The Forgotten Aspect of Programming

Systematically, strength and conditioning for athletes is looked at through a short term lens. In the numerous assessments I’ve been a part of, I’ve seen a large emphasis on mobility, power, speed, and throwing velocity. These are great tools to assess athletes with, but simply attacking only these aspects in an athlete’s program is foolish. The first step in building the program is to identify how long the athlete will be working with you. The second step is to identify the macro goals of the program.

In my opinion, macro goals shouldn’t even be sport or training specific. Remember, a large majority of athletes will not see sizeable gains if working with you in the short term. Sure, their box jump might go up a couple of inches and their bench goes up 5lbs. That’s great, but how have you gotten the athlete better at their sport? By common standards, increasing those numbers will make an athlete more explosive and more powerful. If you’re working with younger athletes, that is more than likely the case. With their inexperience and smaller body mass increasing a bench press with a young athlete is something that matters. In athlete’s that are older many of these common thoughts are arbitrary because of their advanced training age and their skill.

The first goal of an advanced athlete needs to be something that truly matters; not velocity, not spin rate, not getting stronger, not getting faster. These are all simply byproducts of the macro goals that should be focused on. Instead, in a macro program there should be an emphasis of eliminating pain, gaining necessary range and control of motion, eliminating compensation patterns, and becoming more explosive in sport specific motion. If there is an understanding of what the athlete needs to work on at this most basic level, everything else will just fall into place.

EVERYTHING YOU DO IN YOUR PROGRAM SHOULD BE WORKING TOWARDS THESE GOALS. If you are not working towards a goal like this what are you working towards? Every other measurement is arbitrary. There are so many different factors at work in an athlete’s life and training that you will never know if they have gotten better if you are focused on arbitrary goals. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of factors that can play a role in how hard a pitcher throws in their next mound velo. We have to understand that these factors exist and acknowledge that we are not the sole factor on an athlete’s performance. We are working towards a larger goal, the short term is creating adaptation to achieve our future goals.

Every aspect of our programming shouldn’t be moving towards how hard the pitcher will be throwing in that mound velo. Instead, the mound velo should be programmed to help the athlete work towards their macro goals. Everything done in the weight room with a barbell, mobility work, or plyometrics should be leading towards these goals. The macro goals also keep an athlete positive, because athletes also tend to focus on the short term. Having these goals in mind will help them keep perspective instead of looking to short term. Looking at the macro, and not the micro will lead to the biggest results and the most positive outlook possible.

Takeaways

• Macro goals should be given the largest emphasis in a program
• Everything in the program should be working towards them
• Almost every measurable aspect of training is arbitrary
• Looking short term leads to disappointment
• Gains happen over the long term

Macro goals help throw 95, 95 or die.