A Strength & Power Training Decision Tree
Is there an easier decision-making process to decide what training our athletes need?
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By Jesper Gustafsson
19th March 2020 | 5 min read
Contents of Blog Post
Strength and power training are training modalities commonly used by Strength & Conditioning (S&C) coaches, as both qualities underpin the execution of many essential athletic skills in a variety of sports (Suchomel 2016). As an S&C coach, many vertical lower-body power tests measure an athlete’s maximum power capabilities.
Tests such as the countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), eccentric utilization ratio (EUR), drop jump test (DJ) and force-velocity profiling (FVP) all provide us with different insights into an athlete’s maximum vertical lower-body power capabilities.
Yet, a legitimate question for S&C coaches is ‘How should the data from each of these individual tests be used to build an overall picture of an athlete’s lower-body power capabilities, to help guide training program design?’.
Therefore, this article aims to provide a framework model, using a decision tree to outline how S&C coaches might use the tests mentioned above, to gain a holistic insight into an athlete’s maximum vertical lower-body power capabilities.
The article may also help practitioners answer some critical questions regarding the individualization of strength and power training. This is of high importance, as elite athletes with a substantial level of maximal strength and power require a more advanced, novel and individualized, specific training for adaptation to occur (Cormie 2011).
As we have now outlined the characteristics of each lower-body power test and what insight each can provide us with, it is now time to present the decision tree. The decision tree starts from the top and successively follows from thereon out.
The cursive text outlines which test that is used to answer the programming question (blue boxes) and which criterion that is used in the evaluation process of each test (green boxes). The blue boxes in the bottom outlines which type of exercises that could be appropriate for each possible scenario.
Based on the data collected, is an athlete in need of strength training/ballistic slow SSC training or speed-strength/plyometric fast SSC training? The EUR score can help guide this decision. This should not be an “either-or” approach, as the two separate pathways help decide what the main emphasis of an athlete’s program should be, not the only emphasis.
Depending on the selected pathway, the second question is at which intensity/training zone an athlete should train? In the “strength-pathway,” there should be a higher emphasis on the maximal strength and strength-speed whereas, in the “plyometric training” pathway, higher emphasis should be placed on speed-strength.
The third question we should answer is which exercises we should prescribe our athletes for our desired outcome? In the decision tree, a few examples of exercises that can fit within each category if loaded appropriately and execute with maximal intent. With this decision, S&C coaches should not limit themselves to a program based solely on strength or plyometric training. Instead, there should be a balance based on the athletes previously determined needs, where the decision tree can guide us in which type of exercises our athlete needs to work on more heavily
Many lower-body power tests can give S&C coaches different insights into athletes maximum vertical lower-body power capability. As an S&C coach, it might be confusing how all these different tests should be interpreted when designing strength and plyometric training programs.
This blog post provides you with a framework model (decision tree), that can help you as an S&C coach to interpret data before designing a program which includes individualized strength, strength-speed, ballistic and plyometric exercises with an appropriate balance.
Jesper Gustafsson PGDip
Head of Sports Science at Västerås SK
Jesper is Head of Sport Science in Västerås SK (2nd league in Swedish Football) and Lecturer in Sport Science at Örebro University. Jesper holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Sport Science and is about to finish his Bachelor´s degree in Physiotherapy and his Postgraduate Certificate in Strength & Conditioning
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