Periodisation

LIMERICK, IRELAND (Irish Climbing Coaching) – Continuing on from our theme on ‘Motivation and Goal Setting’, we’ll move and deal with something that ties the psychological side of climbing and training (i.e. the preparation and mental side of things) with the physiological side (i.e. physical exercise). Though the two are very firmly intertwined in reality, it is far beyond the scope of these articles to go into it (guess you’ll have to come on one of our Coaching Workshops!!) As the step in developing your goals and maintaining your motivation, we are going to deal with the Periodisation. Periodisation is the method of varying your training periodically to prevent ’stagnation’ of the exercises and ensure the body is always having to adjust. It can be used to help maintain motivation levels and stave off boredom by changing things around every now and then. This is achieved by breaking your training into different phases, depending on the goals in mind. There are a number of different periodisation models and though all effectively achieve the same goal, research is conflicting as to which is best at eliciting gains (e.g. Buford, Rossi, Smith & Warren, 2007; Rhea, Ball, Phillips & Burkett, 2002). For the sake of simplicity, here we will deal with the most basic model, a Linear Model of Periodisation.

Macro, Meso and Micro-Cycles
In order to periodise your training, you need to break it down into ‘Blocks’. These blocks or cycles are targeted towards a specific goal and will contain the relevant training / exercises to realise your goal. A macro-cycle is a long cycle which may for example, last an entire season. This will contain a number of meso-cycles, shorter blocks of training which may last a few weeks and will each have a specific focus e.g. endurance, power-endurance, finger strength, slopers etc. Micro-cycles are then the shortest cycles and for this example will last a day/a few days.

Linear Periodisation
In a linear periodisation model, within a full macro-cycle, each meso-cycle builds on the foundations of the previous one. In climbing terms this may start with a 4-6 week stint of general whole-body conditioning, micro-cycles within this may only last one/a few days and may involve running/other cardio. activity or general low-intensity strength work. Each micro-cycle would vary slightly in activity, though still maintain the focus of generally conditioning the body for later training. This is a good time to start correcting any potential sources of injury that may strike later on. The next meso-cycle would then focus on long-term stamina training i.e. for long routes that generally don’t ‘pump’ you out too much. Building on this may be a meso-cycle of arm/shoulder strength whilst maintaining a few sessions to keep the stamina levels ‘topped-up’. So the basic concept is to start out with high-volume, low intensity activities and generally progress to lower-volume, higher intensity exercise. This all depends on the goal you are training for though, so again, must be directed towards your goals!

The Benefits of Periodisation

As well as keeping you ‘interested’ and maintaining your motivation levels, periodising your training keeps you more focused on your goals, makes your training more effective as your body is constantly having to adapt to changes and helps prevent injury and burnout as you’re not working the same thing all the time. This may seem complicated and may take a short time to get your head around it, the easier option is to just get a Climbing Coach to do do it for you…. Also it isn’t just something for elite climbers who train, it is very applicable to climbing itself and all levels of ability.

References:

Buford, T.W., Rossi, S.J., Smith, D.B. & Warren, A.J. (2007). A comparison of periodisation models during nine weeks with equated volume and intensity for strength. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(4), 1245 – 50.

Rhea, M.R., Ball, S.D., Phillips, W.T. & Burkett, L.N. (2002). A comparison of daily linear and undulating periodised programs with equated volume and intensity for strength. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 16(2), 250 – 55.

February 4, 2008 | nigelcallender | 4 Comments »

Motivation: directing towards the goals

KILDARE, IRELAND (Irish Climbing Coaching) – Following on from the previous theme, hopefully you’ll have been thinking about what keeps you motivated.
For most people, what keeps them motivated is the aim or desire to climb a new, harder grade.
Obviously, if you’re going to put some time in on a discipline, it makes sense that you actually enjoy what you’re doing as it’ll help keep you going when you’re busy, the weather is crap, you’re tired, etc. – i.e. what keeps you motivated?

So, now that you’ve an idea of what keeps you ticking, relate this to your aims goals for the year. This all links to what we’ve been talking about regarding goal setting. Most importantly, what you practice at, you’ll get better at. So if you’re hoping to improve your traditional climbing level, it makes sense that you’re going to have to focus on this type of climbing. Same goes for bouldering, sport climbing, etc.
What we mean here is that if you’re going to focus on trad climbing (taking this as the primary example as it’ll relate to many of the climbers in Ireland), you’re going to have to make sure your stamina is emphasized while training. Likewise for bouldering, it’s largely bouldering and strength/fingerboarding work that ye should be thinking about. Makes sense?
Having said that, I am going to contradict myself here a bit by saying that don’t completely disregard the other disciplines. While stamina is absolutely critical for trad climbing, if you’re not strong enough to do the moves it doesn’t matter how long you can stay on the wall. Trad climbers need to focus on some bouldering or strength training more than boulderers need to practise for some stamina!

