by Jim O’Malley Prolonged Preservation of Sporting Form and It’s Connection to the Periodization of Sport Training. (from Managing the Training of Weightlifters by Nikolai Laputin, pp.20-25.) As has already been noted, the process of development of sporting form represents an alternation of three phases. These phases are alternated again and again over the course of many years of training, but, as is correct, to a higher degree. Let’s look at the characteristics of these three phases in detail. The development of sporting form phase consists of two sequential phases : formation of the prerequisites of sporting form and its direct formation. The beginning stages of sporting form are characterized by the most significant changes in the organism as expressed by the rise in the general level of its functional capabilities as well as in the renewed and renovated stock of motor coordination. Here the foundation of future sporting form is laid down, the quality of which determines the level of the athlete’s achievements in a given cycle of sports perfection. In the second stage ----- direct formation of sporting form, the changes acquire a more specific character as though concretized. The rise in special trainability, the development of special motor qualities specific to weightlifting, further perfecting of sport technique and tactics are the basic directions of adaptational changes. The separate components which make up the preparedness for high sport achievements combine in an integral, clearly harmonious system ------- sporting form. The phase of relative stabilization or preservation of sporting form is characterized by an optimal preparedness for sport achievement (relative to the given degree of sport perfection) and lasts from 2 to 4 months. There are unavoidable fluctuations in trainability in the sporting form period. They can be caused by premeditated undulating changes in the training load and many other reasons (illness, injury etc.). These small fluctuations are distinguished from the true loss of sporting form. The phase of brief loss of sporting form is distinguished by a slump in trainability, extinction of connections uniting the individual elements of sporting form and the transference of the organism to a different level of functioning. The character of the athlete’s activities change. There is reason to believe that the various components of sporting form are not lost simultaneously. All the coordination connections became extinct earlier. The basic motor skills and the elevated level of the athlete’s functional capabilities are preserved for a longer period of time. The degree of diminished trainability during the loss of sporting form depends upon the length of this period and the character of the training. An athlete is able to preserve trainability at a higher level than that at which the first phase in the development of sporting form began if he utilizes the means of active rest. Passive rest leads to an unwarranted loss of sporting form. Considerable time is expended subsequently compensating for such a loss. The loss of sporting form is not in the life functions of the organism. With a rational, organized training regimen it occurs as part of the usual life activities. Some positive reconstruction, provoked by the preceding training loads, occurs within the organism in this period. Among athletes the question often arises as to why sporting form, which is the athletes optimal state, is not preserved constantly ? Is it a mistake to ask this when sportsmen take considerable time and energy acquiring sporting form, and then lose it ? This question can be answered so. Sporting form acquired through this or that degree of sport training is an optimal state for a given stage of training. But, that which is optimal at one degree of sport mastery is not at another, higher degree. For example, an athlete executed the norm for class 1 ; but to execute the norm for candidate for master of sport requires a higher optimal state and mastery of a new stage of trainability, necessary to execute the new norm. Therefore, trying to preserve the acquired sporting form "forever" is tantamount to always striving to remain in the same place. In order to move forward, one needs to secure further development of physical qualities, posses new, more perfected habits and skills and raise all aspects of sport preparation. And thus, the old sporting form as a relative stable system of certain components will be lost. The new sporting form arises from the foundation of the old "constructed material" but, in itself, includes new acquisitions supporting a new higher level of the athletes development. Thus, the brief loss of sporting form is a condition of its further development. As is known, sport training is inseparably linked with the expenditure of the organism’s working potential and fatigue. Fatigue is not only an unavoidable consequence of training but an obligatory condition for raising sport work-capacity. Everyone knows that one of a weightlifters fundamental physical qualities --- strength --- is achieved through fatigue. The growth of an athletes general work capacity is achieved through fatigue. However, this statement is only true when training loads and rest are alternated correctly. The athlete significantly increases the intensity of the load and up to a certain point preserves its volume as he acquires sporting form. When the sportsman is in sporting form and systematically enters competition, the intensity of the load is not decreased. As a result of the strains of training and competition fatigue accumulates and a protective reaction arises against the overstraining of the accommodative mechanisms. If, under these conditions, one attempts to improve sporting form, then one can become overtrained. Therefore, a transitional period is included in the training process where the sportsman is assigned active rest. This period coincides with the brief loss of sporting form. Yet, other circumstances need to be considered. The organism’s various functions are in intricate dynamic equilibrium with each other and with the external environment. Maintaining this equilibrium during the sporting form period, when the sportsman is mobilizing his capabilities to the limit, is a very difficult task and it can be beyond one’s strength if this is demanded constantly. Various (provoked by