Distribution of Training Methods in Pre-Season of Annual Training Cycle of Elite Bobsledders

Фотографии: 

ˑ: 

P.V. Frolov, postgraduate
V.I. Frolov, associate professor, Ph.D.        
V.F. Skotnikov, professor, Ph.D.
Russian state university of physical culture, sport, youth and tourism, Moscow

Keywords: load, blocks, mesocycles, neuromuscular system, motor abilities, starting stride.

Introduction. The problem of distribution of training resources within the annual training cycle according to their content, volume and intensity in elite bobsledders should be considered primarily from the standpoint of dialectics as a philosophical category of development, adhering to its fundamental principles: evolutionism; integrity, structural properties, dynamism and biological reliability; determinism.

The long-term process of sports skills development (PSSD) is extremely complex and multifaceted. And if at its early phases due to the high plasticity of the functions and structures at the level of all systems the body of junior athletes can be changed much more (than in the older ages) under the influence of external stimuli and it literally "grasps" the effect of exercise with a quick response in the performance improvement, in the mature age, being at the elite level, it takes time, days and weeks of training, to trigger the training effect and obtain a significant improvement in the body’s performance under the influence of exercises [2].

At the later phases of the PSSD when the development of organs and body systems is over, the athletes’ adaptation reserve becomes severely limited [9]. Here a "mechanical" increase in the volume and intensity of training loads can lead to failure of the adaptation reserve. In addition, if in case of an excess of the internal environment the body responds with essential adaptive morphofunctional rearrangements in response to the same training loads even when they are evenly distributed in the training process [11], when mature (at the high sports skills level) the body just stops responding positively to the same stimuli, regardless of their volume and intensity [12].

The stability in the results growth dynamics in the sphere of elite sport and the long-term monitoring of PSSD have led practitioners and scientists to a very important conclusion that at the high sports skills level it is simply impossible to simultaneously develop a variety of physical and technical skills. This kind of work exhausts athletes and turns a workout into a struggle for survival [10]. This increases the possibility of injury due to unreasonably high load volumes and negative interaction of several immediate training effects due to the loads incompatibility [13, 7]. There seemed to be only one way out: to separate the loads in time based on the priority of development of various motor skills by planning their sequence (or change) so that the training effect from the use of one particular load could be used as a base (determinant) for another [3-6, 1, 10]. However, this also required a multicyclic planning, when the aids for the priority development of leading motor abilities began to be blocked and their number was determined by the specifics of a particular kind of sport, depending on the calendar of events and the time of getting in shape. The need for a multi-cyclic organization of loads in blocks is stipulated by the development process itself (movement - replacement of resources in blocks for those more educational) to improve and preserve the residual effects of training simultaneously improving various skills (especially the basic ones) in order to avoid detraining.

The purpose of the study was to optimize the training process with regards to starting stride of bobsleigh of elite athletes on the basis of the block organization of training load in the pre-season of the annual training cycle.

It was assumed that the time distribution of loads with different preferential orientation will create prerequisites for more advanced adaptive changes at the level of the neuromuscular system (NMS) of bobsledders, minimize injuries athletes always have with a single-cycle organization of the annual cycle and most importantly will enable athletes to be in the peak shape by the time of major competitions.

Materials and methods. The study was conducted within the framework of the theoretical and methodological support of the Russian men's bobsled team in the Olympic cycle of 2010-2014. The status of athletes was assessed monthly using a battery of tests that made it possible to assess their strength, speed-strength and speed abilities. The structure, volume and intensity of load in the annual training cycles were registered on the basis of personal diaries data processing. Various tests were attended by 10 to 13 bobsledders from the first national team. The ascertaining experiment was based on the season 2010/2011, where the training loads were relatively evenly distributed over one big cycle with a complex-parallel form of development of motor abilities [16]. In the Olympic season (during the formative experiment) a two-cycle training periodization was applied in the pre-season, which consisted of two phases, during which elite athletes could achieve special strength abilities (phase 1 - May-August, phase 2 - September-October).

The organization of the training load included the use of strength workouts in each cycle of a "block", against the background of its implementation most of speed-strength, speed, and technical work was done. Thus, the principle of timing of the amounts of load of different primary orientation was kept, which created favorable conditions for the in depth improvement of the technique and the stride acceleration rate. At the same time in the big adaptive cycle (May to August), the strength block was preceded by the introductory mesocycle in May. Later on, the strength mesocycle (in June) was followed by a transforming one in July (according to the terminology by V.B. Issurin [10]) and an implementational one in August.

