First question: Are you afraid that  fellow Croatian Stipe  Zunic will use his kick-boxing skills on you if your guys beat him?

 Haha, Stipe is such a nice of a guy, the only person he would kick-box if he losses would be himself. (editor’s note: I would pay to see that).

Seriously, what I’d like to do is get an idea of how you have approached these big end-of-the-season meets (ACC, Regionals, NCAA Championships) with your throwers. I know that Filip, Jordan, and Christine are in different situations in terms of what kind of athletes they are and what events they are competing in, but I’d be interested in how you trained them over the last month in the weight room and while throwing. Are there certain lifts that you have emphasized? Certain reps and percentages? How do you manipulate the number of throws per session and perhaps the weight of the implements they throw in order to help them have their best performances this time of year? 

No two throwers are the same so no two training plans should be the same. In preparation for ACC, Regionals and NCAAs I have reduced number of reps and sets to each of them, but not in the same manner. Ideally, I would have my throwers have a similar lifting plan to those of other world class throwers. A plan that includes bench press, incline bench press, clean, jerk, push-press  snatch, deadlift and many others. However, reality is not always perfect and injuries could dictate what one can or can not do. Our group was mostly without injuries, with the exception of Jordan who came to us with back problems.

When it comes to intensities and repetitions in training at this time of the year, Christine, for instance, responds better with high-intensity and low-reps when it comes to power and Olympic lifts in the days before major competitions. I have set up a training plan for her to peak for ACCs and Regionals where the intensity stayed high but the number of reps were reduced to about 60% of that in the Fall/Spring training. I am not very strict when it comes to percentages of 1-repetition-max since that measure is relative to a particular day. Some days one feels better then others due to numerous reasons, so obviously his/hers  % of 1RM will fluctuate as well. But if we would to put a percentage to Christine’s lifts’ intensity it would have been around 90% of her 1RM. We would do about 2 to 3 reps on the last, heaviest set and no more then 5 sets per lift. Also, since Christine is more stable technically this year, and In order to peak, we have also used 3kg shot put in training for the past 4 weeks in 2 out of 4 weekly shot put sessions, which proved to be very beneficial for Christine.

For Jordan, due to a long history of back injuries we avoided any Olympic or power lifts that might worsen his health further and rather focused simply on his technical development in the field and endurance training. With that said, I am still developing a comprehensive lifting plan for Jordan that we can hopefully start following this Fall. However, we were able to postpone/time his peak with different specific exercises such as Underhand-Overhead Shot Put Throws, Russian Twists, Stadium Runs and Walks, Planks and many others. Since Jordan is extremely good in Hammer/Weight, Shot and Discus, we needed to keep his endurance training at the highest level possible in order for him to maintain a high number of good quality throws during the week. Jordan would throw Hammer/Weight 4 times a week, discus and shot 3 times a week. Wednesdays would be easy and Sundays he will have off. He would throw two events each day at the number of throws that would never exceed 100 per day. As you can calculate easy, that could add up to as high as 2,400 throws a month, therefore, it was very important for us to keep his endurance up. There were days when Jordan would be able to do up to 100 stadium walks, but also there were days when he would only complete 10 or 15. We went off the feeling more than of the percentages or numbers for him this year. I believe that finding the right balance between hard training and quality rest is very important, for that reason, as you can see, I had somewhat of an unorthodox type of training for Jordan that was based more on technical and endurance this year rather then strength and speed development. As the season was approaching the end we reduced the number of throws and intensity of specific and endurance training by almost 50%, which is why I believe Jordan was able to throw his PRs in 2 out of 3 of his events at the Regionals. 

With Filip I use more of a “traditional” type of training both in weight-room and field. Filip responds the best with significant reduction in his lifting and number of throws before his main competitions of the year, so we have reduced his power and Olympic lifts to about 60% of 1RM and started to incorporate lighter implements in training. Filip now does not exceed 30 throws per throwing session both in discus and shot, and does not practice more then 90min in this period, throwing and conditioning combined.

Overall, reduction in repetitions and intensity generally works very well for most individuals. However, there are exceptions, such is Christine in my group, where high intensity is necessary to be maintained at this time of the year in order to produce the best results. It is not always easy to conclude which athlete responds the best to which type of training, but it is very important not to rush into conclusions even if at the cost of the athlete’s  “underperformance” in his or hers first year of college.

So there you have it. Wise words from a coach who currently has one of the deepest throwing squads in the country. And by the way, Bohan, Young, and Mihaljevic are all sophomores.