Specific adaptation of imposed demand ...

[hockeyscout]

A key component in athlete development today is the SAID principal (specific adaptation of imposed demand).

The key to this is figuring out the adaptations your athlete is unconsciously making in the 10 to 15 second phase of their work.

At this stage, as I am building from the ground up with a young athlete I am focused on the economy of movement, and athletic and spiritual engagement.

I am curious about your techniques here in terms of these important technical areas of athletic sports development.

1.

What are you doing to improve your VO2 max scores?

2.

How do you run your repeats, and what scientific data determines your rest time between repetitions?

3.

What are you doing in regards to lactate clearance?

4.

In terms of speed training (which is a must in tennis), can you tell me how you stagger your all out efforts, rest periods, properly incorporate fast twitch muscles while not completely blowing out the athletes central nervous system?

I see so much on this site about the racket; however, it would be great if we could discuss important aspects as well like balance, rhythm, cueing, firing order, pelvic tilts and tennis specific ancillary exercises ETC.

I sure would appreciate feedback on the above!

Thanks,

Worldsworsttennismentorwhoknowsnothingaboutgripsan dwillhaveashortshelflikewithcoaches

[don_budge]

S. A. I. D...

Feedback...for Worldsworsttennismentorwhoknowsnothingaboutgripsan dwillhaveashortshelflikewithcoaches

http://www.bettermovement.org/2009/0110111/

Some interesting observations...


Carryover of Training to Sport

The carryover issue is a little more complex. Remember that that the S in SAID stands for specific. This means that the body only makes adaptations to withstand the specific stress it encounters – it has no interest wasting time making changes that don’t directly address the issue. For example, if you train your right arm, the right arm will get stronger, not the left. If you practice the piano, you will get better at the piano, not horseshoes. But if you practice the piano will you get better at the oboe? Maybe a little. In other words, there is a some carryover or transfer from piano to oboe. There’s probably a lot of carryover from piano to organ. How much does your training program in the gym carryover to the sport you are training for? The answer as confirmed by almost any study on this issue is – probably nowhere near as much as you would imagine.

Let’s use some examples. What about trying to become a better soccer player by using a swiss ball or other unstable surface to train your “balance.” Study after study shows that training on an unstable surface confers no measurable performance benefits on the field of play that could not be obtained by general exercise. In fact, people who train balance on a swiss ball are no better than anyone else at balancing with one foot on the ground! Why? It turns out that the mechanism by which the body balances on an unstable surface (called the “righting reflex”) is a totally separate mechanism from that which allows you to balance on a stable surface (called the “tilting reflex.” But you don’t even need to remember all that, just remember the SAID principle – if you want to get better at soccer, play soccer, don’t try to balance on a ball, that’s an entirely different skill.

What about using passive stretching as means to improve your “flexibility” in soccer and prevent a hamstring pull during a sprint or kick? Studies have shown repeatedly that pregame stretching does absolutely nothing to prevent injuries, and in fact makes you slower and less explosive for a short period after the stretch. Part of the reason is that passively stretching your hamstring on the ground is a completely different activity from actively kicking the leg out in front of you during a sprint or kick. In other words, stretching is not a specific preparation for soccer, and therefore violates the SAID principle. By the way, studies also show that you can effectively prevent injuries on the soccer field by a pregame warm up of the specific skills to be used on the field – like cutting, sprinting and kicking. The SAID principle in action again.

What about cross training – can you train your aerobic capacity for cycling by running or vice versa? Most studies show that there is some small amount of carryover here, but again not as much as you would probably expect. Sports scientist Matthew Wright estimates that the aerobic benefits that could be derived from 100 hours of endurance running might translate into the equivalent effect of 10 hours of endurance training for cycling. So why not just get on the cycle for ten hours? The carryover of cycling to running is even weaker, because running is a complex activity that relies to a much greater extent on skills of coordination, and bicycling is a much simpler activity. For example, consider Lance Armstrong, the greatest biker of all time and co-owner of the highest VO2max ever measured. He recently completed a marathon in about three hours – an excellent time for an amateur, but nowhere near where his performance would be if his aerobic capacity from cycling had a strong carryover to running. He said the race was one of the hardest things he ever did. More proof of the SAID principle.

