What is a training philosophy?
An article written by Sophie Herzog, Øyvind Sandbakk, Trond Nystad and Rune Talsnes
In the world of sports, athletes and coaches are often asked what their training philosophy is. A well-crafted training philosophy is often seen as the cornerstone for success, but the concept is often misunderstood to be a permanent “blueprint”. However, for the most successful coaches, we would argue that it is rather an ever-evolving concept based on key principles. It is more than just a series of workouts; it is a holistic approach that encompasses periodization, variation, volume, frequency, intensity distribution, the integration of strength and cross training and, importantly, recovery. Additionally, the best coaches know that even the best training plans are useless if one does not take care of the development and well-being of the “whole person”. Athletes need to be in balance, happy and have a passion for what they do. In other words, good coaches see and seek to develop the whole person. Although the training philosophy concept is multifaceted and dynamic, we can recognize certain shared components that the world’s leading coaches use in different sports. In this article we explore the essence of a training philosophy, its critical components and provide insights from elite Norwegian coaches in endurance sports.
Understanding Training Philosophy
A training philosophy is a comprehensive framework that guides the long-term development of athletes and is shaped by a blend of scientific principles, empirical experience, underlying beliefs, and strategies. It is akin to the approach of an architect designing buildings: just as an architect selects and uses different materials and shapes to create structures with specific functions, a coach uses various training principles, methods, and strategies to develop athletes’ performance. The architect has a personal toolbox filled with tools and materials, which is used in a unique and distinctive combination to meet the specific requirements of each project. Similarly, a coach combines various training principles and strategies, ensuring that the training is functional and suited to the individual athletes needs and goals. This thoughtful and strategic process of planning, building and evaluating to warrant an optimal outcome/result is what defines the essence and success of both architectural and athletic “design” processes.
Good coaches develop their own philosophy through years of systematically collecting and analyzing training data, working with a variety of different athletes/coaches/specialists, and by using an experimental approach to creating and adjusting training plans. Through years of experience, they deepen their understanding of fundamental training principles, perhaps in a much more thorough way than the most well-defined scientific study ever could. Therefore, although we will never be able to develop “THE” perfect blueprint for endurance training, examining the shared perspectives of the world’s best coaches offers invaluable insight into best-practice endurance training.
Core Components of a Training Philosophy
A coach’s training philosophy primarily comprises a clear vision and well-defined approach to training content, organization, and periodization, where the practical application of core training principles such as specificity, progression, variation, and individualization in daily training practice is emphasized. This fundamental philosophy forms the basis for the more detailed planning and implementation and analysis of daily training loads. All of this is based on and supported by the coach’s understanding of the complex interplay between training duration, intensity, frequency, modality, and session design.
When observing the training processes of various successful athletes from different endurance sports, many common characteristics can be found. Several small-sample or case studies (ref) on some of the world’s most prominent endurance athletes have described these characteristics, noting that relatively high training volumes are typical. These studies found that approximately 80-90% of training is dedicated to low-intensity training (LIT), 10-15% to moderate-intensity (MIT) or high-intensity (HIT) training, and that strength training, skill training, and speed training are employed depending on the sport-specific demands. However, although these studies have provided valuable insights into the training characteristics of successful endurance athletes, they have not described the more conceptualized and holistic training process as designed by coaches.
In this article, we present three crucial components that together form a comprehensive training philosophy for endurance sports: training content, training quality, and coaching strategies.
Training content
Training content involves balancing load factors such as volume, intensity, frequency, modality, and session design to meet the specific demands of the sport, accommodating these in a tailored periodization and balancing them with sufficient recovery. It is of utmost importance that this process is individualized for each athlete. In Table 1, we summarize the commonalities of Norwegian coaches in training organization and periodization and training content[i]:
For Zone 1-5 descriptions, see https://olympiatoppen.no/fagomrader/utholdenhet/olympiatoppens-intensitetsskala/
Training quality
Training quality focuses on the iterative refinement of contributing factors to improve 1) key single sessions and 2) the overall training process by optimizing the balance between training load and recovery. Focus on training quality warrants that athletes are able to reach peak performance in their targeted competitions. In this context, systematic planning, qualitative prescription, precise execution, and continuous reflective analysis are paramount. Utilizing decision-support tools, such as objective measurements (e.g., pace, power, heart rate, lactate), allows for more deliberate control. Additionally, frequent reflective debriefings based on subjective observations from the coach and the athletes own experience are crucial. These methods help fine-tune and optimize training and recovery which facilitates performance improvement.
