BENCH

BIBLE
A Strength and Conditioning
guide to the 2019 Season
 Table of Contents
Structure of the Season
Key Dates
Calender
Key People
Training
Quench.Marks: Overview of
Benchmarking.
Strength
Conditioning
Recovery
Nutrition

Mental Strength
Big Dumb Goals
Motivation
 Structure of the Season

Key Tournaments Dates

Division 1
8 December 2019 – Bench Selections
18/19 January 2020 - Gold Cup (Newcastle)
8/9 February 2020 – UAQT (Melbourne)
14/15 March 2020 - Tour Event 2 (Sydney)
4/5 April 2020 - Tour Event 3 (Sydney)
23-26 April - Div 1 Nationals (Adelaide)

Division 2
8 December 2019 – Bench Selections
18/19 January 2020 - Gold Cup (Newcastle)
March 2020 Regionals
Late March 2020 – Local tournament 2
17-19 April 2020 – Div 2 Nations (Canberra)
Quench.Marks: Overview of Benchmarking.

This season, the number one key goal shared unanimously by the
strength and conditioning team was accountability. We want every
single player to be accountable to each other, their training, their
performance, their spirit and motivation towards every aspect of their
season. You are in control. Now in line with this goal, a number of
benchmarks have been established so that you can improve your
performance accountability. The goal of benchmarking is to provide
you with a hard summary of improvements to physical strength and
conditioning. These numbers are hard to blur, fake or hide behind. If
your unfit. Your results will show it. The second important part of
benchmarking is review. In line with this phase, all benchmark results
will be posted within the brian. Want to know how those national
players are doing? Now you’ll be able to compare your results against
theirs and those of others on your team of a similar skill level. We want
benchmarks to highlight strengths and weaknesses. If you have
massive ups that might not come on regular display? we want to know
so that we can individually tailor advice and support towards
development. Same thing goes for fitness or speed.
Minimum: This is the minimum standard considered to be apart of
bench. While not all standards need to be met athletes who are not
meeting one or more minimum standards should think carefully about
the choice of training and support work they're doing behind the
scenes to support their team on the field. These tests are designed
specifically to measure core strength and conditioning competencies of
ultimate. Ultimate is an explosive sport, players who aren’t meeting
basic strength metrics are more prone to injury and fall below the
mean standard deviations for performance. If you are not doing the
work, you are doing your team a disservice
Bench.marks: These standards have been set to represent a good
average performance across core metrics. Meeting these standards
represents and continuous consistent effort to train and develop the
conditioning required to survive the demands of ultimate.
Elite: These benchmarks are derived from the upper percentile
performance across a number of sporting disciplines with foundational
movements similar to those of ultimate. Performance above and
beyond these metrics would place the athlete in an elite class amongst
ultimate players. These standards will likely only be met by players
who make a daily commitment to their sport strength and conditioning
programs and who actively engage in the right recovery to train
frequently for long period of time (months-years).

Strength
Why do we need
Strength training has been divided into two main areas that are trained
in conjunction with each other. The outcomes we are looking for are
the Strength to run fast and strength to throw big. How this strength
holds up throughout a game/competition/season will be dealt with
more in the conditioning section.

Strength to Run Fast:

The key thing to remember about maximum effort is that we can’t
sustain it for long, so any margin of separation or loss of focus as a play
progresses has to be made up by raw speed in a short amount of time.
The process for running fast is again divided into two main areas:
Power output and sprinting technique.
Power Output: This is what we train in the gym. Heavy lifts,
plyometric training and short maximum efforts help to build the total
power output.
Sprinting Technique: While there are many areas of focus here.
The basic principles are simple. We want the most power that we can
put through the ground, in the least amount of time. This can be
achieved by putting more power into each stride. Striding more often
and minimizing the amount of contact time in the ground. Increasing
stride frequency and reducing contact time comes down to balance
and mobility.
The sprinting for ultimate is focused on short bursts of speed followed
by a sudden slowdown or change of direction. We need the power to
accelerate as fast as possible and then strength to slow down quickly
without injury. Balance and mobility are incredibly important to quick
changes in direction. The focus for strength program is to improve
overall power and mobility and to maintain balance under load.

