Blog Spot: UKA Futures Programme - Simon Duberley

Winter Training Period

When Deji Tobais asked me about missing the indoor season, I was initially a little surprised. Ever since I started coaching, my athletes have always had some presence on the indoor circuit, and Deji in particular has seen a lot of success in this by systematically breaking his PB each year without fail and then doing the same in the pursuing outdoor season. Although I was tentative, I did understand his thinking as Deji had, in the last two seasons, seen some sort of injury occur off the back of these early year races. He felt that interrupting his winter training with competition might have played a part in that. He wanted to break the trend, and in the end I relented and agreed to go along with it.

Redesigning things to a single periodised year for the off season training seems to be quite simple; you just have to extend the General Preparation Phase element so that it encompasses what would have been the indoor competition phase. That was easier said than done, however, because in Deji’s case he would be training on his own during a period when his fellow training squad members were competing and I felt there might be a risk of a loss of physiological adaptation with no one to push him. To say I was concerned was an understatement. Deji travelled a huge distance (a 120 mile round trip) to train with us and in a bid to minimise the fatigue this was causing, three of the six scheduled sessions a week would be done near his home in Bedfordshire, unmonitored. That had been the case for the last two to three seasons and as any athlete who has had to train on their own knows, it isn’t the same as having the motivation of working with a group of athletes under the watchful eye of the coach. Because of that decision, Deji would now also be training on his own for the remaining track sessions at our training camp in Brunel.

In my mind, the main benefit of a single periodised year is that by extending the off season element (by not doing the indoor season), an athlete has the opportunity to surmount a better level of off season fitness by not having it interrupted by the need to race. Because of the way our training is structured and the fact we time most of the sessions and then keep the results in a database for comparison, of course it makes it easy to analyse for improvements to the athlete’s fitness. In Deji’s case, the fact that the motivation from training with a group was now no longer there, that produced a definite negative impact on his fitness and it was noted. In fact, once some of the other athletes disengaged with racing at the end of the indoor season and were back in winter training, we could see the true impact of where Deji’s fitness was with our single periodised year. The results could have been a lot better. I felt that the opportunity to surmount a stack of extra track specific fitness had been lost and Deji was now injury free simply because the foot had been taken off the gas from no pressure in the track sessions. I discussed this downturn in track times with Deji and in due course Deji worked hard to get back in front in the sessions. This was duly achieved by the end of April with Deji achieving times that were better than he had produced in previous off season periods at that point in the calendar the previous year. The coming outdoor races would outline if things had indeed progressed.

The Loughborough International

The Loughborough International is the first significant meeting of the year and we chose to run Deji in the 200m here to see if the speed endurance improvements from the winter were now in place as we’d hoped. It was leading into the meeting, when we were conducting Deji’s first block session on the bend to practice for the race, that I noticed that there was a noticeable improvement in Deji’s starting ability. Contributory to this was – in my opinion - was Deji’s improved weight room strength. Although the weight training sessions during the winter were one of the sessions that Deji stayed at home for, I did see the results of this unsupervised work once or twice and I was pleased that Deji had indeed seen significant improvements. I looked forward to the weekend with much anticipation. The race went well in Loughborough and Deji got the edge on quite a good field in the first 10/15 metres and held it for a good part of the race. His speed endurance could still have been better though and that was underlined with his form suffering a little over the last 50m of the race. I felt that would come with more races over the distance.

The Race Plan

In comparison to previous years where I had been more relaxed about race plans for the athletes I coach, I decided for the 2011 outdoor season to chart from the outset how all of my athletes’ races would map out for the entire competitive season. In asking them to take more ownership of when and where they race, this would also be very interesting as it would serve to underline how organised the different members of the training group were. Deji did well with this as his plan was first in and was duly added to the group race plan. In saying this, I do think it’s a mistake to keep a plan rigid and not make modifications when required as you go along. As far as Deji’s plan was concerned we had too much emphasis on the 200m at the start of the season and there would not be enough opportunities to run over his better distance (100m). That would be important, as the trials for the European U23 Championships were quite early in the season and Deji would need the qualifying time over that distance if he was to get an individual spot on the team. So, after the Loughborough meeting, some of the races were changed to address that.

