Weblogic

In late summer and fall many coaching operations ramp up and release their marketing platforms.  There are a lot of great coaches and businesses out there.  However, I have to restate my pet peeve on businesses that try to stand out with a new and great system of coaching that no one else does or has ever thought of.  I find that disrespectful and misleading to the athlete’s looking for sound training programs and a good education in training theory. 

Awhile ago, on my old blog, I first wrote about my pet peeve on how periodization is often misrepresented. 

But, what really brought this to my attention again is what I read over on Joe Friels blog.  I admit, I have never fully read the training bible because it came out well after I started training.   To his credit or fault he used new terms (or at least terms I was not aware of) to define old principles and systems.  So, for me to re-learn what I already knew prevented me from digging into his works because it simply confused things for me and the way I worked. 

Saying that, I do enjoy his blog and he has certainly gained my respect.  I often get messages from athlete’s that are training bible orientated.  That is, from athletes who have read the book and start to believe the programs are the way training should be approached or done.  The reason Joe gains my respect is that he admits the valid strengths and weaknesses of the training bible and recognizes what periodization really means. 

In my article, I mentioned that no periodization would mean repeating the same training, week in and week out, over 52 weeks a year.  Another way to coach without periodization that Joe mentions (which I did not think of) is to do random training.  Otherwise, it is simply not possible to coach without periodization.  And really the two alternatives are not coaching anyways.  So, in a sense periodization defines what coaches do.  You simply can not coach without some form of periodization. 

The major difference between good coaches and bad coaches is how well they periodize an athlete’s program.   So, if you are considering being coached by a system that does not involve periodization then I would be really worried about the slant that business is taking.  Or the lack of education those coaches have in training theory.  What I really think (I know you are asking) is it is time for company’s to come clean and not confuse athletes with a bunch of marketing bull.

If you still don’t believe me, or Joe, then you can check out what Joel Filliol and Paulo Sousa believe.  Their comments are from a different perspective but are along the same lines.