STRENGTH &

CONDITIONING

Pete McKnight EIS/UKA Strength & Conditioning

Coach
 Introduction
“The human body is an adaptable living organism. It is
nothing more than an interdependent matrix system that
communicates with and amongst itself all day long
through electronically charged molecules-you are an
ever evolving and fluctuating organism that is self-
regulating and supercompensating-you are nothing
more than a bio-electrical field that is hell bent on one
function--SURVIVAL!”
Buddy Morris
 The Five Rings Model

Movement Skills Technical/Tactical Psycho-Behavioural Skills

Lifestyle & Support Physical Conditioning

 Strength Characteristics

Isometric force: time curve indicating maximal strength, maximal rate of force development, and force at
200 ms for untrained, heavy-resistance strength-trained, and explosive-strength-trained subjects
(adapted from Häkkinen et al., 1985 a, b).
 What is Strength?
 The ability to exert a force against a resistance.
F=ma (Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion)

 Dynamic strength is defined as the maximal ability

(capacity) of a muscle to exert force or torque at a
specified velocity (Knuttgen & Kraemer, 1987)
 What is Strength?

Force-velocity curve showing how power can be related to these qualities

 What is Conditioning?
 Capacity for training
 Building blocks for future work
 ‘Prevention’ of injury
 Physical preparation
 3-D Training
 Lower level training – pre-strength
 Auxiliary training – parallel to strength
 Planning & Organising
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”

 Programmes
 Loading patterns

 Periodisation cycles
 Priorities
 Priorities
“Be careful over emphasising qualities that are not
specific to the primary components or objectives of
the training cycle, because you will have too many
qualities competing for the draw on the nervous
system.”
Charlie Francis

 Neuromuscular demands
 Metabolic demands
 Priorities
 Demands of the event?
 What really matters
 How strong is strong enough?

 Strengths vs. Weaknesses

 Biggest gains – best use of time
 Time of year/periodisation cycle
 Level of athlete/training age
 Aspects of Programming

1. Strength
2. Movement
3. Conditioning
4. Power / Speed
 Planning a programme
 Strength
 Fundamentals e.g. Olympic lifts & variations
 Squats

 Dead lifts; RDL’s

 Supplementary exercises
 Upper body
 Lower body smaller muscle groups
 Planning a programme
 Warm-ups
 ‘Core’ conditioning
 Drills
 Plyometrics
 Hurdle work
 Lifting technique
 Injury prevention / muscle balance
 Assisted running / jumping (Ritzdorf, 1998)
 Decreasing the external loads when performing jumps is a
good stimulus to develop the velocity component of
explosive strength.
 Strength
 Typical rep range 1-5; multiple sets
 Unilateral leg
 Bilateral leg
 Posterior chain
 Hips
 Upper body press
 Upper body pull
 Movement
 Dynamic flexibility (walking; floor work)
 Crawling
 Drills
 Hurdles
 Lateral stepping; Carioca
 Jumps; landings
 Agility circuits
 Reactive drills
 Coordination drills
 Conditioning
 Functional conditioning
 Unilateral
 Bilateral
 Asymmetric
 Global rotational

 Trunk (static & dynamic; low load & high load)

 Hip / Pelvis
 Hamstring
 Upper body
 Lower leg & foot
 Conditioning Circuit
Trunk Exercise Reps Sets
Dead Bug 10 2-3
Seated Med Ball Twist 10 2-3
Front Plank 30-60 secs 2-3
Sit-up (with or without throw/Med 10 2-3
Ball)
Side Plank Left & Right 30-60 secs each side 2-3
Overhead Squat 10-20 2-3
Kneeling Twist Throw 10 2-3
Hip Bridge 10 each leg 2-3
 Conditioning Circuit
Foot Conditioning Drills – Hard Reps Sets
Surface/Mat Based
Dynamic Ankling 10m 2-3
Ankling Walks 10m 2-3
Foot Fires & Powers 20 each 2-3
Heel Walk 10m 2-3
Toe Walk 10m 2-3
Intrinsics (clawing on mat) 1 length 2-3
Lateral Boarder Walk 10m 2-3
 Hamstring
 Eccentric to decelerate
lower limb
 Isometric during stance
phase
 Impacts choice of exercise
 Biarticular nature of
hamstring
 Trunk Conditioning
 Internal obliques
 External obliques
 Rectus abdominis
 Quadratus
Lumborum
 Multifidis
 Transversus
Abdominis
 Power/Speed
 Olympic lifting exercises
 Squat based power exercises
 Medicine ball / Powerbag throws
 Power Jumps
 High level of force, less focus on velocity
 Reactive Jumps
 Small amplitude, high speed of contraction
 Resisted Running
 Rotational Power
 Upper body power
 Transfer of Training
 Coordination exercises specific to movement patter
of event

