This week (Tuesday to be precise) will see the Strength Coach Programme Builder become live on the site. I wanted to go a little deeper into what it's main features are and why I believe they can help improve your coaching. I guess the best place to start is with what, why and how the Programme Builder works.
As I've mentioned in other posts, the main aim of any tool like this is to help you streamline your process. The goal of the builder is to save time by providing quick decision tree solutions and simple steps to move through the programming process. Once you have done this, it helps you get a quick snapshot of your athletes performance as they begin to complete their training.
Simple Session Programming
The expansion column next to the main session information is where you make all of your decisions. Simply select the category of movement you want for that exercise and the next dropdown menu will include all the exercises in your chosen category. After this, you simply have to select the loading scheme you want the athlete to use across the next 4 weeks.
IMO the best way to do this is to select the category order and sequence for the whole session (perhaps across the whole week), and then select the specific exercises that fit your athlete's needs, available equipment and logistical suitability. Once this is done, select the appropriate loading scheme and boom, it's as simple as that. No more writing in every progression for every exercise across every week.
In addition, you can select prebuilt warm ups to suit the session. You can also overwrite all of this information and add extra details to warm ups and loading schemes if you wish. Just be aware that this will delete any formulas you may want for future use.
Track Your Training
As you move through the planning of your sessions and start selecting data from your drop down menus, the sheet will start to track exactly what is going on. The sheet will record how many sets and reps you prescribe and the average intensity (measured via %) for each session/exercise.
Once your athlete starts to complete their training sessions, the sheet will also start to collect this data, allowing you to assess how they are getting on. The sheet will record how many sets and reps they achieve, the average and maximum loads they lift, and total volume load (sets x reps x weight).
As all this data is collected, the table and graph on the dashboard will start to update. This will allow you to quickly gauge whether or not the athlete is completing the programme as planned and/if they are progressing as planned. IMO, I have also found this useful to help athletes understand differences in sessions, such as high low volume or load days in relation to other training commitments etc.
How this Helps Your Coaching
So this is all great but how does it actually improve my coaching? As I mentioned at the start, the point of this programme builder is to streamline your process of planning and providing sessions to your athletes, then analysing how they perform in order to adapt future sessions to best meet their needs.
The simple drop down menus, preloaded set and rep schemes and responsive monitoring allow you to quickly move through your process step by step to create tailored plans that can be shared directly with your athletes. You can even create a base template for a squad and then individualise by position, injury, training age etc.
Athletes can also access their programmes on their phones and easily fill in the data. All of this allows you to focus on coaching the actual sessions, building rapport with the athletes, having conversations with them, and most importantly leaving the office at a reasonable time to head home and spend time with friends and family and have a life outside of work!
Kommentare