Recently I have been watching a great DVD called Block Periodization. It is a wonderful lecture with non other than Dr. Issurin as the main speaker. If you are familiar with his books or with his methods, you know that his programs, writings, and articles are very well sourced and can be scientifically explained in every detail. This DVD is no different, but you get the advantage of some more specific commentary and some Q&A at the end.
Issurin does a great job at starting off the lecture by bringing to the light how important it is to focus on only a minimal amount of abilities to be developed when training and advanced athlete and how the traditional methods just are not able to accomplish that....at all. Here are a few notes from my outline dealing with this subject:
Block= highly concentrated focus on a specific ability.
Traditional approach negative -inability to prolong effects until competition., inability to provide high level of development of any particular ability. Multi-performance prep.
Tendencies (reasons for blocks).
Multiple performances: # of competitions increased in advanced level sports due to popularity.
Training workloads replaced by competitive workloads: total training volumes decreased. Now coaches train more selectively, purposeful, and focus on mastery within these cycles.
It is important to note that this sort of athletic development is for the advanced athletic population and that concurrent or traditional methods will work fine in the development of beginner and novice athletes. Dr. Issurin is easy to understand and lays out the concepts of his methods clearly and concise. It is a four hour lecture in which he doesn't hold anything back and you can supplement this with his book on the subject as well.
This and many other amazing resources can be found at ultimate athlete concepts
