I am starting this blog out with an admission. I used to think that 0.80 - 1.30 was what I needed for an acute to chronic ratio. If I was above or below I thought I was a failure. If this is not, or was not you then this blog will not be for you. However, if like me - you obsesses or obsessed about staying inside 0.80 - 1.30 for the health of your athlete you will want to read this.
This all started when a good friend of mine and wildly successful S&C coach pointed out that Tim's A:C research was redacted. I did some digging from fellow S&C coaches and in fact came across this video from Franco Impellizerri where he showed me the flaws in Tim's research. I was floored. Franco was right. I felt like a failure. I let me players, coaches, and colleagues down. How could I have been so foolish? Let me make something very clear. I am not attacking Tim Gabbett. If anything I am attacking myself for not critically thinking back when I first learned about this. What I am doing is talking about this so YOU can do your own research and look into this so you don't make the same mistake I did.
Why 0.80 - 1.30 is Not the Sweet Spot for Acute:Chronic Workload
Very simply if you look at the graph below you will see the following:
- In the "danger zone" there are the same number (2) likelihood of subsequent injury when at 10%
- From 1.30 all the way up to 1.95 there is NO difference in likelihood of injury. NONE
- In the "danger zone" there was 3 incidents where the likelihood of injuiry was less than 6% when tho the A:C was around 1.75 - 1.99
Image from British Journal of Medicine
So how did this become gospel? I have no clue. I believed it too. Maybe it was because I overly trusted anything that was research. I legit don't know. But I made a mistake. And do not want you to make the same.
Where is the "Sweet Spot" and "Danger Zone" for A:C workload?
Based on this graph you can say the sweet spot is from 0.50 - 1.99. Seriously. Look at the graph and tell me I am wrong (if you think I am PLEASE do - reach out to us at service@strengthcoachnetwork.com so we can schedule a CMW). So what does this mean? The obvious - if you do too much too soon your athletes will get hurt? Well what is too much? I don't know. I don't know your athletes, I don't know when you are training them, I don't know your exact situation.
What I do know if you should be careful the first 2 weeks of training. So careful that you are uncomfortable. But, when you do this you will be able to stack weeks and increase the work load in the subsequent weeks. Rather than decrease because you did too much too soon. When you start programming for your team here is what you need to think about:
- How long of a break did they have from us?
- What did they do before the break?
- How long was training before this break?
- What sport do I work with?
- What are the position demands of the sport
- How much accel work do they need to do?
- How much max velo work do they need to do
- How much curve and COD do they need to have?
- Have we done jump, hop, and leaps in all directions?
- How much of the above have we done?
- What does the energy system work look like? How much of that have we done?
- When is practice?
- How long is practice?
- Have we built up time of feet similar to that?
- What have we done in the weight room? Upper? Lower? Bilateral and unilateral?
That isn't even every question you need to ask yourself. But it is a start and is what you need to be asking yourself.
Why Talk About This?
Great question - and the answer is: improving our ability to train athletes hard. Yes, avoiding the notion of too much too soon is a good thought; but how much is too much? Again, I don't know you, your athletes, your coaches, or your situation; so I can't perfectly answer it for you. What I can tell you is this graph does not show that an A:C bigger than 1.3 is dangerous. So stop worrying about that number, train your athletes hard, and know that you really are safe with A:C close to 2.0
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