Practice Like You Play: Why Conditioning is Dumb
It may sound weird to hear this phrase come out of the mouth of a strength and conditioning coach but it’s incredibly important to understand that spending a lot of time conditioning off the field of play is an exercise in futility the majority of the time. Surprised? We’re going to talk about that.
What is Conditioning?
Conditioning is oftentimes hard. We have to overreach and put ourselves in a position of being uncomfortable in order to make physiological changes conducive to increase our level of conditioning/ability to work. Conditioning isn’t very fun, but a lot of the time we’re left with that feeling of instant gratification when we’re finished and we know we accomplished something difficult. It can be incredibly empowering in the short term. And this is actually why Crossfit caught fire 10 years ago and took the world by storm. Doing physically hard things can be incredibly rewarding, and coaches know this.
Conditioning is defined as “the process of training or accustoming a person or animal to behave in a certain way to accept certain circumstances.” While this classical definition of conditioning refers more-so to social conditioning within society it still makes sense when it comes to physiological conditioning as well. You’re trying to get your body to behave in a certain way, to adapt to the stressors you put yourself through when it comes to physical preparation. It’s important to understand this concept when thinking about conditioning within your sport as it can help you to understand the what’s and why’s concerning conditioning.
Physical conditioning is the process of trying to increase adaptations associated with being able to perform more work with a higher level of performance. This process includes systemic adaptations such as increasing the efficiency at which your heart pumps oxygen rich blood throughout your body, to even more localized adaptations like increased mitochondrial density in the working muscles. These adaptations are what lend to a higher level of conditioning, and they’re normally (in the sports world at least) achieved through things like sprints after practice, but what if I told you there was a better way?
Conditioning at the End of Practice/Training
What if I told you that the reasons you’re conditioning at the end of a training session or practice isn’t part of some grand plan to make you a better athlete, would you fight me on it? Chances are you might, and for good reason. We’ve been conditioned (no pun intended) to believe that 4th quarter, 3rd period and second half gamers are created through hard conditioning at the end of practice. During gassers or bag skates at the end of practice you may even hear your coach say “4th quarter!” or “third period!” in an effort to get you to visualize why this hard work is necessary and beneficial. The sad truth is this time we spend conditioning isn’t typically driven by a quest for higher performance it’s driven by the ego, misunderstanding or laziness of a coach.
Now I’m not saying that there isn’t merit in working hard, and I’m not saying your coach has bad intentions when it comes to getting the most out of you. But this question needs to be asked: what exactly are these gassers, cross ice skates and suicides doing for our performance? Is it hard work for the sake of hard work, or are we training specific energy systems that will help with our sport? Well, if you look at the sport and its energy systems needs you’ll see that the majority of these conditioning drills don’t fall in line with the demands of the sport. Here’s a look at popular conditioning drills and their sport:
1/2 Gassers and 110’s - Football
Time to Complete - 16-20 seconds
Football is an interesting sport when it comes to physical preparation. The sport seems to be stuck in the 70’s at times when it comes to conditioning. The two most popular conditioning drills in football seem to be gassers/half gassers and 110 yard sprints. Both half gassers and 110’s are typically prescribed to be completed in roughly 16-20 seconds. The only problem is that the average play in football lasts less than 6 seconds. The average “action” time of an entire football game is roughly 10-12 minutes even though an average football game broadcast totals around 3 hours. 16 110’s (typical sprint volume for a football team) will take about 6 minutes of actual work to complete which is more than half the average action time of a game. These blanket conditioning drills not only don’t tackle the proper energy systems but they lack the movement skill of the sport. Outside of some special teams, running backs, receivers and maybe db’s nobody’s running that distance or for that time period at any point during a football game. While there is benefit to laying a foundation for conditioning with longer work times, we’re not tackling the energy systems or the movement skill of the sport while increasing the likelihood of non-contact injuries, so what are we doing here?
What’s the Solution?
Position specific conditioning with distances, times and movement skills that pertain to the sport of football. There’s no reason your guys inside the box should be running 110’s.
Herb Brooks “Herbie” Drill - Hockey
Time to Complete - 45-60 seconds
This drill was popularized by the movie Miracle back in the early 2000’s. Team USA performed this drill fairly often, and the movie showed that. It seems like the perfect drill because you’re meant to finish it within a time frame that rides right in line with the average shift time for hockey players which is 45 seconds to a minute. The drill has two problems: 1) Although the movie made it seem like a drill they did often, the drill was only performed twice at the end of SOME practices and 2) although the average shift time in the NHL is 45 seconds (between 37s and 62s for forwards and defensemen respectively) less than 15% of that time is spent at high intensities. The overwhelming majority of the shift time is spent in a two foot glide, so forcing your athletes to operate at a high intensity for 45-60 seconds at a time is an exercise in futility and expends energy that could be better spent acquiring a movement or sport skill.
What’s the Solution?
Take a look at game film for yourself and see if any of your players are going “100%” for longer than maybe 10 seconds at a time if you don’t believe me, and then change your thought process. Conditioning can EASILY be built into drills and it’ll be the same movement patterns and the same intensities and as an added bonus will help build movement skill as well.