Results and discussion. According to the results of the ascertaining experiment, a single-cycle distribution of training resources within the annual cycle applied to date does not cause in the bodies of elite athletes any significant adaptive changes at the level of motor system, as well as at the level of the NMS. This is due to several reasons, which were indicated in their numerous studies by Y.V. Verkhoshansky and V.B. Issurin, especially due to the use of a complex parallel principle of development of various motor abilities, which leads to a number of negative consequences:

–  chaotic use and relatively even load distribution within the annual cycle with different training effects on the body;

– general and random use of exercises with weights (including barbell exercises), their use mainly for the development of strength and in addition to the solution for the main objectives of the training;

– unjustified use of excessive loads within a microcycle, which excluded rational regulation of the energy supply in the training work, which disrupted the synthesis of protein resources of the body, one of the major mechanisms of adaptation;

– the general tendency to increase of the total volume of the load combined with the incompatibility of immediate training effects, leading to the disruption of the current adaptive reserve (CAR) in bobsledders and a significant increase in injuries.

Fig. 1 shows the monthly distribution of strength and jumping loads as a percentage of the annual one (season 2010/2011). As follows from Figure 1, the strength and jumping loads were relatively evenly distributed throughout May, June and July and amounted to more than 40% of the annual. During the same time running workouts were performed in very big amounts (more than 70% of annual ones) in the range from 100 to 300 meters with the intensity of 70-90% (i.e. aerobic-anaerobic mode) to develop general and special speed endurance. At the same time in June and July, the acceleration of a roller simulator at the stadium (about 60% of all the starts) and a short sprint with the intensity of 96-100% were widely used to improve the speed and acceleration technique. Thus, we have a target set on the comprehensive development and improvement of all kinds of abilities. But in the end it has led not to an increase, but a decrease in the rate of acceleration of the training apparatus at the end of July. Only in August, the athletes were able to surpass the June level of their speed abilities. Thus, all of the negative consequences from the use of such a complex load were seen as in a mirror, which only leads to the "exhaustion" of athletes at the level of all the systems with the negative cross adaptation by F.Z. Meerson [13]. Concentration in microcycle and mesocycles of sometimes mutually exclusive multidirectional loads disrupted the rational regulation of energy supply of the workout and did not contribute to the required synthesis of protein resources of the body. In other words, catabolic processes prevailed over the anabolic ones (disintegration of cell structures prevailed over their synthesis). Only in August, after reducing the strength load, the required synthesis began, contributing to the increase of speed performance in the bobsledders.

Further reduction of the strength loads in September with an increase in speed-strength, speed and technical work with peaking to a maximum percentage of the use of all resources contributed to some increase in speed performance, which reached its maximum in October against the backdrop of a significant pre-season decline of the load volumes.

In the season the starting acceleration rate was maintained at the reached level during November, and in December it started to decline due to the laws of conservation of the residual training effects on the basic abilities, stipulated above. A small strength replenishment before New Year to some extent smoothed the negative process, but still it was rather impossible to maintain the high level of speed abilities before the World Cup. And it has been so year after year, running in place for 20 years [14]. Our opponents started outstripping us in terms of starting stride. In addition, they began training pilots from the former striders, which significantly increased the rate of acceleration, especially in carriages of "two".

Thus, there was a need to move from a single-cycle planning of the training load to the block training system through a two-cycle organization of the training process in the pre-season. Special attention was paid to the planning and organization of the first big adaptation cycle (May to August), in which a base reserve of the leading motor abilities of the bobsledders was laid (accumulated).

In the Olympic season 2013/2014, in addition to the "separation" of loads with regard to their predominant use the concentrated, rather than even, distribution of strength loads among the pre-season cycles was applied (Fig. 2), which promoted a significant increase in the general level of special strength fitness in the bobsledders in the first adaptation cycle (Table 1). That was an entirely different level of motor abilities, including the speed ones.

Table 1

          Tests

 

Statistical characteristics

Squat pl., kg

Power clean, kg

Standing triple jump, m

Standing jump 30 m (sec)

Training simulator, 30m, sec

  1 ± mх

 (2010, n = 12)

182,73± 5,57

117,70± 3,59

8,91± 0,11

3,15±0,02

4,91± 0,06

  2 ± mх

  (2011 ,n = 13)

183,85± 8,36

122,70± 3,70

9,14± 0,11

3,17± 0,03

4,87± 0,04

3 ± mх

  (2012, n = 13)

194,20± 7,96

131,92

± 5,53

9,33± 0,15

3,06± 0,04

4,78± 0,05

   4 ± mх

  (2013, n = 13)

Difference of 1-4

            t

            р

211,90± 7,06

29,17

3,25

<0,01

135,38± 4,79

17,68

2,95

<0,01

9,44± 0,11

0,53

3,05

<0,01

3,03± 0,03

0,12

3,33

<0,01

4,72± 0,04

0,19

2,63

<0,05

If we compare the nature of the distribution of strength and jumping loads in 2010 (Fig. 1) with the way it was distributed in 2013 (Fig. 2), the first thing you notice is the variability of the resources distribution both in value and in time of their display. In the Olympic season two cycles are clearly singled out in the development of maximum and explosive muscle strength in the pre-season and the third microcycle - already in the season. Such loads distribution in the annual cycle helped maintain basic maximum and explosive strength abilities at a proper level and helped reach the maximum level of speed abilities in the competitive races at the Olympics.