 Strength and coordination

 Speed and coordination
Other Considerations...
 Single Leg Progressions
 Cyclic nature of running
 Balance/proprioception –
static/dynamic
 Hopping – SSC
 Landing
 Strength
 Max strength
 Power
 Coordination – bounding/step-ups
 Choice of Exercise
 Must serve a purpose
 Must be executed correctly to maintain emphasis
and function
 Phase dependant
 Speed dependant
 A assists B; B assists C; C impacts performance
 Importance of Warm-up
1. Volume of conditioning
2. 3-dimentional conditioning
3. Teaching movements/motor patterns
4. Warming up muscles – specific preparation for
lifting weights (moving through full ROM)
5. Technical development of exercise
 Good Coaching/Good Training
“Repetition is the mother of learning”
Latin Proverb

“Precise repetition is the mother of excellence”

 Quality is better than quantity, but a larger

quantity of quality work is best
 Intent
 Intent
 “Intension to move the bar quickly rather than the
actual speed of the bar is the goal” (Young & Bilby,
1993)
 Better recruitment of motor units
 Synchronisation
 Muscles activated at higher frequency
 Transfer of force
 “You can’t push rope...”
 Focus
 Monitoring
 Strength diagnostic tools
- KMS, BMS, Tendo, Musclelab
 Record keeping/training diary

 Monitoring

 Load
 Metres
 Minutes
 Contacts

 To build Work Capacity

 Monitoring

Monitoring Directs Training

 Monitoring on a regular basis could be important in

helping the coach to determine which component is
deficient so that training can be implemented to
address the deficiency and to provide motivation to
the athlete.
 Monitoring

Year 1 Year 2 Year 10

Volume Load (Kg) 112500 135000 225000

Acceleration 0-50m (m) 5000 6000 10000

Speed 50-150m (m) 4800 5500 11000
Speed Endurance 150m + (m) 6000 7000 10500

Drills (m) 7600 8650 15000

Plyometrics (contacts) 1152 1478 2540

Conditioning (minutes) 2250 3150 7200

 Testing
 1RM Strength Tests
 Speed
 Acceleration
 Vertical Jump
 Key Competencies

 Goal setting
 Motivation, structure , planning
 Direct Training
 Performance Indicators
 Objective measures of progress
 KPI’s
 Goals/Targets
 Standards of excellence
 Correlations
 Normative Data
 Physics / biomechanics
 Performance Indicators

Time (s)

Exercise 43.5-45.0 45.1-46.0 46.1-47.0 47.1-48.0 48.1-49.0 49.1-50.0 50.1-52.0 52.1-54.0

Flying 30m sprint (s) 2.52-2.63 2.64-2.71 2.72-2.79 2.8-2.88 2.89-2.98 2.99-3.08 3.09-3.14 3.15-3.20

60m sprint (s) 6.5-6.6 6.6-6.7 6.7-6.8 6.8-6.9 6.9-7.0 7.1-7.2 7.2-7.3 7.3-7.4

100m sprint (s) 10.2-10.4 10.4-10.5 10.5-10.7 10.7-10.9 10.9-11.1 11.2-11.3 11.3-11.4 11.4-11.5
Standing long jump
3.1-3.2 3.0-3.1 2.9-3.0 2.8-2.9 2.7-2.8
(m)
Standing triple jump
(m)

Bench press (Kg)

Clean (Kg)

Squat (kg)