So, in summary, remember to keep training simple – if you want to get better at X, do X as hard as possible without getting hurt or overtrained. Be very skeptical of the carryover or transferability of “functional training” or even training that purports to be “sport specific.” Chances are, it’s not.

[don_budge]

Ping Pong...

A key component in athlete development today is the SAID principal (specific adaptation of imposed demand).

The key to this is figuring out the adaptations your athlete is unconsciously making in the 10 to 15 second phase of their work.

At this stage, as I am building from the ground up with a young athlete I am focused on the economy of movement, and athletic and spiritual engagement.

I am curious about your techniques here in terms of these important technical areas of athletic sports development.

1.

What are you doing to improve your VO2 max scores?

2.

How do you run your repeats, and what scientific data determines your rest time between repetitions?

3.

What are you doing in regards to lactate clearance?

4.

In terms of speed training (which is a must in tennis), can you tell me how you stagger your all out efforts, rest periods, properly incorporate fast twitch muscles while not completely blowing out the athletes central nervous system?

I see so much on this site about the racket; however, it would be great if we could discuss important aspects as well like balance, rhythm, cueing, firing order, pelvic tilts and tennis specific ancillary exercises ETC.

I sure would appreciate feedback on the above!

Thanks,

Worldsworsttennismentorwhoknowsnothingaboutgripsan dwillhaveashortshelflikewithcoaches

It seems to me that the questions 1 through 4 are irrelevant to tennis. According to the SAID principle theory...the best way to develop tennis quickness and tennis endurance is to play lot of tennis. Play hard. This would be my natural inclination...not to say that some cross training might not be beneficial.

According to the above article about Specific Adaptation of Imposed Demands you may actually have more related training for tennis by playing ping pong instead of doing intensive track work.

[hockeyscout]

Thanks for the link to the carry over of training to sport don_budge.

I have to say I disagree with the article.

The person who wrote that article is a firm believer in the Feldenkrais Method.

I felt for me, it wasn't an applicable somatic teaching system for my needs.

I will post my actual bottom line scientific and technical thoughts on this in the next day or two.

You know, every tennis coach I have encountered has told me the same thing you've told me, "Questions 1 through 4 are irrelevant to tennis."

I am so willing to hear out scientific explanations of how running gait, center of gravity, torque, inertia, trajectories, Vo2, drag, force, oxygen consumption, energy and aerodynamics and newtons laws of motion are relevant, and or, irrelevant to tennis.

Anyways, did you explain why 1 to 4 are irrelevant to tennis, or do you have more?

PS:

Here is a great read -- "The Methodological Basis of the Development of Training Models" by soccer coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi. He focused all of his work on 1 to 4 (well, and 15 - 20 other things which are to long and complex to dive into right now, read the book) and it was the key building blocks for him. He was the first coach in sports to use computer applications to develop a system of 22 concepts which defined new laws of the game, and these can be applied to tennis as well as athletic restrictions are athletic restrictions across the board in all sports. What's interesting is how much better his athletes got when he had a scientific formula applied to training.

Best regards
Worldsworsttennismentorwhoknowsnothingaboutgripsan dwillhaveashortshelflikewithcoaches

[tennis_chiro]

Tennis is very sport specific

Tennis skill is very sport specific. But there is no question that improved athleticism is a great advantage on the tennis court. The top players in the world spend a great portion of their training off the court trying to improve the dimensions that hockeyscout is trying to emphasize here.

I think it's really significant to be reminded of the lessons we learned reading "The Talent Code" and the degree to which great soccer players come from the slums of Brazil, not because they played a lot of soccer on full pitches at an early age, but because they laid down a lot of myelin developing skills that could be directly applied to soccer on the full pitch; they laid down that myelin by playing futsal with a small hard ball in a confined space with a lot fewer players than a full soccer team.

It's always very frustrating for me when TennisTV (I don't see ESPN or the Tennis Channel) mentions some of the statistics the announcers seem to have readily at hand from Hawkeye. I wonder if those details are available, perhaps at Craig Shaunnesy's site (???). Also, you find some of the more esoteric statistics and sports science related stuff at iCoach, the ITF technical site that seems to be more aligned with Australian sport. There also may be more technical breakdowns available in papers on sites that cater to PhD's in Sports Science and Biomechanics. (Doug, if you are following this thread, I bet you know the answer to my last few queries!)

