PhD, Honoured Coach of the USSR V.B. Zelichenok¹
Dr.Hab., Professor V.P. Cherkashin¹
PhD, Associate Professor I.N. Mironenko¹
PhD, Associate Professor O.M. Mirzoev^1
1Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTSOLIFK), Moscow

Keywords: elite track and field athletes, training process designs, individualization, education toolkit

Background. As things now stand, athletic training systems are designed in our country by the relevant authorized organizations as required by the valid Federal Sport Training Standards (FSTS) [4], followed by the design being uploaded to the relevant websites. The FSTS regulating the track and field athletic training systems [3] require the sport excellence and elite athletic training systems being designed on an individualized basis. However, the existing track and field athletic training systems are so specific and inconsistent, and the relevant theoretical and practical grounds for the individualized training systems are so contradictory and non-systemic, that now the national sport community gives top priority to the efforts to develop an efficient and logical educational toolkit within the frame of a consistent and effective process design approach.    

Objective of the study was to analyze the individualized training process design specifics for the modern elite track and field sports.

Study results and discussion

Practical recommendations

For the training systems individualization in elite track and field sports, we recommend the process design technology reported the following practical instruction materials [1] that we have published on the websites of the Russian Track and Field Athletic Federation, Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTSOLIFK), and the Moscow Regional Centre of IAAF:

1. Training process optimizing toolkit that is different from the available reference systems in the following aspects: it is not limited by the total training time for each year and offers the following additional specific data: total training and competitive hours; numbers of training sessions and competitive events; main sessions and competitive events; extra training sessions; and training sessions classified by intensity into extreme-, high-, moderate- and low-intensity ones. In further developments, the training system developers are recommended to concentrate on further details within our frame recommendations for every of the 19 track and field sports.

2. Competitive process management toolkit that specifies, among other things, the minimal and top limits of the competitive activity. The toolkit not only recommends the number of competitive events for every training process stage, but also gives the recommended competitive days and events for every sport discipline, including the associating and non-associating events – that are addressed in the recommendations for the first time. This component of the recommendations may need to be further detailed by the event classes (core and secondary) and partially in relation to the associating events classification.

3. Specific athletic training toolkits classified by the specific sport applications. These toolkits are different from the others for they give a unified and balanced approach to the sport-specific athletic training system design. We identified the minimal vectors of training effects (7 to 11 for each sport discipline, with the highest number for the all-round sports) for most of the physical training tasks covered by the classified training tools and applicable in the training process management. It should be noted that the group-specific training tools are consistent in their training vectors and different from the other group-specific tools. This classification provides a basis for further more detailed toolkits and that is why it shall be left unchanged in further developments.

4. Practical training session design toolkit for each group of training tools. It is for the first time that the sport community is offered a unified systemic database of training tools applicable in training systems in every of the 19 track and field sports in the long-term sport excellence process (with a special emphasis on the top-level training) with a breakdown by annual training cycles. The primary database of the training toolkits may be complemented conditional on the system core being left intact, with such complementation being viewed as the most promising field for further developments.

5. Training and competitive workload optimization group-specific toolkits. In the toolkits design we used a new annual workload specification approach, with the guiding values being modeled for each training year and each group of the track and field sports. We offer an individualized training process design model based on these values, with the annual training loads being designed as required by the individual age-specific resource and forecast progress of each athlete. Subject to further clarification in these toolkits may be the long-term individual resource and progress rating and forecasting method.

6. Training cycle design and management toolkit. It is for the first time that an educational process algorithm was developed and offered to design a training macro-cycle customizable to a variety of the process conditions. The algorithm was used to generate the frame effective training macro-cycle design models (including integrated, modular and evenly staged ones) with their versions and differences spelled out in the coach-friendly language. Further developments are needed to expand the range and content of the frame training macro-cycle design models to have them perfectly customized to the specific competitive track and field sports.

7. Progress test design toolkit complete with the stage-specific tests applicable within an annual macro-cycle, the test sets being variable to rate the most critical progress/ fitness aspects in the training process. We offer in this system component a unified set of guiding age-, skill- and sport-specific progress test rates applicable in every individualized training system. Target progress/ fitness rates of the trainees may be found based on the available and forecast age-specific resource and progress of each trainee. We offer a convenient nomographic computation method to rate the trainee’s progress in every training macro-cycle, with the forecast stage-specific progress rates being factored in the specific individual training model. Further developments in this system component shall be focused on more detailed frame nomograms being developed for the sport-specific effective macro-cycle training models.  

