DOUBLE DEGREE IN ED.

PRIMARY AND CCAFD

TOPIC 14: STAGES AND ORGANIZATION

OF LONG-TERM TRAINING
SPORTS TRAINING
YASIR MOHAMED BACHIR

201
7

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND HUMANITIES. UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA

 INDEX

> Introduction
> Stages and organization of long-term training
o Relationship between different types of training in a long-term
plan
o Preparation of long-term plan
o The Olympic cycle or four-year plan
or How to plan for the long term?
o Some examples of important aspects of planning
> Planning in long-season and team sports.
o Phases of periodization in long-season sports
o Team sport
> Bibliography
 TOPIC 14: STAGES AND ORGANIZATION OF
LONG-TERM TRAINING

Introduction

A well-organized and planned training program over a long period of time increases the
efficiency of preparation for future major competitions.

■ Introduces a rational use of training means and methods.

■ It facilitates a specific and concrete assessment of the athlete's progress.

Sports planning is a process of systematic improvement of sports performance that is

governed by basic pedagogical principles (Hellbrandt, 1977). The performance of any athlete
depends mainly on his or her own qualities and abilities. And these depend, in turn, on the
physiological, motor, technical and physical study of the athlete, as well as their theoretical
knowledge and practical experiences.

The training process should be oriented towards the development of the capacities and
qualities that each athlete uses to obtain his particular sporting achievement and, on the other
hand, the knowledge of the essential duration to carry out a systematic sports preparation that
allows the athlete to reach his final goals. It has become clearer in recent years that maximum
performance can only be achieved when the necessary foundations are laid from childhood and
adolescence.

The consistent, systematic and long-term preparation of athletes to achieve their maximum
sporting performance has therefore acquired considerable importance. The achievement of High
Performance can be facilitated by the following sequential training system (Bompa, 1983):

Talent identification-Long-term planning-Methodological and scientific training-High

performance.

Stages and organization of long-term training

A long-term training plan should consider the following factors:

 1. The number of years of systematic training required for an athlete to achieve high
performance.

The average number of years needed to achieve high performance is 5-7 of regular
training.

2. The age at which high performance is achieved.

Numerous studies have shown that in sports that require considerable speed in
movements, the greatest possibilities exist between the ages of 2024. But the greater the
muscular strength and endurance required by a sport, the closer the optimal age is to 30
years or even older. In turn, sports in which success depends on the art of movement,
considerably reduce the optimal age. The long-term training plan should be based on the
following three age zones of the athlete's capabilities:

- FIRST ZONE: Of the greatest successes in sport.

- SECOND ZONE: The best (optimal) possibilities for the athlete.
- THIRD ZONE: With high sporting results;

It corresponds to the dynamics of the age at which each athlete achieves success: elevation,
highest level and stabilization with possible periodic decreases.

3. The level of preparation and natural abilities of the athlete.

When drawing up the training level development curve, it should be considered that the
rates of development are highest in the first stages of training and less so in the following years.
There are also age periods in which the rates of development are highest for indicators of speed,
strength, flexibility, mastery of technique, etc.

4. The age at which specialized training should begin.

One of the most discussed aspects of long-term sports preparation is the need to acquire the
necessary foundations of multilateral development to achieve adequate specialization. The base
of the pyramid, which by analogy should be considered as the foundation of any training
program, consists of multilateral development.

It is common to observe how some young athletes develop faster than their peers. In these
cases, the coach must resist the temptation to develop a training program that leads to clear
specialization. The relationship between the right time to start training, the time at which
specialization can begin and the age at which maximum results are achieved have been the
subject of many studies. However, there is no need to fear the creation of a special foundation
early, because individual functional potential and the ability to adapt to certain stimuli are more
important than age.