The need for a variable load distribution in all training cycles, particularly when strength abilities were developed, was convincingly proved by A.N. Vorob’ev [8]. The processes associated with hypertrophy of the muscle fibers and hyperplasia can be well implemented only in case of the optimally combined stress and recovery modes.

One very important fact should be pointed out: that the very process of distribution of loads of different purposes by the time of their preferential use creates all the preconditions for a variable combination of loads and recovery in the blocks without negative cross adaptation, since the preceding content of training is dialectically denied and its variation is facilitated by the change of resources in the blocks. This is seen in the distribution of the total running load, special running load and in the monthly percentage distribution of all resources. Even the monthly number of sessions in the Olympic season varied to a greater extent as compared to the season of 2010/2011. At the same time the total number of sessions for the year amounted to only 75.7% from the season of 2010/2011.

Thus, it is not the volume aspect of the load that is the main one at the elite level but its qualitative and quantitative characteristics for all load types, their compatible combinations according to the logic of development of long-term adaptation.

The mean percentage volume of all of the resources repeats with some displacement in time the nature of distribution of strength and jumping loads in the Olympic season (Fig. 3). The maximum volume fell on the transforming mesocycle in July. It was in the big adaptation cycle, where the greatest transformation has occurred, the transformation of maximum strength into explosive one (with a single-cycle organization of the training process the maximum volume was registered in September). The second cycle was more limited in time, was smaller in volume but the intensity of all of the resources applied was higher.

The rate of acceleration of the bobsled training simulator as an integral indicator of the athletes' skills reaches its peaks at the end of adaptation cycles, with a certain "slowdown" after the concentrated strength blocks (Fig. 4). However, in August the growth rate of speed abilities (average acceleration rate on a 30-meter stretch) amounted to 0.23 m/s, with a single-cycle resource allocation - 0.13, as compared with the initial state in May. If to interpret this growth with regard to the acceleration time, in August it amounted 4.63 sec with the block type of organization of loads, and 4.82 sec with an even resource distribution. The difference of almost 0.2 sec in bobsled is considered huge especially at the elite sports level where centiseconds separate winners from awardees at the starting stride and at the finish. Even in October the acceleration was weaker with an even resource distribution compared to the block-type load in August.

After the second adaptation cycle the rate of acceleration increases even more. Comparing the training simulator acceleration rate at the ice overpass in August and in October (cutoffs travel time at the distance of 15 and 50 m from the starting bar) one can clearly see the value of a few centiseconds in bobsled. The 0.06 sec increment in the result on the 15th meter of the acceleration stride seems to be far from being significant enough, however, due to high homogeneity of the tested subjects the significance of differences was very high (р<0,01).

Conclusion. The ascertaining experiment and the findings of long-term observations of the process of formation of sports skills in elite sport from the standpoint of evolutionism suggest the inconsistency of the single-cycle organization of the training process in the pre-season. Comprehensive parallel development and improvement of motor abilities in bobbers do not produce qualitative changes in the structure of the NMS due to rather limited adaptive reserves of athletes in response to a multi-purpose load, which leads to negative cross adaptation, a long-term "stagnation" in athletic performance and injuries.

The basic, deeper causes of the inconsistency are the denial (rejection) of the dialectical logic of development of adaptation processes in the athlete’s body at the level of the NMS, the long-outdated thinking style (paradigm) on the conceptual interpretation of motor qualities, which leads to a confusion of ideas [15] and gives rise to a metaphysical action algorithm when programming and organizing a training process.

A quantum leap in the NMS takes place only due to the selective increase in the expression of certain genes and the growth of the cellular structures that limit the necessary power of reduction of the neuromuscular system. This can be achieved only in the case of the block organization of the training process.

As seen from the findings of the forming experiment, "matching" of the accumulating and the transforming blocks-mesocycles is the focal point of transition from immediate to long-term adaptation. It is during this very transition when the qualitative dialectical leap in the development of explosive muscle strength occurs in bobsledders as a leading motor ability that defines the increase in sports results in the starting stride.

The block-type, multicyclic organization of the training process due to its "movement" - a blocks change of training methods - provides vitally important loads variation throughout all its parameters, not only between the blocks, but also within each of them, as the unidirectional load is much easier to vary rather than the multidirectional one. The combination of load modes and recovery is a great method of injury prevention which virtually nullifies the injury possibility.

