Starting a TSAC Program from Scratch
Written by Kosta Telegadas
M.S. Ed, CSCS, XPS
Introduction
Strength and conditioning is a massive component of overall fitness and athletic performance development for all athletes worldwide. A well-designed strength and conditioning program can help you improve your strength, power, endurance, mobility & overall conditioning levels, while also reducing your risk of injury. Building a successful strength and conditioning program requires careful planning and a comprehensive understanding of your goals, fitness level, and training history. In this post, we'll discuss the 5 key steps involved in building a successful strength and conditioning program.
The Steps
Step 1: Define How to Gauge The S&C Program’s Success
Step 2: Perform A Needs Analysis on The Facility & Clients
Step 3: What Will Your Programming Look Like?
Step 4: Implement and Track Your Program & KPIs
Step 5: Obtain Feedback & Adapt Your Program
Step 1: Define How to Gauge The S&C Program’s Success
The first step in building a successful strength and conditioning program is to determine what “Success” looks like.
Are you looking to build muscle, improve your athlete’s power and explosiveness, increase endurance, or simply improve the athlete’s overall fitness level? Then after the following is established, how can the program prove its efficiency & effectiveness to operations for the tactical athlete in question?
The desirable adaptations and goals will dictate the specific exercises, sets, reps, frequency, and rest periods that you will want to incorporate into the strength and conditioning program. From personal experience, I recommend reverse engineering the program from the ground up. What do the best programs in the world look like?
Once that is established, work backward within your uncontrollable & controllable variables to build a successful program that is realistic & achievable.
Step 2: Perform A Needs Analysis on The Facility & Athletes
Once an organization has defined what a “Successful Program” should be, it's important to assess the current fitness level of the athletes & see what additions need to be made to the S&C facility. This will help you identify any weaknesses or imbalances that need to be addressed in your program or any additional exercise equipment needed for the weight room. Some common fitness assessments include a body composition analysis, a functional movement screen, strength tests (1-5 rep maxes), and various conditioning assessments that are specific to the task at hand.
Some common equipment items include barbells, multipurpose lifting racks, kettlebells, sleds, dumbbells, sandbags, and medicine balls. & more. Based on the results of these assessments, you can determine which exercises, equipment, and training modalities will be most effective for you.
Note: there is more than one way to “skin the cat” in this field, so do not feel tied down to certain training methodologies or certain types of exercise equipment.
Step 3: What Will Your Programming Look Like?
Now that you have defined your goals and assessed your fitness level, it's time to plan your program. Any good strength and conditioning program should include a variety of exercises that target different muscle groups, movement patterns, & conditioning methods.
This also means it should also be periodized, meaning that it progresses over time to prevent plateaus and ensure continued progress. A typical strength and conditioning program may include a combination of power development, strength training, aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning, mobility work, and recovery strategies.
When planning your program, it's important to consider the athlete’s schedule, availability of equipment, and any physical limitations, or injuries that the athletes may have. You should also factor in adequate rest and recovery time to prevent overtraining and injury. Note: Control the controllable variables where possible & have a “Plan B or Plan C” for the uncontrollable variables. In my personal experience with TSAC programs, time & frequency need to be accounted for more than anything; especially in voluntary usage programs.
Step 4: Implement and Track Your Program & KPIs
Once you have planned the strength and conditioning program, it's time to implement it and begin tracking your progress. This will help you determine whether your program is effective in helping you achieve your goals. Some ways to track progress include tracking your workouts, taking measurements of body composition, and monitoring your strength and endurance gains. There are plenty of apps to assist you in this if printed sheets are not an option. Such options include Bridge Athletics, TeamBuildr, Train Heroic, etc.
For KPIs: Try to stay with performance metrics such as your 1-5 rep max, your mile time, pro agility, max pull-ups, or your vertical jump height to assess your progress over time. Establish which training metrics are most important for the success of the program to present to higher admins. This will show demonstrable success & could help grant more funding for the future success of the program.
Step 5: Obtain Feedback & Adapt Your Program
Finally, it's important to remember that building a successful strength and conditioning program is an ongoing process.
It will constantly need adjustments and feedback.
As athletes progress and their performance metrics improve, you may need to adjust and adapt your program to continue making progress. This may involve increasing the frequency, intensity, or volume of your workouts, incorporating new exercises or training modalities, or modifying your rest and recovery strategies.
Conclusion
In summary, building a successful strength and conditioning program requires careful planning, assessment, and tracking. By defining success, performing a needs analysis, planning your programming, implementing and tracking progress/KPIs, and adjusting and adapting the program as needed, you can achieve your desired fitness outcomes and improve your overall health and athletic performance.
As always, please feel free to take my work and build off of it. feel free to reach out to me here or direct message me on Instagram @Coach_Telegadas if you want to talk programming as TSAC coaches!
Kosta Telegadas
Kosta Telegadas is a leader in strength and conditioning for tactical athletes and martial artists worldwide. With over a decade of strength and conditioning experience, Coach Telegadas strives to make a difference in the lives of the warfighters he serves. Telegadas also runs Telegadas Performance Training; an online strength and conditioning platform where he primarily remotely trains grapplers, fighters, and tactical athletes alike.
He found physical training necessary to grow up playing sports, help prevent injury & give back to the country that gave his family so much over the generations. If you are interested in contacting telegadas for training programs, please follow/message him on Instagram (@Coach_Telegadas) or email him directly at CoachKostaTelegadas@Gmail.com
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