8. Proposed revisions to the FSTS requirements to the stage-specific test rates applicable in the long-term training systems. The system developers and methodologists shall give a due priority to the FSTS requirements being persistently revised and improved in these and other aspects.

9. Detailed and individualized educational process design framework applicable for an annual macro-cycle design purposes. The process individualization principle that is commonly considered pivotal for the modern athletic training theory and practice was used to generate efficient actions to help design the individualized macro-cycle training models for the track and field sports. Further developments in this system component shall be geared to improve the frame education/ training process design by means of a special application software to promote and popularize the whole set of education toolkits (with the available and future developments) in the community of coaches and sport practitioners.

10. Individualized training meso- and macro-cycle design toolkit to build up an annual training process. It is for the first time that we offer a systemic database of more than 1500 elementary (micro-cycle) training models applicable for the training system design in every of the 19 key track and field sports; with the models further systematized and detailed by their types and top-priority training process goals and training process intensity classes. Further developments in this system component shall be geared to replenish the pool of elementary (micro-cycle) training models and improve available models. In addition, we offer herein a chain of the training process micro-cycles within the relevant optimal training macro-cycle (integrated, modular or evenly staged one) for every of the 9 training years at the sport mastery completion stages. The meso- and macro-cycled education/ training process design technology may be further detailed (with no detriment to the process logics) and customized to every track and field sport. 

Our general approach to the individualized training system design in application to the modern elite track and field sports with the relevant education/ training technologies and toolkits – as outlined in the above 9 items – was considered in detail in our first study report [2].

Conclusion. Study materials to further detail item 10 of the study will be provided in our second study report and, upon their state registration, uploaded to the above-mentioned websites where our frame developments are already available for references.

References

1. Zelichenok V.B., Cherkashin V.P., Mironenko I.N. Et al. Metodicheskie rekomendatsii po sovershenstvovaniyu mnogoletney podgotovki sportivnogo rezerva v legkoy atletike [Methodical recommendations for improvement of long-term training of track and field sports reserve]. Moscow, 2016, 543 p. Available at: http://rusathletics.info/coaches-2 (Date of access:30.10.17); http://la.sportedu.ru/content/metodicheskie-rekomendatsii-po-sovershenst... (Date of access 30.10.17); iaaf-rdc.ru/index.php/ru/materials/obrazovanie (Date of access 30.10.17).
2. Zelichenok V.B., Cherkashin V.P., Mironenko I.N. Mironenko et al. Razrabotka nauchno obosnovannykh predlozheniy po sovershenstvovaniyu mnogoletney podgotovki sportivnogo rezerva v legkoy atletike: otchet o NIR (zaklyuchitelny) [Development of science-based recommendations on improvement of long-term training of track and field sports reserve: research report (final)]. Branch of International Association of Athletics Federations "IAAF Athletics Development Center", no. GR A16-116091260010-7. Inv. no. 461, Moscow, 2016, 796 p.
3. Prikaz no. 220 «Ob utverzhdenii Federalnogo standarta sportivnoy podgotovki po vidu sporta legkaya atletika» ot 24.04.2013 [Order no. 220 "On Approval of Federal Standard of Sports Training in the Field of Track and Field Athletics" dated 04.24.2013]. Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation. Available at: http://www.minsport.gov.ru/sport/podgotovka/82/27833/ (Date of access 30.10.17).
4. Federalny zakon «O fizicheskoy kulture i sporte v Rossiyskoy Federatsii» no. 329-FZ ot 04.12.2007(red. Ot 26.07.2017) [Federal Law "On Physical Culture and Sports in the Russian Federation" no. 329-FL 04.12.2007 (as of 26.07.2017)]. Consultant Plus. Available at: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_73038/ (Date of access 30.10.17).

Corresponding author: zelichenok.vb@rgufk.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze the individualized training process design specifics for the modern elite track and field sports. The study data and analyses were used to produce recommendations on the training process design for the elite track and field sports with the relevant macro-, meso- and micro-cycles, and with the educational and training toolkits for every cycle. The recommendations are intended to help consolidate efforts of the developers and methodologists to facilitate the individualized training systems design and management process at the sport excellence and elite training stages as required by the valid Federal Sport Training Standards (FSTS) regulating the modern track and field sports.