Strength to throw big:

Throwing strength comes down to a few basic principles. Strength in
the wrist, elbow, shoulder, hips and legs influences how far the disc
can go from point A to point B. How hard we can grip the disc
influences how much it spins in flight. How quickly we can whip the
disc, influences how far it will fly. How much potential energy we can
load up into the arm from our legs gives us the ability to throw the disc
greater than 50m from a stand still. The focus for the gym her is to
build muscles within the arms legs, back and core to support the
twisting, elastic motion involved in throwing. While ultimate poses a
unique set of constraints on our body in terms of performance. We can
learn lessons from other throwing sports including baseball, softball,
NFL and athletics.

For ultimate players who have limited time in the gym. We need to
condense the sprinting and throwing program into 2-3 sessions
focusing

Some notes on Working out in the gym.

Warm up.
It’s easy. Don’t be lazy. Don’t Skip it. 5 minutes on a row machine.
Shoulder mobility. Foam rolling areas that are tight. Take mental stock
of any areas that are grabbing. Pay extra attention to these areas and
potentially consider not training them if in pain or discomfort.
Don’t hurt yourself
No One likes an ego lifter. While it’s important to push levels of
comfort. Lift safely. If you’re going for personal bests that’s ok. Make
sure you have set up safety bars or have a friend to spot you. Hurting
yourself in the gym is a sure fire way to win a BDI.

GYM PROGRAMS
These were a templates developed for Clench sometime back. I’m not
sure who the original author of these programs is but they have been
shared a number of times and have come highly recommended not
only for raw strength but as part of a solid prehab training program.
Hopefully many of you have been going to the gym (or know how to go
to the gym) and so should be able to follow along. I have included the
authors original notes for your reference. Please take a few minutes to
review notes on tempo (especially as the season progresses and the
movements become more focused on explosiveness). It is
recommended that players endeavor to go to the gym twice per week
and thus should prioritise day 1 and day 2. IF you have the time and
inclination. Day 3 is option and generally focuses on stability, mobility
and extending load at a fuller range of motion.

Phase 1:
“Welcome to the Clench gym training program. The purpose of this
first phase is to: 1. Educate everyone on how to use the gym. 2. Build a
base level of strength and mobility. 3. Put on some muscle that we will
turn into power and speed in the 2nd and 3rd phases. 4. Prehab –
Focusing on exercises that will reduce the likelihood of injuries
occurring throughout the season.
For all exercises, you should be working at a weight that you can
maintain perfect form and not miss any reps in the later sets. This may
feel lighter than you think but it will mean you can confidently press up
in weight the next session and not be too worn out to play ultimate.
Youtube exercises that you are not sure of or talk to me at training.
Supplements I would suggest are coffee before workout (if before
3pm) and 30g of protein powder in water after training
Tempo: 1st number is the eccentric phase (slowing down the weight
against gravity). 2nd number is pause at end of the ecc. Phase. 3rd
number is concentric phase (moving weight against gravity). 4th
number pause at the end of conc. Phase.
Terminology: BB=barbell DB=dumbbell KB=kettlebell”

Phase 2:
“time for phase 2! Ohase 2 is all about building on the base we
developed in phase 1. There will be less reps and fewer sets but the
aim is to go for a heavier weight. This is also a good time of the season
to really ramp up on the fitness work so don’t kill yourself in the gym.
We want to be recovering really well so sleep lots and let me know if
you need any more protein powder. Again, for all exercises you should
be working at a weight that you can maintain perfect form and not
miss any reps in the later sets.”

Phase 1 Development
Quench Phase 2 Development
Conditioning
Recovery
POST-TRAINING
Warming down and stretching while not directly linked to increased
performance do impact how sore we feel. Its important that in the
post workout period that we look to perform some sort of dynamic
warm down coupled with re-fueling our bodies. When at trainings,
bench will be practicing active warm downs and we will be sure to
ensure that there is adequate water, electrolytes and snacks to satisfy
this post-workout refueling. When you are at home its important that
you try to engage in some form of protein intake within 20-30 minutes
post-workout and some form of meal within the next 90-120 minutes.
Generally sooner is better.