Inter Counties

Deji’s next meeting was the Inter-County Championships in Bedford, running the 100m on Saturday and the 200m on Sunday. For us, the weekend would be remembered for one reason only. Deji was disqualified in both the 100m and 200m meters under the first false start rule. In the 100m on the first day Deji was set off by an athlete twitching in the lane next to him, although that’s not a great excuse as athletes should really only be zoned in on the sound of the gun and not movement adjacent to their field of vision. During the race the officials at the meeting elected to use the automatic false start recall system and as the athlete who twitched didn’t apply enough pressure to the pedals so he was allowed to stay for the restart. Deji wasn’t. Suffice to say it was another opportunity lost to get that qualifying time.

In the 200m the next day, the automatic false start recall system was not used. That became a problem when on this occasion Deji twitched when he heard a noise from the shot putt area next to the 200m start. This time the officials were relying on their vision and not from the telemetry that would be available to them had they used the same equipment from the previous day. Because of that, the race was recalled and Deji was again disqualified for a false start. Deji tried to appeal based on the noise he heard from the shot putt area, but to no avail. The decision-making inconsistency was difficult to deal with for all concerned and I would ask the officials to take the issue of inconsistent use of the automatic false start recall system into account for future meetings. In my mind it either should be used for the entire meeting or not at all as the two methods can end in controversy, especially with the one false start rule.

The Bedford International Games

We have always supported the Bedford International Games. It is run by Carol Jackson, who has done a great job in raising its profile to being one of the most successful privately run meetings in the country. Both Deji and his training partner Nigel Levine (selected to represent the Aviva GB & NI team at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu) have supported this meeting without fail over the years because it gives the guys a chance to display their talents at their local track. This year the Bedford International Games was set to be special, as the track had now been resurfaced in Mondo which is reputed to be much quicker and would see many of the country’s top sprinters travel to Bedford to exploit it. As it turned out, the weather on the day was diabolical, but even so, taking into account the rain and head-wind conditions, Deji ran well in the 100m and finished his race in front of some strong opposition in a time that was very good indeed. We just needed better weather, and I was sure that without any other interruptions we could get the qualification mark over 100m. Unfortunately it would now have to happen at the trials and I prayed the weather would be good for it.

The Trials

On the day of the Trials the weather was a lot better. We just needed the wind to calm down, because for most of the day, it was over the legal limit of 2.0m per second. Deji opened up his first round well, winning it easily to progress to the semi-finals. In the semi-final he ran the fastest time of his life, but unfortunately the wind was over the legal limit. Back in the warm up area Deji advised me that shortly after the gun went off, he was suffering from cramp all the way until the end of the race and had to hold back on the intensity of the run. This said to me that Deji was obviously in incredible shape, but would have to work hard with the physios to stop the cramp from coming back in the final. In the final, Deji not only had the cramping problem through the majority of the race but his blocks clearly slipped backwards at the start and the race was not recalled. I found that disappointing, as the officials had been witnessing blocks slipping all day and would only allow bolstering the starting pedals with a second set once they had witnessed it happen with each new race. It’s no good if it doesn’t get noticed by the officials though, and it was of huge consequence to the rest of the season for Deji. That, coupled with the fact the cramp was just as bad in the final, meant that Deji did not qualify for the European U23 Championships and would only be selected for the relay.

Coach's Summary

So there we have it, my view on Deji’s 2011 season leading up to the European U23 Trials. On that occasion we missed the mark, and if I had to be critical of myself, it would be for having Deji train on his own for an important part of the winter. In future, I’ll always aim to have athletes working together with other members of my group when a single periodised program is desired. I also feel Deji would have benefitted from more 100mr race opportunities in the early part of the season. We paid for dearly when, amongst other things, we didn’t get the conditions in the races we had in place and had problems with cramping at the Trials; mistakes like that I always bear in mind for the future so that my methods can be improved. Still, I always believe in seeing the glass as half full and it was the first of three years for Deji in the U23 age group. The two athletes ahead of him at the Trials were in the upper part of the age group and we have the chance for things to be a lot different the next time around. Deji will be relocating to University and so I will be able to track his progression in all the sessions at our Brunel base. I think that will have a definite impact on the success of the 2012 season.

The UKA Futures Programme underpins the World Class Performance Programme (WCPP) and was borne out of the restructure of UKA’s WCPP and the drive towards more targeted support for athletes and their coaches.

The Programme targets young athletes with the potential to deliver global medals for Britain in the future.

Athletes and their coaches will be supported in their individual development plans allowing for more flexibility and individual discretion around distribution of resources. 28 athlete-coach pairs have been included in the 2010/11 Futures Programme.