How can I be sure that my conditioning program is working?
The fact is you can’t evaluate what you can’t measure. Polar provides a measurable solution to training by capturing your athletes’ exertion through heart rate, the most accurate measure of intensity. This can be done in real time on the field, or post exercise on a PC for further analysis.

By measuring and monitoring your athletes’ heart rate, you will be able to objectively assess intensity, exertion, recovery, progress, and even prevent injuries related to fatigue and excess stress.

Measuring exertion through heart rate is the difference between knowing and guessing.

How do I know my athletes are training at the most efficient and effective intensity level?
You can start with knowing each athletes maximum heart rate, which can be determined by a short 4-5 minute test perfumed at rest with a Polar heart rate monitor; or with a simple formula based on average resting heart rate.

Once you have this information, you determine the % of max heart rate you want your players to train at based on the goals of each days training plan. There is a chart that we created to help explain the benefits, training effect and sample durations of the 5 key target heart rate training zones used many conditioning coaches. With this knowledge it will be simple to coach these athletes to train in the target heart rate zone that yields the result you desire for that days training. sport Zones

How do I train my entire team at the same time and work each player on an individual basis, without increasing the time spent conditioning?

Let’s address this question by walking through common conditioning drill – intervals. Up till now the standard method of interval training is to get the team on the line, and have them sprint a predetermined distance, give them all roughly 30 seconds to recover, and repeat. This method is very effective for those athletes that recover in 30 seconds. The athletes that recover in 20 seconds are not being pushed hard enough, and as a result are not benefiting from the drill. At the same time, the athletes that need a full minute to recover are being pushed to hard, or overtraining, causing undo stress and potential injury.

The Polar heart rate method is for each athlete to wear a heart rate monitor. The drill will start the same, all starting on the same line and sprinting the predetermined distance. However, this time the athletes will not start the next interval in 30 seconds, instead each athlete will start the next interval when their heart rate reaches the number you determine to be fully recovered.

This method allows you to condition each athlete based on the physical demands of their specific position. As a general example, an offensive player would typically not have as much time to recover during a game as a defensive player, so they need to be conditioned differently. Polar technology allows you to accomplish this individual approach while training the entire team at the same time.

How should I adjust my program as my athlete’s progress?
If your training is effective, your athletes will be able to run with increasingly less effort, or a lower heart rate. As an example, an athlete’s average heart rate for a specific conditioning drill at the beginning of the season was 180 beats per minute. Now mid season the same drill can be performed by this athlete at and average heart rate of 165 bpm, he/ she has become much more efficient. Here’s the benefit, it took much less effort to perform the same drill, and therefore the athlete will recover faster allowing for bursts of speed / breakaways, when the other team is tired. Also, if the athlete can perform at the same speed at a lower heart rate, he/ she will be faster at the higher heart rate.

Maximize each athletes individual potential.