The rate of development of capabilities and skills is greater in young people than in adults
(Espenshade, 1960). Practicing sports at an appropriate intensity, in accordance with individual
potential, leads to special adjustments in the young person's body according to the needs and
characteristics of the sport. This creates the physiological premises for specialized training at a
later age. When solving these problems, children should be spared from excessive stress,
without trying to achieve sporting results. Children "should play sports." However, the
important educational and emotional role of competitions should not be forgotten, even with
younger children, although the duration and nature of the competitive loads must respond to the
individual capabilities and age of the children.

5. Factors affecting behavior in adulthood

The way in which the training means and loads are applied to the different physical
capacities, the levels of growth and development of said capacities, as well as the important
genetic load that these capacities have, will determine, to a large extent, the response of the
sporting performance of each individual.

Ozolin (1983) divides the long-term plan into two general phases: Preparatory and
Specialization.

During the preparatory phase, the content of the training should be mainly multilateral,
during which the physical (morphological and functional), technical, tactical and psychological
premises necessary for specialized training should be developed.

The main tasks to be performed in this phase are:

1. Using a wide variety of exercises.

2. The use of application exercises for the chosen sport.

3. Acquisition of simple skills from other sports.

4. Acquisition of the technique of the chosen sport.

5. Subject athletes to various types of competition (in various events/sports) so that they
learn to cope with stress.
 6. Develop the athlete's determination, firmness and will to pursue a goal.

For the specialization phase, the following tasks must be considered:

1. Improve the level of general physical preparation.

2. Develop and improve the fundamentals of special physical preparation.

3. Perfect the technique of the selected sport.

4. Perfecting the technical actions of the sport.

5. Improve the psychological aspects specific to sport.

6. Learn the theoretical aspects related to training for the sport practiced, as well as the use of
daily training.

Relationship between different types of training in a long-term plan

We have already mentioned that in order to develop a long-term plan it is necessary to

take into account the age of the athlete. For younger athletes, the duration of the plan should
range between 6-8 years. For juniors (over 16 years) and elite athletes, a duration of four years
is recommended. In relation to the duration of the plan, each of them is based on multilateral
physical preparation, on top of which the foundation of specialized training is built, which
facilitates a very high level of specialized training, according to the particularities and needs of
the selected sport. The work should increase gradually in each annual cycle and as the work
progresses, the relationship between the three types of training should vary.

Making a long-term plan

According to Bompa (1983), the preparation of a long-term plan should take into
account the following methodological premises:

a) An athlete's performance goals need to be related to sport-specific factors.

b) As the athlete progresses, the coach should increase the number of training sessions
and hours per year, as well as the number and frequency of competitions.

c) A long-term plan should annually increase training volume and intensity according
to the dominant component of the sport and the needs of the athlete.

d) On an annual basis, especially for top athletes, the coach should vary the emphasis on
the different types of exercises used in training. At the beginning, a wide variety of exercises is
suggested, and then these are reduced and directed towards increasingly direct action. This
system will help the athlete adapt to the particularities of the selected sport.

e) The plan should specify the tests, and, if possible, the standards, that must be passed
each year. This will help the coach to continually assess and discover the athlete's strongest and
weakest points in training. Tests and standards should be applied considering the following:

1) Select a small number of tests.

2) Tests must be specific and reflect the characteristics of the sport.

3) Ensure consistency by using the same tests over a long period of time during the
same training phases.

4) Demand higher and higher standards each year to reflect the demand and
improvement of all training factors. Medical checks should be an integral part of the assessment
of the athlete's training and health.

f) A long-term plan should incorporate all the particularities of a sport. For example, in
acyclic sports, the technical and tactical elements have to be reflected by specific indices such
as: number, degree of difficulty and variety of technical elements; the number, degree of
difficulty and variety of tactical aspects; the degree of general and specific physical preparation;
4) the standards of a test have to reflect the physical requirements of a good physical condition,
and the performance predictions.

g) The progression of the number of sessions and hours of training per year should be
included in the plan. In most sports, you start at 200-250 in the early years, increasing towards
the end of the plan to around 400 per year.