Another idea to consider, and only slightly off-topic :) , is that of the motivations that come from those around you. If you’re looking for a catalyst for improving your climbing and staying motivated, make it an idea to climb with new people/strangers every once in a while. Just taking the effort to meet and climb with new people will help keep you on the path that you’re aiming for!

O.k., I’m not going to elaborate on this more today – it’ll take a few blog entries to get you thinking about this! We’ll start giving you an idea on the concepts of making up training plans in the coming days and weeks (although a climbing coach will be required to properly explain it all!).

Set yourself some time today and take 10 or 15 minutes to write down your goals for the year. Keep it short – don’t try to over-extend yourself! It might just help you realize what you need to think about to improve this year.

Image Credit: Unknown climber spitting off a project in Rodellar, Spain. Photo by Keith Ladzinzki – one of the best climbers in the states at present.

- Neal :) -

January 29, 2008 | neal.mcquaid | 6 Comments »

A Delicate Balance?

Limerick, IRELAND (Irish Climbing Coaching) – What is motivation? Sage in 1977 defined motivation as “the direction and intensity of one’s effort”. Though accurate, for me, this is too objective and sterile a view. Motivation is something very personal and may not always make much sense to anyone other than the individual concerned. In a global sense it’s something that stirs the soul and sends excited shivers through your body, sometimes it’s so powerful that it consumes you – every unoccupied moment is spent dreaming. More specifically for me in climbing terms; It’s the perfect line, the opening sequence to Underdeveloped, good times in nice places with close friends, a tiny improvement on a current project. A throw-away comment from a peer?

As a Junior at a climbing comp., I somewhat foolishly revealed a major personal ‘dream’ to a well known and respected climber on the scene then. I was told I was being unrealistic and the word ‘never’ was actually used, but I didn’t have the confidence to tell them exactly where to go and so shrugged it off. This one, small and careless comment had other plans however. It stuck fast in my mind and soon – I was consumed, it burned like a fire inside of me. I began training hard every day, with hindsight I was very lucky not to injure myself and also lucky that the age I was at meant the gains made, became a very solid foundation for the future.

7 years later, one of my closest friends and I found ourselves locked into respective long-term projects, in a well known climbing area in North Wales. Matt was attempting a long, sustained line right at his limit. Three months of focused effort found him falling from the final insecure moves, far beyond the crux, tens of times. My own efforts focused on a mere 6 moves right at my limit of the time. In my case, failure was much swifter. 3 moves in I met what was to become my Nemesis, one move shy of still hard, but less insecure ground. I fell from that move somewhere in the region of 400-500 times (this is not an exaggeration), many times almost reaching the key heel hook. The drives home following these sessions were quiet affairs, usually interrupted by random and unprovoked expletives or moans of “why” and “so close”, escapee’s from a tormented internal dialogue? We both understood.

Success for both of us came on the same day a short while later. Matt keeping it together for the last few moves of his line before latching the final hold screaming and clearly elated. Spurred on by his effort, I gave everything to holding the swing, reaching the heelhook and sketching my way to the top of my own Nemesis. The pressure instantly lifted, but this felt different, there were the usual shouts of success etc. but something was missing. Unfortunately motivation is a hugely complex beast. There was no lasting elation, only a feeling of relief. Soon after, another throw-away comment finalised a series of events that led me to give up climbing for good. Had I understood what was happening at the time I could have intervened before things progressed too far. In the end, ‘for good’ turned out to be almost 18 months, but it took a good friend to persuade me to return to the sport (for which I will be eternally grateful).

It’s not all sombreness though (there is always surfing after all :-) ) and as for the throw away comment as a junior; less than a year later I had shown my critic just how wrong he was and possibly showed myself that what is possible is limitless….even if motivation isn’t always.

Climbers are very critical. I know, I was one of the critics for far too long. I now realise the effects this can have on others. Chase your dreams like there is no tomorrow and shove the people who say ‘can’t’. Don’t let other people define your limits, they’re usually wrong and lack ambition.

The Spark that Re-Lit the Flame: Thanks to Rob Lamey for the Video!

I really feel a bit weird putting something so personal on the net, but I hope that some people who do find themselves in a similar situation (there is one in particular – you know who you are) maybe gain some tiny insight from it. More practical tips on keeping your motivation topped-up are to follow later in the week.

- Nige –

January 15, 2008 | nigelcallender | 2 Comments »

Goal Setting: The In’s and Out’s

LIMERICK, IRELAND (IrishClimbingCoaching) – Since Neal has started people thinking about their goals for the year, I thought it a good time to go a bit more in-depth into developing and planning your goals so they are as effective as possible. So, why set goals? There are many reasons, they add direction to your training, they provide markers of improvement, they keep you motivated if planned correctly. These are just a few. Does it work? Short answer – Yes, very well and not just in sport (e.g. see Locke, 1996).

