. This will also monitor speed development which means that we can actually measure progress and effectiveness of this program – unlike a lot of other programs, and this keeps EVERYONE accountable!

How does it all work?

First you will come in for an assessment and short movement screen. During this assessment we will talk about your sport, your injury history and make any modifications if needed and then outline the demands for training. Then we will use an InBody scan to assess body composition and weight – we have some athletes competing in weight classes and this will be important to monitor throughout the training cycle. We will also establish a baseline for training readiness and speed with the Push Band.

Once you have completed the assessment, you will be able to join the open gym sessions and work on your program there. Currently they are on Thursday at 7:30pm and Saturday at 11am BUT we will be starting sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday evening soon. The more interest we get the quicker we will start them – so please let us know!

The Field Athlete and Combat Athlete classes are sold in blocks of ten sessions and this is €185. This includes the initial assessment and reassessment at the end of the block.

I personally have had success coaching semi-professional Soccer players, County and Inter county Footballers, UFC and Cage Warrior athletes, international Judoka and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitors and amateur Boxers. I feel these classes are the next level as not only are we constantly improving our own knowledge as coaches, we are now equipped with more technology to assess and make further precise developments.

If you have any more questions or would like to get started, please get in touch.

author: admin