Mark McLaughlin has spent several years reading and learning Eastern Bloc training methods as well as other alternative types of training, leaving no stone unturned in the preparation of his athletes. Mark has been either working or educating himself in the field of athletic performance enhancement since 1997. He has trained over 300 athletes - working with Olympic, professional, college, high school and grade school athletes, and coordinating programs with high school and university strength and sport coaches. He is the co-founder of Performance Training Center in Beaverton, Oregon. For more information about Mark and his methods, check out his website at www.ptconline.net.
I've heard you refer to time motion studies as one of your cornerstones for beginning the programming of your more advanced athletes. What, in your opinion, is the way to properly go about a comprehensive time motion study for a given sport?
First off, the method of collecting the data must be as precise as possible. Prozone technology in England is one of the leaders in European Football with their cutting-edge programs. There are eight camera angles that capture movement and send it to a central server within the stadium. The system captures each player’s movement every 1/10th of a second of the match, and then the movements are classified into speed thresholds. It calculates all player fitness data as well.
For professional sports at the highest level, you must be able to have data available which accurately provides sport-specific speed, duration, length of movement, average distance traveled at specific speeds, average heart rates, first half distance vs. second half distance and so on. Then from this data, the S/C coach can then design specific training programs by position that mirror the exact energy demands of his/her sport - based on time motion studies - which are based on fact and not fiction.
You make use of aerobic and anaerobic tests like the synthesis test and RAST. The synthesis test is very taxing to the athlete's aerobic system. How often do you conduct these tests, and where do you fit them into a training week in order to make sure there's a minimal disruption of the athlete's progress in other areas, especially for athletes for whom such continuous duration running isn't sport specific?
Yes, these tests are extremely valuable for determining strengths and weaknesses for particular athletes, and they also provide excellent feedback for me as to how productive the past training cycles have been and if any adjustments need to be made. The frequency of the tests is determined by many factors. Out of season, for example, for our top soccer players the synthesis test may be conducted every 4-6 weeks. The RAST test can be conducted every 3-6 weeks. Typically they’re performed at the end of a training block and they’re done on the weekends with approximately 3-4 days of light training beforehand.
You've recommended a significant amount of reading and study material to the readers of this site, but not every coach or trainer is willing to take the time - or spend the money - to research things the way they probably should. With that in mind, what are some more immediate changes - given the things you do differently from most - that coaches can implement with their athletes without having to go back and relearn everything they've ever been taught?
This is a very difficult question to answer. First off, coaches should not use their own training experiences to influence the training of the athletes they work with. Just because you were able to recover after certain work or lifted x amount of weight does not mean it will or should apply to the players working with you. I believe overemphasizing strength will limit an athlete’s ability to perform their sport-specific task at the highest level because of the underdevelopment of other important qualities, specifically the development of biological power. Having some readiness testing at the beginning of training to determine what type of intensities and specific biological power development should be performed for the given task of the day is also important.
You're a big advocate of the way that European soccer clubs treat their athletes "like Ferraris." Can you elaborate on that a little and offer some tips on how American coaches can start taking pages out of this book?
For those clubs, the players are the biggest assets and they treat them with the utmost care. First off, they have a high ratio of staff to players, which allows them to be very thorough and professional. The coaches really do not have much say in who trains and who doesn’t, because all players are run through a large battery of tests to determine readiness prior to practices, strength training and games – utilizing the Omegawave, etc - and once these tests are completed the trainers and medical staff decide who participates and at what intensities. The sport coach is totally removed from this process.
This is one reason why, within the next several years, Performance Training Center will have our own soccer club (18U), so we can further substantiate the effectiveness of these methods and have total control over every aspect of the athlete’s game preparation, physical training and so on. I also believe in the technology and the understanding of how valuable the information it provides is to those teams. How do you know if someone is ready to perform at peak levels or not? Also, the proper S/C program must be undertaken to even get to the “Ferrari” status.
Your clients are known to be among the best "conditioned" athletes anywhere, yet you disdain "survival" style training sessions. Without giving away the farm, can you go into some of the principles you feel are important - and some of what you may do differently - in building the energy systems of your athletes?
First off, there must be a continuity within the training cycle and we must realize that the exercise is not as important as when and how to apply it. For example, sport-specific “conditioning” cannot be solved in the final 4 weeks of training prior to practice beginning - i.e. gassers, tempo runs, sled drags, etc. The building blocks of developing the different aerobic or anaerobic systems must begin immediately. Now, this could be 2-3 months or 8-9 months prior to the start of the season. It doesn’t matter. You must realize what sport-specific qualities are required in this area and begin the process correctly. This is where time-motion studies and the knowledge of the proper energy requirements of the sport will assist the coach in his decision making process of the proper course of action.