For elite athletes it rises to 500-650 especially for individual sports. The number of
hours should follow a similar pattern, between 400 for beginners and 1,000-1,200 for world-
level athletes.

THE OLYMPIC CYCLE OR FOUR-YEAR PLAN

The Olympic cycle or four-year plan should be considered as part of the long-term plan.
It can be used to better organize a non-Olympian's long-term program or to design a preparation
plan for an Olympiad.

There are two methodological systems for the organization and planning of a four-year
plan:
 1. The monocyclic system

2. The bicyclic system

The monocyclic system

Under this system, all training factors and components increase progressively each year
culminating in the Olympic Games. The disadvantage is that athletes who follow this system
experience a continuous increase in stress, without a year in which a longer discharge phase can
be planned.

The bicyclic system

In this system the load increases in a wave-like manner. Often, at the end of an Olympic
year, when a new cycle begins, the intensity and stress of training are lowered so that relative
regeneration can be achieved.

FIRST YEAR: During this year, the coach builds the foundations for the second year,
when the intensity increases, especially due to a greater training volume load.

SECOND YEAR: During the second year, highly demanding competitions are planned
where the predicted performances must be achieved, and whose assessment will allow the coach
to make an analysis of the progress of the plan halfway through its duration.

THIRD YEAR: Although the level of work is higher than in the first year, it should be
considered a year of relief, in preparation for the following year. Although the training volume
can be quite high, the intensity and number of high-demand competitions should be reduced.
This would lead the athlete to train this year under the idea of regeneration in order to be able to
face the Olympic year with an extremely tough training program.

FOURTH YEAR: The coach tries to increase the athlete's performance through wise use
of his talent and the knowledge he has of it.

The bicyclic system is more recommended for those athletes who have reached the
optimal age for sport and for those who, having a solid base, are planning to compete in the
Olympics. For younger athletes, the monocyclic system is more advisable because its objectives
are a constant improvement in the age of maturity in the chosen sport. However, for some
athletes who have important intermediate goals, such as World Championships or European
Championships, the system applied may be monocyclic, using regeneration periods in the
transition phases of each year of training.
 On the other hand, the percentage of the total amount of work with which one begins the
preparatory phase must be modified slightly to allow for a wave system. Thus, for the post-
Olympic year (year 1 of the plan) one can start with a load equal to 30% of the maximum level
of the previous year.

In the second year, the total charge can start at around 40% while in the third year it
will return to 30% again, allowing for better regeneration. Finally, the plan for the Olympic year
would begin with a load equal to 50% of the highest level achieved the previous year.

How to plan for the long term?

In order to develop a long-term sports project that allows the athlete to achieve optimal
performance, it is necessary to start with the initial approach of certain fundamental questions,
the answers to which configure the phases of the development of the long-term preparation
plan:

1. What is available? Analysis and diagnosis of the status of the athlete's resources and
the sports preparation system.
2. What do you want to achieve? Establishment of plan goals, complemented by
objectives at all levels of implementation.
3. How is it done? Organization of resources and specification of methodological aspects
for the development of the plan.
4. How is it controlled? Evaluation, monitoring and rectification of plan.

SOME EXAMPLES OF IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF LONG-TERM PLANNING

1. The workload, number of competitions and degree of specialization should increase

depending on age and years of training. General work (G) should predominate in the
early stages of training, then gradually decrease and give greater entry to specialized
training.
2. The training elements of each sport or sports specialty are distributed differently
depending on the training stage, and taking into account the particularities of each sport.
3. The training load should increase from year to year, respecting the variations of each
year based on the annual training periodization.
4. The total volume of the training load should increase slowly, depending on the
 characteristics of the stages.
5. Training must be differentiated according to the differences and particularities of youth
training and high performance training (see table in the Catalan article).
6. The duration and frequency of training increases with age, taking special care to
distribute it at early ages.
7. The goals, means, peculiarities, duration and age of each training stage must be
expressly clear in order to plan the long-term training process.
8. The more references the long-term plan has regarding training aspects, the greater
guarantees it will offer for the athlete's future performance.

