The 4-Year Olympic Training Cycle

The completion of a four-year Olympic training cycle is usually accompanied by a serious and detailed analysis of Olympic performance, including successes and failures. Naturally, great successes generate enthusiasm and inspiration, while failures bring dissatisfaction and initiate a critical mood and a desire to revise and improve. Regardless of the athletes' sport specifics or nationality, the goal of post-Olympic analysis is to learn from positive experiences and identify the causes of performance below one's abilities. Based on these results, a new training plan is developed. It is good if clear and specific overall goals are defined for each phase of the four-year plan. An example of goal setting can be found in the preparation of one of Russia's most successful gymnastics teams (Arkaev & Suchilin, 2004).

Example. The four-year cycle of preparation of the Russian national team in artistic gymnastics is divided into eight semiannual stages. Each of them is subordinated to achieving a corresponding general goal:

improvement of the specific motor preparation for the sport;

Acquisition of new technical skills and combinations of high complexity;

improvement of competitive combinations;

improvement of specific motor preparation which is specific to the kind of sport;

improvement of technical mastership and achievement of stability (reliability) of competitive actions;

improvement of the quality and stability of competitive actions and resistance to stress;

final composition of competitive combinations; acquisition of sufficient endurance to perform the full program of the tournament and the selection of reserve members of the national team;

simulation of expected competitive conditions, achievement of high competitive reliability and final selection for the national Olympic team.

Each of the above-mentioned stages includes a comprehensive assessment of the cumulative training effect caused by the execution of the program (Arkaev, Suchilin, 2004).

The above example shows that dividing the four-year cycle into separate stages is a matter of professional competence and depends on sport-specific conditions. Nevertheless, the division of the four-year cycle into four one-year cycles is the most popular. In general, the main directions of four-year preparation (regardless of the sport) are presented in Table 1.

Year

Main areas of training

1-й

Invitation and testing of new candidates, selection of coaches and other staff experts, updating and adjusting the usual forms and methods of training, updating the set of exercises; the formation of team spirit and camaraderie among athletes and staff experts

2-й

Continuing the selection and approval of new candidates, acquiring new technical and tactical skills, increasing training loads, improving the quality of the training process

3-й

Achievement of maximum level of training load; approval of the plan of yearly cycle of preparation for the Olympic season and determination of individual characteristics of competition exercise for each team member

4-й

Stabilization of the team (usually a double of the Olympic team); stabilization of training loads at the level of the previous year, approval and consolidation of the model of behavior at the competition and performance of a competitive exercise

Consider the above directions of preparation, paying particular attention to the planning of the training process for athletes of different ages and experience. Experienced high-level athletes garner special attention during preparation for the Olympics, both on national teams in major sports countries, where coaches have a wide range of potential candidates, and on relatively small national teams, where the opportunity to add new successful team members is very limited. The advantages of older and more experienced athletes are obvious: They have deeper basic and sport-specific knowledge, a higher level of emotional control, stability of technical and tactical skills and competitive behavior. These are usually authority figures who have a positive influence on the team climate.

The disadvantages of having such athletes on the team are also clear: they are nearing the biological limits of their training reactions, that is, they are less responsive to training influence, they usually follow their usual training programs and do not like to change their training style and set of exercises. Older athletes do less training and need longer transition periods for physical and psychological recovery. In the first annual cycle of the four-year plan, these athletes perform significantly less overall exercise volume, approximately 15-20% less than in the previous Olympic year (Figure 1).

Experienced and older athletes continue the four-year cycle with a gradual increase in training volume, which in any case is usually less than that of their younger counterparts. The third-year cycle model is based on the Olympic one-year cycle for each athlete category. Both older and younger athletes increase their training load levels and approach their maximums. Generally speaking, the third and fourth year cycles should be very similar, as coaches mimic the one-year pre-Olympic training plan the year before the Olympics to ensure the highest quality training in the last

stage of the four-year cycle. In fact, the level of training load in the pre-Olympic season is usually higher than the year before, for a variety of reasons. This is due to higher motivation, better training and recovery conditions, a larger budget, etc.

Younger athletes who have not yet participated in the Olympics have typical training patterns. Once they have undergone Olympic training, their athletic motivation increases significantly, and training conditions usually improve: there are more training camps, more qualified partners, sometimes more experienced coaches, etc. As a result, these athletes significantly increase their workload compared to the previous year. In the second and third annual cycles, training loads continue to increase, although to a lesser extent.

From a methodological point of view, it is important to predict and plan the development of the most important motor, technical and tactical abilities. For this purpose, it is necessary to increase the corresponding model indicators of these fitness components, taking into account the planned rate of improvement during the four-year cycle.