Olympic Level Training: RepOne Sensor's Impact on Optimizing Beach Volleyball Conditioning Workouts by Marco Ceccacci

I am Marco Ceccacci, physical trainer for the Italian women's national beach volleyball team; the athletes I coach are Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi.

The sports calendar is remarkably busy, full of matches and training. In addition to competing in the European Championship, where we achieved fifth place and entry to the upcoming World Championship in October in Mexico, most of the matches are played during the Beach Pro Tour, a professional beach volleyball circuit making stops in different world capitals, where the best teams in the world face each other.

Outside of tournaments, our typical week includes daily technical training, three sessions in the weight room for physical conditioning, and two metabolic training on the sand.

PHYSICAL TESTS

As a team that is part of the Olympic sports, we relied on CONI (Italian National Olympic Committee), with the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science, to perform tests and physical assessments.

Within these tests, we decided to insert a "mechanical-muscle assessment," creating a Peak Load-Velocity Profile testing the athletes while performing a Back Squat with increasing amounts of weights on the Smith machine (this exercise was chosen because of its accuracy in execution). The load movement velocity was measured by a linear encoder applied to the barbell, in addition to the equipment used by the technicians; in agreement with them, I applied my RepOne sensor and collected the data.

At that time of the year, the athletes were in excellent physical condition, having a few tournaments behind them, so I decided to take this test day as the base from which to start and below which I could not go down.

LOAD-VELOCITY PEAK PROFILE WITH REPONE SENSOR

After an appropriate warm-up, the athlete was asked to perform single repetitions at the highest possible velocity in the concentric phase of the movement with progressively increasing loads. For each change, 1 to 3 tests were performed, considering the one with the highest peak velocity valid.

The exercise chosen was the back squat on the Smith machine for its linearity and repeatability.

The RepOne sensor was attached to the outside of the barbell, and the measurements, distances, and angles employed were taken:

- foot stance;

- knee flexion (we chose a 90° angle at the knee);

- sliding height of the barbell.

Weights from 50 to 200% of body weight were used, and the element I considered was the peak velocity because it was achieved, rather than derived, during the movement.

ATHLETES MONITORING

Matches of each tournament take place in different cities around the world, so the team travels a lot, and much of the physical preparation is done 'away from home,' even close to the tournaments and in the absence of the physical trainer.

Therefore, I have implemented my strategy of remote control.

Not being able to follow the girls constantly on the road, the physical work could not be monitored in the best way, so I decided to use the RepOne sensor during each back squat session and make the back squat on the Smith machine – this became our ‘control’ exercise both on the road and at home, to monitor the physical state of the athletes.

SELECTED TRAINING MEANS AND METHODS

OFF-SEASON

In the first period of the season, the training volume was 50% for power training and 50% for high-load power training (strength-velocity).

The exercise predominantly used for maximum dynamic strength training was the trap bar deadlift, executed between 0.3 and 0.4 m/s; this exercise gave way to the back squat because of the availability of the material while away.

Power clean and back squat were chosen for high-load (strength-velocity) power training.

In this case, the execution velocity at the back squat was monitored to be maintained in the 0.7/0.8 ms range based on previous assessments and power output.

IN-SEASON

During the period with the higher number of competitions, the maximum dynamic strength training volume was significantly lowered while increasing that of high and low-load power training (strength/velocity and velocity/strength).

OBJECTIVE

The goal of the in-season physical conditioning sessions was to maintain high levels of power output, reduce the risk of injury, and maintain high jumping ability and speed throughout the tournament.

Applying the RepOne sensor during weight sessions made it possible to monitor the work done with high accuracy.

FOLLOW-UP TEST

After many workouts, I re-evaluated the athletes with the back squat exercise on the Smith machine to see if the distance and remote workouts had kept the athletes in a good physical state.

The table below shows the results obtained.

DISCUSSION

The data shows that the values found during the exercise do not differ much from those obtained during the initial tests.

This, for me, is a great result, demonstrating that the proposed work hit the target. Thanks to the application of the RepOne sensor, we were able to train the physical capacity we needed, looking for 'max effort' and 'max intent' in each repetition.

Read the Italian version here