Planning in long-term and team sports.

Traditional and block periodizations are not suitable for sports in which, over a period
of approximately 9 months, competition takes place once or twice a week (league or long-
season sports).

A long-season sport is one that has a medium-long competition period (6-9 months)
and a closed and random competition calendar (the most important competitions may be at the
beginning, middle or end of the season). Normally, you compete once or twice a week and you
have to maintain competitive regularity throughout the season.

The temporal distribution of the load is based on the phases of sports form and the
competition calendar. To prepare for such a demanding season, only 6 to 9 weeks are available
at the start of the season.

The preparation would follow a format similar to the following:

- Preseason: 1 or 2 months.
- League-competition: Approximately 9 months.
- Rest: 1 month.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Preseason League-Competition Rest

Throughout the season, the athlete goes through three states of form:

- General form (FG): It is the form of acquisition. It is achieved in the preseason (end of
the adaptation phase) and is characterized by a high level of conditioning capabilities of
the athlete, which helps them to use tactical technical capabilities and be capable in
competition.
 - High form (AF): Average competition form. It is characterized by developing a high
level of technical (biomotor) capabilities and good tactical reasoning. The development
of conditional capacities is specific, which, together with good psychological
preparation, allows the athlete to achieve near-maximum performance.
- Optimal form (PF): This is the maximum form and is reached on specific dates. This
state lasts a very short time, and can be achieved several times in the season. Players,
due to their individual response to specific exercises, jump to this superior state of
fitness at different times.

When the preseason begins, the goal is for the athlete to reach a certain level of general
fitness. This is followed by the acquisition stage with the aim of achieving a high level of
fitness, which must be maintained throughout the season. At certain times, peaks of maximum
form are reached for 2-3 weeks, called optimal form.

Phases of periodization in long-term sports

Annual periodization is divided into three phases:

- Preseason.
- Regular season or league.

- Transition to the next league.

Preseason

This is the phase prior to the start of the competition, in which the fundamentals of physical,
technical-tactical and psychological condition are created. It lasts 6 to 9 weeks.

It consists of three cycles:

- An introductory cycle or adaptation microcycle (3-4 day microcycle)
- A main cycle (mesocycle of 4-5 microcycles)
- Transformation cycle (mesocycle of 2-3 microcycles)
 Preseason
Introductory
Main cycle (4-5 microcycles) Transformation cycle (2-3
microcycle (3-4
days)
microcycles)

Introductory cycle

It is the first cycle that is carried out when the athlete returns to training, following the structure
of a gradual but shorter microcycle. It lasts 6-8 sessions divided into 3-4 days (double sessions),
although if the athlete comes with a very low level, he or she will not be able to endure these
double sessions.

Its basic objective is to initiate biological adaptations to training loads. The loads are
fundamentally conditional, of a basic nature and oriented towards aerobic resistance, strength
resistance and elasticity.

If the sport is played with a mobile phone, it is interesting to include some of these activities
with it to encourage motivation.

Main cycle

It is made up of 4 or 5 microcycles and its main objectives are to improve resistance and
specific strength, along with tactical technical development.

- Improving specific resistance

o Specific loads are the best approach for improving endurance, while non-
specific resistance loads are few. The specific loads are structured in a similar way
to the internal logic of the sport:

■ Specific exercises of variable intensity, fractionated, short duration and

short breaks.
■ Specific motor exercises, gestures of the sport itself.
o The evolution of the training load occurs by increasing the specific loads and
decreasing the general loads until they almost disappear.
o The accumulation of basic and specific conditional loads creates reserve
adaptations to maintain fitness throughout the season.