A high-quality training process ensures that each session has a clear purpose and key training sessions are prioritized and optimized. This presupposes goal setting, analyzing sport-specific requirements, strength-weakness profiling of the athlete, conducting gap analyses, continuous planning, physical and mental preparation, execution, intensity control, proper technique, focused effort, and evaluation of training and testing.
It is important to not just blindly execute a session according to the plan, but to perform the session according to its intended purpose when the athlete is ready for it. This sometimes requires spontaneous adjustments instead of stubbornly sticking to a performance number that will wreck the athlete for days. While it can help to have coaches “on deck” to make such “ad-hoc” decisions, successful athletes are often very involved in the decision-making and even the overall planning process as they possess a high “training intelligence” and a strong sense of ownership. The best athletes in the world understand the demands of their sport very well, they are extremely in-tune with their bodies, disciplined with their intensity control, can maintain good technique, have a good mental attitude and fuel themselves for the work required, which makes it easier to adapt training in coordination with the coach. Great “coach-athlete teams” know exactly what they’re doing – in other words, they train smart, not just hard. Ultimately, training quality has the overarching goal of achieving peak performance. Athletes train to compete, they do not train to “just train”. Hence, “high quality” does not mean the highest tolerable training load possible but to find a load-recovery balance that enables the highest training load that the athlete can adapt to, allowing training continuity and the best possible long-term performances.
Coaching strategies
Good coaches understand and emphasize the importance of a strong coach-athlete relationship, characterized by a coach-driven, yet athlete-centered approach rooted in trust and mutual understanding. Great coaches know the importance of a shared language - a language that both coach and athlete can understand and speak. This is crucial for a good relationship and a good relationship in turn is quintessential to optimize both the training process and individual sessions, ensuring that athletes receive tailored guidance, aligned with their unique physiological and psychological profiles. An essential aspect highlighted by coaches is the synergy achieved by integrating subjective observations and objective measurements. During intensive sessions, coaches utilize objective measures such as timing, heart rate, lactate, and objective measures through the close dialogues with athletes to control intensity, blending quantitative data with qualitative feedback. This holistic approach allows for continuous dialogue, careful documentation, and systematic testing of performance factors, providing crucial insights for decision-making and enhancing training quality. Post-training reflections and evaluations between coach and athlete serve as invaluable learning opportunities, fostering a continuous cycle of improvement and development. Coaches meticulously plan training content, often in collaboration with athletes, and present sessions well in advance to enable thorough preparation. As athletes mature, they are encouraged to take greater ownership of their training. This integration of objective data combined with the athletes' and coaches’ perceptions make it possible to identify a highly individualized and tailored solution which ultimately leads to enhanced performance outcomes. At the same time, the coaches empower the athletes to take ownership and responsibility in their development too. Overall, these strategies create a culture of continuous learning and development.
In essence, this article highlights the core components and their complex orchestration in the context of (endurance) training and shows how important it is for coaches to have a clear vision of their training philosophy. This vision is, in effect, a blend of art and science and should pave the way to optimized performance. Although the “language” used by coaches can be different, if one distils everything down to the fundamental principles, most of them have very similar training philosophies. In summary, we argue that the best coaches have a unique ability to design purposeful and intelligent training concepts that promote long-term athletic development/learning, well-being and athletes who prosper towards their peak potential.
“The development of my coaching and training philosophy is a long and ongoing process. It started when I first took part in organized training as a child, and it has since been developed and refined every day. All of the coaches in my home club shared the philosophy of making us independent and knowledgeable about our sport. Each coach felt success and pride when an athlete did not need a coach to plan, execute and analyze the training – from that day onward the coach changed from being a coach into being a mentor. We additionally had the luxury of being integrated in a relatively diverse training group. The youngest kids in the training group were 10 years old and the oldest “kids” were 80 years old. The older and more experienced athletes were a wealth of knowledge to the younger ones.
When I first started coaching, I fell victim to the Dunning Kruger effect – I was convinced that I had enough knowledge and experience to be a great coach. It did not take long for me to realize that this was not the case and understood that I needed to be humble and curious to develop and refine my skill set. Today I feel like I have a pretty good foundation of knowledge, but there are still more things that I do not know compared to what I know. Having a large network of coaches, scientists, and athletes to discuss with and ask for help, makes it possible for me to continuously develop. ”
[i] Øyvind Sandbakk, Espen Tønnessen, Silvana Bucher Sandbakk, Thomas Losnegard, Stephen Seiler, Thomas Haugen. Best-practice Training Characteristics as described by World-class Norwegian Coaches in Endurance Sports. Sports Medicine. In revision.
