CAP 5: Training Principles

Note: Please delete the narratives below when submitting your CAP. Include numerals 1-8 to indicate where each new answer begins, and write in short answer/paragraph style as appropriate.

Sharon is a starter on her high school volleyball team. She’s a strong server, regularly serving aces, so her coach usually puts her into the rotation right before the team needs to score a few points off some good serves.  Sharon has always loved sports; she picks them up quickly, and it is easy for her to gain strength and aerobic capacity after working out in the right ways for just a few practices.

Even though she’s a starter, Sharon has always had trouble with digs; she just doesn’t react quickly enough to spikes from the other team. Her coach noticed this and told her to practice by bumping the ball up high on the gym wall and then returning it quickly to the wall again. Sharon did this for 20 min every practice, but she couldn’t figure out how it was going to help her respond to spikes that came in at different angles and faster speeds. 

While Sharon worked on bumps and returns, the rest of the team did short sprints across the gym with periodic rests to improve their speed and endurance. About midway through the season, Sharon noticed that she felt winded after even short runs and dives toward the ball, and she felt as if she had less power in her legs. On her own, Sharon began doing interval training after practice. She would sprint a few times across the gym, recover for a few seconds, and then sprint again. Soon, she was able to run faster and take fewer rests, and she didn’t get nearly as winded during her games. 

After a few weeks of doing her self-directed interval training every day, Sharon felt as if she wasn’t improving anymore. She seemed to have plateaued. Was she working too hard? Not hard enough? Sharon wasn’t sure what she should do next. As playoffs approached, Sharon was just plain worn out. Her team’s practices and rigorous game schedule combined with her own everyday workout had been grueling. Sharon wondered why that hadn’t been enough. Why, when they were now entering the most important part of the season and had a chance to make it past regionals, was Sharon not at her best physical condition of the entire season?

1. When Sharon began her own interval training to improve her speed and endurance, which principle did she implement? 

2. There is no mention of the gradual cycling of specificity, intensity, and volume of training in this case study. Therefore, Sharon does not achieve her peak level of fitness by the end of the season, when every game counts. Which principle is Sharon’s coach apparently not implementing? 

3. Sharon’s body adapts quickly to training. She shows great improvement after participating in a given program; she is a "responder." This is an example of which principle? 

4. Sharon goes all-out every practice and never gives her body a break. By the end of the season, she is fatigued and not in her best physical condition.  This is an example of which principle?

5. Sharon’s coach did not understand this principle well enough to construct a good practice drill for reacting to spikes. Because a spiked ball will come in faster and at different angles than the ball Sharon is bumping to the wall, the drill Sharon was told to do will not improve her ability to respond to spikes. What principle does this reflect?

6. Make one suggestion that would help Sharon react to a spiked ball better.

7. Use table 9.2 to help you answer question “a.”

a. Sharon’s coach decided to implement a training program for the whole year. Sharon, an intermediate lifter, has a bench press 1-RM of 95 pounds and a squat 1-RM of 150 pounds. Identify the recommended values (%1RM and absolute weight) for strength development, muscle hypertrophy, muscular power, and muscular endurance for these two exercises using the tables below (fill in each blank cell).

Strength

Load

Volume

Frequency

Example: Bench Press: 50-60% 1RM; 47.5 – 57lb

Hypertrophy

Load

Volume

Frequency

Power

Load

Volume

Frequency

Endurance

Load

Volume

Frequency

b. List three other types of resistance training that the coach should incorporate and a suggestion of how to incorporate each to help the girls reach peak fitness.

8. In approximately 500 words, explain the physiologic mechanisms that increase a) muscular strength and b) muscular hypertrophy. Are there any changes that should be made in the training program you are using for this course to achieve greater increases in strength and hypertrophy? Explain your answers using textbook and peer-reviewed research (Hint: the Supplemental Reading list attached to CAP 5 in Blackboard contains numerous articles that should help here!)