❖ Improving specific strength: First, base strength (maximum strength) is created and then
specific strength (explosive-elastic strength and power) is developed.
It is made up of an initial current microcycle and then three or four shock microcycles
 (the first two with a general orientation and the following ones with a specific one).

Transformation cycle

It lasts two to three microcycles, during which the aim is to adapt the acquired individual
adaptations to the needs of the competition, acquire the team's level of play and acquire the
training, competition and recovery inertias typical of the competitive period.

The load magnitudes are modified as follows:

❖ Decrease in overall workload.

❖ Decrease in basic loads and increase in specific loads.
❖ Basic loads are primarily oriented towards maintaining strength, focusing on the power
component. This force is used to improve the speed of movement.

❖ Several competition matches are held (7-9 matches, alternating rivals, the last 2-3
without fatigue, as a training stimulus and a means of control).

Regular season or league

It is the longest phase of the macrocycle and in it, the conditional contents are reduced in favor
of the technical-tactical aspects.

Conditions for microcycles

The microcycle is the basic structure of the season and is characterized by the fact that each
week there are usually one or two races. Depending on the number and type of competitions,
there are certain conditions for microcycles:

❖ When more than one match is held per week

o The competition itself is the stimulus that maintains the state of form.
o Most of the time in the microcycle is spent on recovery and pre-competition
activation and post-competition recovery.

❖ When there is no competition in one or two microcycles

o Provide additional rest days and train with basic conditional reinforcement loads,
especially explosive-elastic strength.

❖ Competitions of greater relevance

o Reduce the total training volume, especially the basic loads and the duration of
 the sessions (specific loads are performed), to face the competition in the best
shape and with the desire to compete.

❖ Concentration of important competitions in 3-4 microcycles

Three to five microcycles before, we carry out a special training plan:
o For 2-3 microcycles, increase basic strength and endurance stimuli.
o Leave 1-2 recovery microcycles between them and important competitions.

❖ For players who participate less in the competition

o Increase training loads, both specific and basic, in order to improve individual
development.

❖ Applying the principle of variety, sporadically modifying the basic structure of the
microcycle, has positive effects on group dynamics.
o Increase or decrease the duration and frequency of training.
o Modify the structure, the days based on good or bad results, subjective
perceptions of fatigue…

❖ As the season progresses

Especially in the last third, the overall training volume decreases, with the number and
duration of sessions decreasing. The basic
 improvement loads disappear, leaving only the specific loads, of specific intensity, and
the recovery loads.
Construction of microcycles

■ Microcycle type with 1 competition

o At this stage, it is essential to work specifically.
o The physical content is greatly reduced and the technical-tactical aspects
increased.
o Progressive decrease in weekly volume throughout the season, maintaining
the intensities.

CONDITIONING

PHYSIC

■ Microcycle type with 2 competitions

Biological stimulation takes a backseat and recovery sessions and preparation for
competition become more important. A workout can be included on Friday, but only if it
is not too heavy.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Team sports

In team sports, it is not necessary to be in excellent physical condition to perform in

competition. For this reason, planning for these sports does not focus exclusively on acquiring
and maintaining optimal fitness, but rather on the individual athlete and their continuous
improvement. The objective is to achieve constant adaptive changes that are qualified
optimizers of the different systems that configure, in all aspects, the human being. The
manifestation of this optimization will be the improvement of performance in competition, if
the Planning was built in the precise terms.

This change of perspective is essential for making a specific plan for team sports, since
it is not a matter, as happens in individual sports, of constructing it only with the subjective
criteria of how the person making the proposal, the coach, sees the sport, but, on the contrary,
doing so by attending to the optimization needs that the athlete presents in relation to his own
conception of the competitive game. The coach, with his experience, makes a forecast of the
possible training events that will presumably optimize the systems that he estimates may be
necessary for the athlete to perform, but it is in the subsequent design, already set out in the
definition, when the coach will provide an effective solution tailored to the true optimization
needs that appear at each stage and phase of the athlete's sporting life, once the individual has
experienced specific and frequent competitive situations.