People often set very general goals and leave it at that. E.g. ‘I want to improve my climbing’ (for anyone interested, these are known as subjective goals) this is good, as the individual has obviously had a think about roughly what they want to achieve. However, in order for you to use your goal setting effectively and also to give you the best possible chance of achieving them, we need to delve a little deeper. We need to develop objective goals, these are more specific and ‘guided’ goals. These can be broken down into 3 broad categories:

  • Outcome Goals – These are goals that focus specifically on the outcome of a task, often a competitive task e.g., Win the the Irish Bouldering League, or as Neal mentioned, become the first Irish climber to climb 8c+.
  • Performance Goals – These are goals that are generally measured against previous personal performances e.g., climb my first 5a. And are generally more specific in their outcome e.g. get 5 moves further on your current project route.
  • Process Goals – These goals focus on specific tasks, such as certain areas of technique e.g., keep my centre of gravity over my feet.

Next, these goals need to be further refined and so we apply the acronym MASTER
Measurable – Goals need to be measurable, otherwise, how would you know if/when you reach them.
Attainable – The goals need to be challenging but not unrealistic.
Specific – There’s no point in just saying ‘I want to climb harder’.
Timed – A point in time must be applied to each goal as a guide to when it should be achieved by.
Engaging – If the goal doesn’t interest YOU, you’re far less likely to achieve it.
Revisable – If the goal is looking unlikely, it is changeable.
So, now lets take a look at our goal of climbing 8c+ again and apply these few simple principles.

Now our Outcome Goal becomes ‘Become the first Irish Climber to climb 8c+, by climbing XXX route in Rodellar, Spain, by the 30th of June 2008′ ( No pressure Neal :-) )

A Performance Goal on the road to climbing 8c+ may be ‘On-Sight 5 8a+’s of XXX style by the 15th of May 2008′.

A Process Goal may be ‘Keep right leg flagged out on the crux move of said route on every subsequent attempt’. A bit more vague on the ‘Timed’ aspect, but still a good goal.

On top of using MASTER and setting Outcome, Performance and Process goals, what else needs to be considered?

  • Develop short, medium and long term goals as required. This is advantageous as the reaching the short-term goals provides a good motivation boost and also helps to keep you on track, however, by setting too many goals, things can become confused and less effective. 3 goals in each category is a good number, but better to start out with fewer until you get used to the goal setting process.

Short terms goals could just be for the current training session/days climbing or for the next week or two, mid term goals could extend from weeks to months and long term goals may extend for a number of months, possibly even years. Think about goals for Olympic athletes, they may realistically extend for 4 or even 8 years!

  • Record your goals – this is where keeping a training diary really helps, it allows for later review and it’s there in black and white.
  • Making your goals public has been shown to increase commitment to the task in question (Locke, 1996).

So, in summary, without the waffle:
- Define your more general, subjective goals.
- Set Outcome, Performance and Process Goals.
- Use the MASTER acronym to guide your goal setting.
- Develop short, medium and long-term goals, but not too many.
- Record your goals on paper.
- If you’re comfortable, make your goals public.

As an example of some of my own goals for the next while:
For those of you who don’t know me I had surgery on my shoulder recently which I am recovering from and so most of my goals at the moment are focused around this.
My main Outcome goal at the moment is…. To get my shoulder back to full functional strength by the 3rd week of March, it’s not a classic Outcome goal, but it is the overriding one at the moment.

My Performance Goals are:
1) Improve one specific aspect of my shoulder flexibility (External Rotation) to 90% of the ‘good’ shoulder’s range, by my next Physio appointment (4 weeks time).
2) To improve my internal and external rotation strength to 90% of the ‘good’ side by my next physio appointment (4 weeks time). At the moment it’s at 80%.

I consider these to be mid-term goals at the moment.
My process goals are:
1) Maintain good scapular (shoulder blade) position throughout all of my exercises in today’s session.
2) Complete 4 sets of 6 reps of bicep curls with green Theraband (the elastic stuff). 3) Don’t snag and snap this length of Theraband….it’s getting expensive!!

I understand that my current goals may not be the best examples, as there’s a bit of jargon in there, but the information above should point you in the right direction. The bottom line is that goals, whether you acknowledge you’re making them or not, are one of the foundations of success. Get your head around it now and you’ll be well set up.

Reference: Locke, E. (1996). Motivation through conscious goal setting. Applied and Preventative Psychology, 5(2), 117-124.

January 8, 2008 | nigelcallender | No Comments »
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