Written by: Matrixx Ferreira
A Bingo Card Style System To Manage Chaos
There is never a perfect way to prepare or plan for the unexpected in sports. That being said, having flexible systems that are easier to adapt to the ups and downs of a season can certainly make management easier. Here’s how we do it.
When it comes to training during the season, our first priority will always be the sport itself. We do our best to ensure we hit the minimum effective training dosage outside of practices and games; a stimulus just potent enough to elicit an effect while ensuring sufficient time for athletes to recover in order to perform optimally once again. In theory, this seems pretty straightforward. In reality, the chaotic nature of sport (and life) make a straightforward logical progression almost impossible. So what do we do?
The reality that is our own physiology states that in order to maintain or build certain physical qualities, we must train and recover at certain thresholds. From what we’ve seen with our athlete group, we must be training at around 90-95% of our top speed in order to improve speed. For our athlete group, we work at thresholds around 75% or so of our max output for strength. To add another layer of complexity, each of these qualities detrain at different rates. For our group, we typically see a decline in speed performance anywhere from 5-8 days. Therefore, we’ll usually hit a speed session weekly in order to “spin that plate”.
As you can imagine, balancing a holistic training plan on top of games, practices, and life can be extremely difficult. Add proper hours of sleep and good nutrition in the mix and now you’ve found yourself in a labyrinth of a rabbit hole. So, like most aspects of performance, we aim to keep things simple.
Training is a necessary supplement to sport performance. Knowing this, we must understand our role is one of stress management. We must cater our plans around the demands of sport, practice, and life as best possible. So, we’ve modified a popular quadrant style approach (kudos Daniel Bove) that helps us better select the appropriate training days for the week that is dependent on the demands of the week itself.
As you can see in the diagram, we’ve bucketed training days and relevant emphases into 4 sections, each with a volume/intensity prescription catered to the timeline (and stress demands) of practices and games. Here’s a breakdown:
Regenerate (G + ½)
This is our recovery day. Something of very low volume and intensity that is great for just after a game. We think of it like an extended warm up; we’re getting some low impact movement to flush the body and get circulation for recovery. Simple mobility circuits, low intensity conditioning or light hypertrophy work can be great for recovery.
Work/Build (G – ⅔)
This is our higher volume day where we can hammer some density as it pertains to tissue stress. We’re able to use full range exercises and extensive plyometrics to focus on building robust tissue and keep joints healthy. Work days are great earlier in the week to account for general soreness; we can load our athletes knowing they’ll recover in the coming days.
Perform/Energize (G – ½)
This is our higher intensity ballistic day with lower volumes. We up the nervous system stress and aim to manage tissue stress. We’ll utilize more position specific exercises at higher velocities to prime the nervous system for games in the coming days. Perform days are great one day or two out from competition; athletes feel “on” and energized. We’ll typically implement contrast sprint work, plyometrics and/or explosive exercises using faster bar speeds and different angles to get our nervous system ready. Pepper in some full range general strength work as needed and we’re good to go.
Game/Execute (G/No G)
This is the highest intensity day. Both neural and tissue stresses are abundant. We utilize position specific high intensity exercises across both speed and strength spectrums in order to hone our training expression. If there is a game that day, volumes are cut in half BUT the intent is still maximal. Athletes should feel they have more in the tank. If they don’t have a game, we can keep volumes at a moderate level. Top speed sprinting, intensive plyometrics, heavy compound strength work are all staples of game day lifts.
Across a training week, we’ll simply select the bucket most appropriate for the day. We call it the Performance Bingo Card. You might have athletes doing a couple performance style days and a game day each week. Others might have a couple work days and a regen day, it’s all dependent on the demands each athlete faces across the week as it pertains to systemic and tissue stress. This is how we manage the chaos of sport and supplementary training.
Is it perfect, of course not. However, we’ve found the flexibility to adapt while ensuring appropriate dosages to elicit training effects to be quite beneficial. It also makes scheduling easier so athletes don’t fear doing too much or too little when it matters most. At the end of the day, we need our athletes to perform their best while navigating through sport and life itself. The weight room comes second.
Matrixx, the founder and owner of Iron Performance Center, is dedicated to the relentless pursuit of knowledge and its practical application to guarantee the success of his athletes and clients. He has trained numerous athletes for international competitions, including the World Championships and Olympic Games. Matrixx focuses on developing young athletes and preparing them for potential NCAA opportunities. He also works with many elite volleyball, basketball, and rowing competitors, helping them to achieve podium success.