Therefore, it is not planned according to a predetermined model, however complete it

may have been built, but by organizing the events of subsequent training in such a way that
the individual continually optimizes his systems in the direction that he himself will mark as a
consequence of the difficulties he encounters in the practice of a sports specialty, and the
evolution of his own optimization.

Characteristics

It will be unique, that is, it must achieve the optimization of all the systems that make
up the athlete's person, since this is a hypercomplex structure in which each system
necessarily interrelates with all the others and, from this interaction, the capacity is developed.

As regards the sport practised, the planning must be specific and appropriate to the
specialisation in question.

In addition, it will have to be personalized, adjusted to the specific needs of the

athlete at each moment of their relationship with sport.
Functions of planning

> Define the training objectives, extracted from each Phase of the personalized project
and corresponding to that moment in the player's sporting life, to adapt them to the
individual.
> Describe the elements of training that are specific to the specialty and arise from
its structural characteristics, which are estimated to be the most efficient for achieving
those objectives.
> Logical organization of the elements and contents of the training that have been
chosen, all in accordance with the principles and laws of the supporting reference
theories.
> Design the sequence and quantification of the training load based on the
competition and its meaning for the player, which must be carried by those
elements at different times during the training process.
> Select the individual systems where these loads will be directed to control their
performance settings.
> Propose the most appropriate types of training for each and every one of the
previously selected systems, as well as the application time and its consequences.
> Have valid control mechanisms in place to monitor all of these processes and their
effects on the athlete's different systems.
> Provide technology to support the evaluation of athletes during competitions in
order to analyse the impact they have on them.

All these functions allow the training process to be kept under continuous review to adapt it
more and more to the personal needs of the player.

Basic training objectives for team sports

We are looking for specific training for team sports that achieves:

1. High control of the training load.

2. Performance with a low number of workouts.
3. Sufficiently varied, attractive to the player.
4. Quick to assimilate, due to the proximity of the competitions.
5. Allows you to maintain your fitness level throughout the competition season.

According to Seirulo (1998), it can be achieved with structured training with:

 ■ Certain conditions of pre-season planning.
■ Certain conditions of the season planning. Microstructuring.
■ Certain conditions for building training sessions and systems. Preferential simulating
situations.

Training load design

The proposal presented below is specific to team sports and has been tested for more than 19
years on High Performance Phase athletes. It is based on Werchosanskij's theories of charge
concentration. This proposal presents different alternatives, depending on whether the sport
has a certain preference in conditional capacity towards Strength-Endurance, or towards
Endurance-Speed.

In the preseason:

VCCE = Concentrated volume of specific condition.

Mountain biking = Volume of Technique-Tactics.
VCG = Generic condition volume.
YO. = Intensity

If the player has respected his sporting life plan, upon reaching the High Performance
Phase he can carry out this loading design during the preseason. The duration of the VCCE It
is 45-50% of the total duration of the preseason.

Next, although it has already begun, a certain volume during the block is a high
increase in the volume dedicated to Technical-Tactical Development (VTT), and the slope of
this curve must always be adjusted to personalized needs.
 The intensity curve (I) is initially increasing until the VCCE obtains its highest value,
from that point it descends until the VCCE block time ends In this way we can face the
increase in VTT with sufficient guarantees of obtaining the level of execution of the
Technique that, at this time of the season, is necessary.

The rest of the design of this curve is a consequence of the concentrated load theory,
which supports this proposal. The design of the VCG curve It solves some of the requirements
of high competition, increases in this generic condition (not specific to the specialty) appear at
times when, mainly, the biological and motor systems, suffer sudden changes in load. This
generic condition acts as a buffer against the traumatic effects that the load effect could cause
in functional systems, and it does not detract from its specific character.

For this same reason, and for the basic needs of the training methodology, a certain
level of VCG is maintained. for the remainder of the preseason.