It certainly would be beneficial to know the kind of aerobic/anaerobic capacity that is required to have a chance to compete on the better circuits. On the other hand, there is that Austrian coach who is bringing Dominic Thiem and his one-handed backhand along with long runs in the forest carrying logs overhead.

I've always been adamant that it is a big mistake to train a tennis player by having him attached to rubber bands pulling on him from the rear to increase strength. Certainly, GAS says that the body will adapt and build more muscle to accomplish the task, but the reality is that a tennis player must move across the tennis court in complete balance ready to move the upper body independently of the legs churning below like a sugarplum dancer floating across the dance floor as if on ice skates because you can't see her legs working below her dress. Oh, I'm getting off topic again.

The point is, I think hockeyscout brings up an awful lot of good points. Sports science has a lot to offer. But you have to cater the lessons learned there to the requirements of tennis and, in the end, everything is sublimated to what the face of the racket is doing. We can't operate deliberately as well as we can on automatic at the speeds required for competitive tennis, even at lower levels of competition. But we have to train that automaticity. (Damn, I never knew Mike Tyson could count to 5, much less that he learned to actually box and have combinations pre-automated to counter what anyone would do to him, but it makes sense considering the people he had with him during his development, Jacobs and Cus d'Amato.) Why not do your training, with a tennis racket in hand, but respecting the intervals and recovery periods that you will have to undergo in actual play.

I marvel at the lengths to which hockeyscout seems to be going to create his own developmental program for his daughter. Sounds wonderful to me. But frankly, few of us coaches have access to the resources to pursue such a wonderful quest; part of the reason, I think, that we meet here in this forum. It does seem to me that these are exactly the kinds of things that organizations like the USTA should be supporting and pursuing. Spend more time and energy exploring the relationships between the kinds of questions hockeyscout is asking and exploring and what can reasonably be applied to coaching and less time taking my students away from me!

So Doug, Craig, JY...do we know where to find the information? Is it readily available somewhere? And it seems to me it is still very difficult to find out what are the training programs that are employed by Federer, Nadal, Murray, Djokovic. I'd really like to know what Nishikori is doing; particularly what he is doing different the last 6 months to get to the way he played Nadal in that first set and a half in the Rome final. I thought his backhand was just about perfect in that match with what he was doing to Rafa.

don

[stotty]

Brazil...

I think it's really significant to be reminded of the lessons we learned reading "The Talent Code" and the degree to which great soccer players come from the slums of Brazil, not because they played a lot of soccer on full pitches at an early age, but because they laid down a lot of myelin developing skills that could be directly applied to soccer on the full pitch; they laid down that myelin by playing futsal with a small hard ball in a confined space with a lot fewer players than a full soccer team.

don

The thing with the Brazilians is they attach many other types of soccer around the main game itself. These other types of soccer often involve far greater intensity, pressure and skill than soccer itself. So when they come to play the real soccer games, it's easy for them.

Here's an example:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27528661

A similar good idea in tennis would be to have kids play with wooden rackets. I did this last week in as squad I took last Friday. All of a sudden kids were watching the ball better and HAVING to get down to low balls better. It promotes better fundamentals. You simply cannot be lazy with wood.

[hockeyscout]

Canada hockey version of the mirror:

http://www.pursuitofexcellence.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/skating_placeholder.jpg

[hockeyscout]

My kid plays with a wooden and steel racket all the time. Its good! And dead balls, you can't be lazy with dead balls, especially when you mix dead balls, balls with holes in them, green balls, orange balls, paint them all black, and then try and hit. And then the old European dilapidated clay courts, music, a loud horn, some Junior or Senior player doing the drill at 100 percent and saying to the young kid watch how the big boys do it baby, and yes, you've got no choice but to be focused. We always play dodge ball with the Junior's, I hand feed, and the young one tries to pick off the tennis player with a hard drive. Needless to say for a good show the hitting partner will go down in a slump, and its funny. If she cracks a good shot, I tell him to take it for the team.

Some kids get frustrated with our approach as their's way to much failure involved.

Unfortunately, in the USA or anywhere else, I do not think we could treat the tennis court like a playground, have crazy fun and do what the Brazilians and NBA kids on the asphalt are doing. It's what the sport lacks.