Writing programmes takes time, particularly when multiplied across various playing positions, abilities, injuries, training seasons and schedules. We've all done it, set out some time to get the next few weeks or block of training sorted and we inevitably overrun. You've got sessions to coach, player reports to write, coaching conversations and interactions with the medical team (either this or you're a one man band and wearing all these hats yourself.
What happens next? Well, we all know the answer to this. One of two things, you either don't do it and have to programme on the fly between sessions until you have time to get the block written out - never a good options and not a great way to manage your own stress buckets (and more than likely you don't get great results) The other results in you taking the laptop home and trying to get it all done, bye bye job boundaries and hello unhappy family, friends, and partners.
How to Stop the Cycle?
I am going to take a guess that a lot of your programmes look fairly similar? Yes, the art is in detail, we all appreciate that! However, the overview, layout, movement patterns and general progression you use most likely fits a similar pattern. All those variations in position, ability that we eluded to earlier - I bet they all have their own trends and similarities.
Don't try to re-invent the wheel. Rather than try to write out every set, rep and progression scheme each time for every athlete, simply rinse and repeat. This isn't lazy programming, it is being proactive and developing your system. I have no doubt that you are a good coach and know what works well, for which athletes, at what time of the season. So, record them, store them, tag them with times you may want to use them or what they are suitable for, and develop your database. From here on it's easy, simply think about the player, ability, desired outcome and select the scheme that fits the goal. Sure, you may need to adjust and play with it as you go week to week, but how simple is it to do that when you've already preloaded in everyones programmes.
Working Examples of Prebuilt Set & Rep Schemes
This first example is from one of the Sustainable Training Templates I created with Strength Ratio. These are written on a week by week basis with each titled accordingly. They are then available to plug and play from a main dashboard. This method is great when building out a programme with very specific goal in mind (this example is for a strength based template.
This second example of one part of a larger database I use with a lot of my programming. This may look like a big task but I will repeat something I said earlier in the post. Don't reinvent the wheel. The database is one that I have been building and adapting from multiple sources (the list is long but most recently I have added from Mladen Jovanovic and dan Baker). None of this is ground breaking or anything you haven't seen or known of before, it's simply written out and laid out in full for you to see.
Hopefully, you can see how this process allows you to quickly input your set and rep schemes and adjust where and when. Gone are the days of taking that laptop home and eating into your YOU time.
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