This load design can include pre-season competitions and summer tournaments, which
are valued as VTT, replacing a certain volume of sessions aimed at that objective.

On the contrary, during the VCCE period, it is not advisable to hold competitions,
because the intensity curve (I) would be greatly altered, with a clear impact on the fitness level
at the end of the Preseason. Only in the last third of VCCE, when the VTT increases, if the
team against which we compete were of a much lower level than ours, a competition could be
undertaken, provided that it was permitted by regulation, to introduce modifications that
would cause low needs for participation intensity in order to, in this way, adjust to the
indicated curve (I) of intensity. The effect of this load design produces different levels of
fitness.

PRESEASON DURATION
FIGURE 4

EEF = Specific State of Form.

 EGF = General State of Fitness.

The EGF It is what allows us to perform, in better conditions, tasks that are not specific to our
specialty. It so happens that, in the generic condition test, improvements are seen in the first
moments of the preseason, while during the course of the season and, especially at the end of
it, this type of performance remains the same and decreases significantly. In Figure 5 we see
an example of the vertical jump test with feet together and stopped during a preseason, given
to the entire team in the High Performance Phase.

The opposite happens with EEF, which with this load design and this training
orientation, is the specific fitness state of our specialty. Form, on the line marked on the state
of form in team sports.

In Figure 6 we see an example of a capacity similar to the one described above.

Vertical jump test, with specific prior displacement and simple decision making, which can be
considered as a value for the measurement of a quality closer to the specific and
corresponding condition of the EEF

Fig- 6.

In the competition season:

The design of the load during the competition season is entirely dependent on the
competition conditions of team sports. Typically, in these sports, competition takes place on
the weekend and throughout the season continuously.
 Therefore, the design of the load must be adapted to this exceptional circumstance, in a
way that we will call microstructuring. It is a self-structured microcycle, with its own
functional unit, integrated into the Season, composed of as many microstructures as necessary
to complete the total competition time. In addition, each of these microstructures is dependent
on the others that make up the season and, in turn, it includes the loading elements that allow
the microstructure to be in the desired state of form at the end, in order to compete at the
highest level at the weekend. Using the reactive inertia of functional systems, raised and
induced during the Preseason, we designed the loading of the microstructure in the same
dimensions as we did there.

BT =Season Block.
Mountain biking = Volume of Technique-Tactics.
VCG = Generic Quality Volume
YO. = Intensity.

The profile of the curves is similar to that designed in the Preseason, in order to
achieve this adaptation of biological habits to the acceptance of very fast and intense dynamic
loads.

The VTT proposal It is very similar, in content and design, to the Preseason one, it
is faster, its initial slope is greater, so that during the BT we can include more technical-
tactical content.

There is greater variation in the intensity curve (I), which is faster and earlier, both
for BT and VTT values, which causes a high concentration of load in the central days of the
microcycle, ensuring, with its subsequent decrease, a sufficient state of fitness at the weekend
to be able to face the competitions with guarantees.

Also, as happens in these sports, there may also be a competition on Wednesday.

With this proposed intensity, it will be sufficient to bring forward the competition to Tuesday,
the week before, to produce a change in dynamics that will allow the competition to be held at
a sufficiently competitive level. In this way, the design of the volumes will not have to be
modified, but their contents will have to be modified, except for the VTT, but very
significantly the BT, during the competition week.

It is very important to know the competitive calendars well in advance, in order to

reorganize these curves in the indicated way. The VCG curve It meets the same objectives as
its preseason counterpart, just note that on Monday, the increase in the value of this curve is
due to recovery training, if it is done.

The big modifications and alternatives are in BT and that is why we have changed
its name from VCCE of the Preseason. It can have two design options, although both are
initially different from the VCCE, since they only have two components in their content.
These two components can be successive, complementary or synergistic in action.

Literature

Añó, V (1997). Planning and organizing youth training. Gymnos publishing house. Madrid.

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