training) biological reconstructions within the organism do not occur simultaneously. The long term use of training loads does not exclude functional disturbance of the organism’s different systems. For example, cases are known where susceptible athletes who were in sporting form catch a cold. This leads us to believe that sporting form is not a criterion of health. Of course, this is not to say that sporting form predisposes one to illness. A lack of correspondence between high work capacity and insufficient resistance to disease is possible in periods other than sporting form. They can intensify in this period, by attempts, by means of intense training, to hold sporting form for an excessively long time. For the most part, it is well known that athletes posses robust health and a greater resistance to unfavorable influences than non-athletes. Thus, we can state that although sporting form is an optimal state, this state is not constant. The path to the achievement of a new, higher level of sporting form, inevitably proceeds through the loss of the old. The length of time necessary for the acquisition and preservation of sporting form depends on the type of sport, the competition calendar, method and regimen of training, state of the sportsman’s organism, daily regimen, diet, and the means of restoration. Sporting form can be preserved for a period of 3-5 months only if one strictly observes the fundamental principles of training during this period. According to L.P. Matveyev’s data the length of the phase of sporting form development depends upon what sort of cyclical principles the construction of the training is based on (yearly or semi-yearly). An example of the length of the development of sporting form phase for the yearly cycle is : creation for the prerequisites for the acquisition of sporting form ---- 5-7 months; relative stabilization of sporting form ---- 3-5 months; the loss of sporting form ---- up to 1.5 months. The corresponding figures for the semi-yearly cycle are 4 months, 1.5-2.5 months, and 3-4 weeks. The semi-yearly cycle is most often used for weightlifters. However, qualified sportsman enter into sporting form 3-4 times a year, frequently fall and winter. This does not exclude the possibility of achieving high results in the spring and summer. Some Soviet weightlifters, for example, A. Voronin, D. Rigert, and V. Alexeev successfully held sporting form over several months in succession and established world records in each competition. Consequently, such regularities can be seen in weightlifting : the periods of acquisition and stabilization of sporting form are shortened somewhat (2-3 months) but repeated several times in the semi-year cycle. As for the question of achievement of sporting form, one is guided by the competition calendar. One plans athletes preparation taking these dates into consideration. In addition to the most important competitions of the year (USSR, World, and European Championships) weightlifters take part in lower scale competitions. The competition calendar is conditioned by the length of this or that competition period, so the length of sporting form preservation can vary from 1-2 to 6-7 weeks. Concluding remarks : In my opinion, this excerpt form Laputin’s text presents a compelling argument against the so called (unfortunately I think) "Bulgarian" method of training. A more appropriate term would be training by brute force methods. However you wish to classify it, this training involves lifting submax to maximum weights in the classical exercises (90%+) in virtually every single training session. And more often than not, pulls well in excess of 125% of the maximum lifts and limit squats are added as well. These assistance movements frequently bear no resemblance at all to what the athlete can actually snatch or clean & jerk. These methods have been the hallmark of training lifters in the USA for the last 30 years and (amazingly enough) are still enthusiastically advocated today by many coaches. The implementation of such a training philosophy yields a pattern that can be clearly observed in the long term results of countless numbers of US lifters over the last 30 years. Initially, the lifter usually makes above average progress. This turns out to be misleading. Most lifters then plateau both sooner and at a lower level than would otherwise have occurred. The struggle to constantly maintain sporting from often leads to injury and/or illness that then forces the lifter to back down some in his efforts. The process then repeats itself over and over again. And finally, results then begin to regress both sooner and faster than one would expect under optimal conditions. To those of you familiar with the mathematical technique used to solve two dimensional linear programming problems, there is an analogy here. Once you have found the "feasible set" of solutions you begin to (one by one) plug them into the objective function to find the optimal solution. This is known as the "brute force" method. It is inefficient because it is much more time consuming. If you simply plot the objective function first, the optimal solution will immediately present itself to you. Training by brute force methods is worse than inefficient because you will never even reach an optimal solution (i.e. a total the maximizes your own athletic potential). I will close with a comment from Pavel Pervushin who in June 1973 became the first 110kg lifter (i.e. nonsuperheavy) to total 400kg in the biathlon. He won the European Champioship in Madrid, Spain by a whopping 37.5kg over the second place finisher. He then became World Champion in September 1973 and then sadly, his career was ended by a severe hand injury. He was interviewed in the July 1973 issue of Strength & Health magazine. He was asked about what most contributed to his great success in the sport. This was his answer. "The reason is simple – I developed a sensible approach to training. It used to be thus : there was no trainer (he might have gone somewhere or been taken ill), and in his absence I would literally swarm around heavy weights. At that time I thought that was the only way possible to get results. It turned out to be the other way around : I put on the brakes so to speak ……. The main thing is regular training and a most strict regimen." That is some good advice from a world class weightlifter.