A Plan That Works

Coming Up With A Plan That Works

Everyone eventually asks, “What’s the plan, coach?”

Sometimes it’s the athlete at a team meeting. Other times it might be the supervisor behind closed doors. Usually it’s the coach reflecting in moments of uncertainty.

Imagine the athletic season as a journey. A lot can happen as you make your way—all sorts of surprises. Most folks understand that nothing happens completely as expected. Likewise most frame the journey on its destination: a championship meet, rivalry game, or simply an aspirational endpoint.

Maybe you’re driving a car and your destination is days away. People fill your car. Young people. Kids, in fact.

Each one wants something different as you drive along. You’ll need to figure out places to stay, sights to see, and mouths to feed.

How are you going to manage it all? What’s your plan? Do you simply drive off and play it by ear, or do you carefully map it all out ahead of time?

A Training Plan Exactly How You Want It

At Stride, we hear a lot about training plans. Athletic directors have confessed deep concerns about how exactly novice coaches might handle a team of athletes who are participating only because of some requirement. The same folks worry about experienced coaches years older than them who press the same approach year after year.

We designed Stride for flexibility. We recognize that, whatever your training plan, the plan’s yours. Several coaches might roughly follow something like the periodization chart below. If that’s you, no problem. If not, also no problem. We’ve got you covered either way.

However your plan breaks down, you can easily execute it using our Practice Template and Team Calendar features.

Start offline on a notepad or spreadsheet. Organize your routine and its workouts into broad categories. You might be surprised. Workouts tend to lump into six or seven buckets. We’d wager that general endurance, team play and instruction and skills show up in some form.

Add these categories as templates on Stride. Next schedule templates as practices on the team calendar according to your timeframe. Detail each practice to individualize it. Stride’s feedback loops alert you to trends in fitness and fatigue, and what types of practices work and what don’t.

Stride won’t magically present the ideal plan—that has to come from you. Our platform will guide you so that, along your way, you make smarter decisions.

You’ll gain a better sense of all the random pieces you need to manage. You’ll avoid repeating past mistakes.

So one more time: “What’s the plan, coach?”

“Glad you asked! Here it is, a plan that works exactly for you.”

Sydney is Stride’s Founder.