Suicides - Basketball
Time to Complete - 28-32 seconds
Basketball’s another very interesting sport when it comes to physical preparation. It seems like most players are allergic to the gym, and instead tend to focus on shooting and skill development. When it comes to conditioning it seems like coaches want to beat mental toughness into their athletes by running suicides at the end of practice. While I will say that there’s legitimate rationale to running suicides, why not build conditioning into the drills themselves? Why not incorporate more game type scenarios into practice? Working the exact same movement patterns, with the exact same intensities and the exact same sport skill will have MUCH MORE carryover to the sport. Think about it this way, are you going to run as hard for a predetermined number of sprints as you would playing a pick up game of basketball? That’s probably a hard no, you’ll pace yourself knowing you only have x many more.
What’s the Solution?
More game type settings within practice itself. You’re going to push yourself much harder playing a sport you love when compared to running back and forth up and down a basketball court.
Running Poles - Baseball
Time to Complete - 25 seconds
Baseball is also a sport trapped in the past when it comes to conditioning. Between pitchers running poles and long distance training the sport seems determined to create cross country athletes instead of powerful baseball players. While there’s absolutely merit to increasing aerobic capacity for it’s recovery benefits, it should NOT be the focus of your conditioning. Baseball is a sport categorized by short powerful bursts of movement followed by relatively long rest periods. Bags on the diamond are 90 feet (30 yards) apart and should take no more than around 4-5 seconds to get from one to the other. In the rare circumstance where an athlete hits an inside the park homer, they’ll be sprinting for well under 30 seconds. The majority of the sports efforts can be broken down into seconds, not minutes so it’s time to throw away the distance running. One of my colleagues Dr Matthew DiLallo was published for an article in the NSCA’s Performance Training Journal titled “Methods of Training for Baseball Players” where they examined the energy systems involved with physical preparation for baseball. It’s a great read if you’re looking for breakdowns of training that works.
What’s the Solution?
Interval training of some kind. Short sprints, weight training, medball work, etc work the exact same energy systems baseball players need to thrive. Focus your efforts here.
You Should Practice Like You Play
You hear coaches say this all of the time, and for good reason. While coaches say this to get you to be more emotionally invested in practice, it goes double for the physical aspects. You want to be more conditioned to play your sport? Be a gamer in practice! Practice is the exact same movement skills, energy systems and sport skills that you need to play your sport. Why not push yourself and not take reps off when you’re in the environment that’s most conducive to getting you better at your sport? You think you’re going to try harder practicing your sport, or running at the end of practice? Don’t lie to yourself, you’re going to push much harder in drills than you ever would running or skating suicides. There’s a lot more external motivation playing/practicing your sport than there ever will be while pacing yourself through predetermined amounts of conditioning at the end of practice.
**Coaches**
Stop telling (and performing honestly) your teams that you’re going to be conditioning at the end of practice. While you’re trying to mentally prepare them for whats to come, they’re going to pull the chute every chance they can so they’re not dying at the end of conditioning. Instead build conditioning into fun drills where the kids will try hard. You’re in control of what you work on, you’re in charge of planning the drills, you need to do a better job of creating an environment conducive to hard work and getting better. And don’t kid yourself, no matter how much you yell at your players during conditioning, you’re getting about 60-70% of their efforts until that last sprint.
Conditioning Off the Field of Play
Believe it or not, it’s not your strength and conditioning coach’s job to get you in “game shape,” it’s actually our jobs to get you in “practice shape.” Practice is where you get into game shape. That may sound weird but I’ll explain the reasoning behind that here:
In practice you’ll hit more volume and reps than you’ll EVER hit in a game.
While the intensity of games tends to be higher than in practice, if you do it right it won’t be by much.
There’s a reason “strength” comes before “conditioning” in our title, its because relative strength is more important than your conditioning levels and no matter what we do, we can’t simulate game situations in the gym the same way practice can.
Conditioning adaptations actually come (and leave) relatively quickly. There’s no need to waste what precious time we have with our athletes on an adaptation you can gain through hard work in practice.
You know why conditioning happens with your strength and conditioning coach in the manner it does? Because it’s easy, and it’s basically mindless. It’s A LOT easier to blow a whistle and yell than it is to program strength training in a thoughtful and mindful manner or even coach movement skill. In addition to that if you’ve got 10 minutes left at the end of a session your coach is more than likely going to have you do “core” exercises or conditioning. Why is this? Because they either didn’t mindfully plan ahead for the time allotment, or they feel like you’re not getting your money’s worth if the session ends early. Either way, its an easy way to have your athletes leaving exhausted, feeling like they accomplished something in their session. I’m not even gonna lie, early on in my career I would program “finishers” specifically so that athletes would feel like they did something when they left the gym. It’s low intensity and high volume so it isn’t really draining the tank much, it fills in the gaps and it leaves you having that instant gratification of exhaustion. And I’m not alone in this thought process, it’s a little secret within the industry that coaches don’t tend to talk about.
So what’s the purpose of this article? Honestly it’s meant to get you to think about how your conditioning is working for you. Are you tackling the energy system demands for your sport? Are you taking 10 minutes of a 60 minute practice to condition when that time could be better spent getting better at your sport? Are you having athletes that will NEVER need a certain movement skill (top end sprinting) perform them for the purposes of conditioning? It’s time to change the discussion when it comes to conditioning! Do what’s in your athlete’s best interest and start throwing away everything that doesn’t lead to the goal of becoming better at your sport!
