Quality or Quantity - ELITETRACK

It is so easy to verbalize that more is not better, but when it comes right down to it seems our comfort zone is to revert to more. To quote my good friend Gary Winckler: “Volume is not a biomotor quality.” Regardless of the event or sport eventually it is quality and intensity of effort that is rewarded in competition. It is easy to do more, difficult to train with intensity. You are walking a fine line so everything must be more carefully planned and controlled. Unless I am missing something the purpose of training is preparation for optimum results in the competitive arena. A volume oriented approach has the tendency to make training an end unto itself. Does it really matter how many miles you run, meters you swim, how many swings of the bat if those efforts are of poor quality? The key concept here is what I call stimulus threshold- the optimum volume, intensity and density that ensures continually adaptation. Each athlete has their own individual stimulus thresholds for each quality you are training. This is what makes coaching challenging and rewarding. One size that does not fit all. A little tidbit that I will share: for every athlete that thrives on volume there are ten who are destroyed. Bottom line- more is not better.

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Vern Gambetta

Director at Gambetta Sports Training Systems

Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.