I have a crazy story from the Olympics.
To set the stage, let's recap. Last week I talked about 3 integral parts of your training session:
Plan, Monitor, and Communicate.
One point I made related to having a plan but being ready to alter that plan based on outside factors - athlete fatigue, personal factors in athletes’ lives, things that you can’t control.
This week I’ve had the opportunity to practice what I’m preaching in a real-life setting…
I’m currently in Paris, France for the 2024 Olympics. It’s surreal.
I’ve had the opportunity to train quite a few Olympians in the past, but have never attended the actual games - it’s a dream come true. (
plus I met Snoop Dogg)
In order to fly across the world, we had things planned. It was a sound plan, one that was going to be effective...
Then our flight got delayed (Thanks Delta)...
Then our luggage got lost in Atlanta while we landed in France…
Then our Airbnb had bedbugs and I had to figure out a new place to stay with my wife and two kids (thankfully we got fully reimbursed and put up in a hotel while they got it cleaned)...
The point is that our plans went out the window as soon as things that were completely out of our control started going wrong.
And that’s a perfect example that I could apply to just about every week in the life of a performance coach.
Things didn’t go according to the plan we had created. But we were still better off having a plan, we just had to adjust based on the uncontrollable situations that were thrown at us.
Once we got the logistics figured out, we had our plan to fall on so that we could continue moving ahead despite the stress that we just experienced.
Having a plan still mattered, and even though we had to alter it, we could have some peace of mind knowing there was something we had to fall on once things settled back down.
Just like in your programming - having a plan that makes sense matters.
Last week’s focus was on a specific training session - today I’m going to go one step back in the process and talk about a way to organize your entire speed system from a high level.
Before you begin planning individual sessions, how do you start building your program?
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all all, which is why the framework below is meant to help push you in the right direction to get the outcome you’re looking for.
For me, this is something that took years to develop. It took a lot of trial and error. It took a lot of mistakes.
So I hope this helps save you some time next time you need to build a program.
Building your SystemI start with what I call part 0.
Before I even sit down to program, I’m asking two questions:
1. What strategy do I want to take?
2. What are my goals?
I’m identifying what the goals of the people around me and the stakeholders are looking for.
What do I want to get out of this program? What do the people involved want to get out of it?
Alignment is key. Reflecting on these questions helps set the tone for the rest of my planning.
Next, I go through a series of categories to continue honing in on the program I’m creating…
Logistics I’m uncovering things like:
Time of year. Is it in-season or off-season?
Level of Athlete. Are they middle school, high school, professional, or Olympic?
Timeframe of the program.
So if it’s offseason, I need to know how long until they’re in pre-season, or how long I can train them for.
If it’s in season, I need to know their game schedule, and the type of cycles I’m able to work with.
Finally, logistically I need to know who is actually going to take this program? Am I programming for an individual or a group? If it, 's a group, is it a team, a small group, or a large group?
All of these details matter. Once the logistics are confirmed, I start to get a little more in the weeds, but still keep it relatively high level…
Priorities I split this into 3 parts: Outcomes, Drivers, and Strategies.
I typically select 1-3 outcomes I want to achieve. These are the larger, high-level goals of the program.
Drivers are the main things I need to do that will take me to those outcomes.
Strategies are how I’m going to implement things into a day, a week, a month, etc.
How am I going to feed the drivers, which feed the outcomes.
Here’s an example of Outcomes, Drives, and Strategies of Sprinting