SLEEP
Everyone knows it, but few practice what they preach.
Recovering is incredibly important to important to improving
performance as effectively recovering allows us to train harder, for
longer periods and in greater frequency.
90% of recovery is sleep. If you’re not sleeping well this is the
first thing you need to fix in your training routine. Buy cooler sheets, a
new pillow, flip the mattress, kick the significant other to the far side of
the bed… Whatever you need to do to ensure your 6-9 hours is the
most efficient, effective recovery it can possibly be. Some of us need
more sleep than others. Unfortunately genetics can be cruel like that.

It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you don’t rob yourself of precious

sleep. Nothing will kill performance like a tired soul.

Routine is important with sleep (as well as training!) so try and stick to
a consistent sleep/wake schedule

Nutrition
DISCLAIMER: I’ll start off by saying that I’m not a sports nutritionist.
These notes are here to serve as a guide. You should take the time to
do your own research regarding nutrition and most importantly; listen
to your body.
No eating plans or Gordon ramsey cooking tips are going to be
included here. What will be covered is some brief notes regarding
nutition that should be common knowledge but if they aren’t, well,
now you know.

EATING:
If you want to get bigger, stronger, faster. You need to eat bigger and
better. Your diet should be tailored to support your specific goals as
you move through the season. Eating for recovering is just as
important as going to the gym.

FLUIDS
We all know we need to do it, many of us don’t do it well enough.
Science now supports the ‘drink when your thirsty’ line of reasoning.
For most of use, drinking around 2L of water per day is adequate when
we arn’t training or playing ultimate. When we do play ultimate we be
have to pay closer attention to our fluid intake as we have to replace
an excessive loss of water due to sweat. Sweating also results in a loss
of electrolytes that we have to pay close attention to as well. If you’re
ever interested in measuring this more closely, weigh yourself before a
game, suffer through the thirst and then weigh yourself afterwards.
The difference will astonish you!
When we play, it’s important that you have separate bottles containing
both water and electrolytes. Here’s why:
Water: Water should be drunk in small amounts throughout the game.
When I say small, I mean half mouthfuls every point to replenish lost
fluids. There is research to support increased energy levels within
marathon runners simply by swishing water around the mouth – no
need to even drink it! Its important not to drink too much water
however as it may result in a greater dilution of key electrolytes.
Electrolytes: This is commonly achieved by some Gatorade, Powerade
or other mix. Electrolyte depletion causes cramping, mental fatigue
and confusion, weakness and can cause many more severe effects (like
vomiting, seizures and heart problems in extreme cases. However we
want to be careful not consume in excess due to the sugar content.

A little of both goes along way. Keeping fluids in check is important to

ensuring the best performance not only on the field but while training
as well.

SUPPLEMENTS
Supplements don’t have to be difficult or complicated. They are there
to support an existing diet rich in good proteins, fats and cards. Keep in
mind that you should not look to replace an entire food group with
supplementation.
Recommended supplements include:
-Protein: Commonly in powder form consumed in 30g servings post
workout
-Creatine: Shown to improve performance in elite athletes, helps with
recovery. Serving depends on which product you buy. Typically 3-5g
(up too a teaspoon) but read the label of your product for accurate
serving size. See also: Creatine Loading Creatine is typically consumed
either mid workout or post-workout with the protein shake. Most
creatine powders will be unflavored for this purpose.
-BCAAS (sometimes): A perfect diet will limit the need for bcaas but
perfect diets are rare. BCAA supplementation in elite sport is used
quite extensively as they have been shown limit muscle fatigue,
improve recovery time and limit soreness which helps improve training
frequency. Commonly consumed mid workout or post-workout.
-Multivitamin (sometimes): A lot of people ask about multivitamins
and the answer changes for every person. Most athletes with
reasonable diets containing some red meat, fish, clean carbs and
vegetables will not need much in the way of vitamin support. You
should however consult your doctor if you are feeling unusually
fatigued or having problems with mental clarity because you may have
a deficiency. Deficiencies are rare though.

Mental Strength
Big Dumb Goals
Motivation