References

  1. Bondarchuk, A.P. Periodizatsiya sportivnoy trenirovki (Sport training periodization) / A.P. Bondarchuk. - Kiev: Olympiyskaya literatura, 2005. – 303 P.
  2. Bulich, E.G. Fizicheskoe vospitanie v spetsialnykh meditsinskikh gruppakh: ucheb. posobie dlya tekhnikumov (Physical education in special medical groups: study guide for technical colleges) / E.G. Bulich. – Moscow: Vysshaya shkola, 1986. – 225 P.
  3. Verkhoshansky, Yu.V. Osnovy spetsial’noy silovoy podgotovki v sporte (Fundamentals of special strength training in sport) / Yu.V. Verkhoshansky. – Moscow: Fizkul'tura i sport, 1977. – 215 P.
  4. Verkhoshansky, Yu.V. Programmirovanie i organizatsiya trenirovochnogo protsessa (Planning and organization of the training process) / Yu.V. Verkhoshansky. – Moscow: Fizkul'tura i sport, 1985. – 175 P.
  5. Verkhoshansky, Yu.V. Osnovy spetsial’noy fizicheskoy podgotovki sportsmenov (Fundamentals of special physical training of athletes) / Yu.V. Verkhoshansky. – Moscow:  Fizkul'tura i sport, 1988. – 330 P.
  6. Verkhoshansky, Yu.V. Gorizonty nauchnoy teorii i metodologii sportivnoy trenirovki (Horizons of scientific theory and methodology of sports training) / Yu.V. Verkhoshansky // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul’tury. – 1998. – № 7. – P. 41–54.
  7. Vovk, S.I. Rost i uplotnenie nagruzok v sovremennom sporte vysshikh dostizheniy kak faktor obostreniya ikh vozdeystviy na dinamiku sostoyaniya organizma sportsmena (Growth and consolidation of loads in modern elite sport as a factor of aggravation of their effects on the dynamics of the physical status of athletes) / S.I. Vovk // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul’tury, 2012. – № 2. – P. 55–57.
  8. Vorob'ev, A.N. Tyazheloatleticheskiy sport. Ocherki po fiziologii i sportivnoy trenirovke. Izd. 2-e.  (Weightlifting sport. Essays on physiology and sports training. 2nd ed.) / A.N. Vorob'ev. – Moscow: Fizkul'tura i sport, 1977. – 255 P.
  9. Druz', V.A. Sportivnaya trenirovka i organizm (Body and sports training) / V.A. Druz'. - Kiev: Zdorov'e, 1980. – P. 34, 81.
  10. Issurin, V.B. Blokovaya periodizatsiya sportivnoy trenirovki (Block periodization of sports training) / V.B. Issurin. – Moscow: Sovetskiy sport, 2010. – 283 P.
  11. Komarova, A.D. Dinamika fizicheskoy podgotovlennosti yunykh metateley pri ravnomernom i kontsentrirovannom raspredelenii trenirovochnyih sredstv (Dynamics of physical fitness of young throwers in case of uniform and concentrated distribution of training methods) / A.D. Komarova, I.P. Buevskaya, L.P. Kanakova // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul’tury. – 1984.  – № 8. – P. 32–33.
  12. Medvedev, A.S. Sistema mnogoletney trenirovki v tyazheloy atletike (Long-term training in weightlifting) / A.S. Medvedev. – Moscow: Fizkul'tura i sport, 1986. – P. 118–122.
  13. Meyerson, F.Z. Adaptatsiya k stressornym situatsiyam i fizicheskim nagruzkam (Adaptation to stress situations and physical load) / F.Z. Meyerson, M.G. Pshennikova. – Moscow: Meditsina, 1988. – 256 P.
  14. Frolov, V.I., Frolov, P.V., Skotnikov, V.F. Blokovaya organizatsiya trenirovochnoy nagruzki u bobsleistov vysokoy kvalifikatsii v godichnom tsikle podgotovki (Block organization of training load in elite bobbers in the annual training cycle) / V.I. Frolov, P.V. Frolov, V.F. Skotnikov // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul’tury. – 2013. – № 4. – P. 71–75.
  15. Frolov, V.I. Dialektika vzaimodeystviy sistem organizma i fizicheskikh kachestv sportsmena (Dialectics of interactions of body systems and physical qualities of athletes) / V.I. Frolov // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul’tury. – 2013. – № 6. – P. 96–101.
  16. Yurkov, A.S. Sovershenstvovanie skorostno-silovoy podgotovki kvalifitsirovannykh razgonyayushchikh bobsleistov: avtoref. dis. ... kand. ped. nauk (Enhancement of speed and strength training of qualified brakemen: abstract of Ph.D. thesis). - Krasnoyarsk, 2012. – 25 P.

Corresponding author: p.v.frolov@gmail.com