IN-SEASON TRAINING DO'S #3 - TRAINING RESIDUALS

Perhaps the 1 training ideology that has the greatest implications on in-season programming is training residuals.

Training residuals refers to the time it takes for a specific quality that once trained to adequate level, starts to deteriorate without direct training.

This is a huge concept to implement at this time of the season because training time has been decreased as you now need 1 - 3 days to allow for recovery from games.

You can still training during the recovery stage, but with the focus being on recovery and regeneration, you are not stressing the upper thresholds of your abilities and as the old saying goes - use it or lose it.

Obviously with less training time, you know need to find a way to at least maintain what you've built in the pre-season (speed, endurance etc) but more importantly you need to find the resources and time to fit it all in.

You can't train everything at 100% all the time and if you do, you're probably one of those players that tears up the track but average at best on the field.

Essentially your burning through all your "game resources" during the week and have little to give come game day.

You can probably name a player you currently play with, or have played with that fits this description.

There's no embarrassment if you are either, I was one of them in my younger days, because training residuals is a very little know concept outside of elite competition.

So here's the information you need to put this in action.

SPEED

- Max speed performance will stay with you 2 - 8 days
- Needs to be trained optimally once every 5 days

AEROBIC CAPACITY

- Max aerobic performance will stay with you for 25 - 35 days
- Needs to be trained optimally once every 30 days

ANAEROBIC CAPACITY

- Max anaerobic capacity will stay with you for 14 - 22 days
- Needs to be trained optimally once every 18 days

MAX STRENGTH

- Max strength performance will stay with you for 25 - 35 days
- Needs to be trained optimally every 30 days

BODYWEIGHT

- The maintenance of bodyweight is a game to game proposition as you'll lose different amounts of fluids each game, plus take in different amounts f fluids each game as well.
- Aim to get back to your pre-game bodyweight as soon as possible and by the next morning at the latest.

As you can see above you can now sit down and literally fit all the training in you need on Tuesday and Thursday training nights, and fitting each strength/fitness quality in before it starts to deteriorate as well.

You also need to ensure that when you do train what needs to be trained that it is trained at literally 100% intensity.

You can maintain performance with as little as 30% of the training volume it took to build that quality, so long as intensity is 100%.

If you fail to reach the intensity required then the intensity/volume trade off gets out of whack and now your training with fat too volume at moderate intensity and your performance will decrease.

Remember failing to plan is planning to fail.