WHAT IS PARAMETRIC TRAINING?
Parametric training concept is among the most important theories that was ever introduced in the field of methodology of sports training. It explains the reaction of human body to different types of training strategies and offers a quantitative methods for its study and evaluation. The theory was first introduced by Dr. Sergei Gorgon back in 1968 and was further developed by a group of a young (at that time) scientists under Dr. Gordon guidance (Dr. Sergei Beliaev, Super Sport Systems’ Founder among them). Parametric training strategies are a veritable jack-hammer of a training tool. By keeping one training parameter at a time constant (e.g. speed, distance, number of reps…) while increasing others, an athlete can make enormous strides in speed, power, endurance, and efficiency in a very short period of time.
Founding members of 3S are the authors of this and many other training concepts that you may be already using without even knowing it. Until early 90s Parametric Training among some other core training concepts used in our protocols were kept as a “state secret” which is not an unusual thing in elite sport practices. Super Sport Systems was the first to make the use of these concepts public though its services, making the field plain for all athletes and coaches who dare to listen an apply it in their everyday work.
WHY PARAMETRIC CONCEPT IS IMPORTANT?
The theory of Periodization in its classical form (L.P.Matvejev, R. Bompa), while considered crucial to the development of sports science, is lacked a quantitative explanation, which prompted researchers to “close the gap” and find clear and practical solutions to this key process related to intelligent sports preparation by connecting quantitative characteristics of performance with well measured physiological parameters under different stress strategies. Parametric method offers a clear alternative to Classic Periodization approach when it comes to studying the development of special work capacity and devising a season plan based on adaptive abilities and not a sheer training volume. The development and formalization of this method (1968-2018) allowed deeper understanding of the process of sports training, its boundaries and opportunities, and, more importantly, the ability to achieve desired conditioning outcomes repeatedly on generations of athletes.
HOW PARAMETRICS WORK?
The essence of Parametric Training is simple: you need to manage specific training variables and maintain one parameter of training constant while changing the others. Selection of “managed” parameter will influence the time at which the body will exhausts its adaptive reserves. Therefore, the abilities we are trying to developed during the season can be connected with strategies which are most effective in each particular case or season phase.
Our study of parametric concept disclosed the fact that the effectiveness of different training strategies have different duration. Optimum combination of different strategies during the season produces maximum improvements where the rate of improvements can be different for each Energy Production system or target “ability”. Our system is based on parametric concept studies and offers tools to manage training season with very high precision, efficiency and ability to achieve target results. Application of parametric concept also led to further formalization of training exercises and their role in achieving specific training effects, condition necessary to training optimization process. In that sense our program is not only a training design and management tool, but also a research and educational aid for coaches and specialists who are eager to learn more about training principles and advance in their profession.
BOTTOM LINE
Although the theory behind Parametric Training concept is quite complicated, its use in daily practice is not. Parametric sets will appear in daily training schedules according to the phase of the season. All an athlete or coach has to do is follow these recommendations just as he would any other set. The results are then virtually guaranteed!
Our knowledge about Parametric Training is based on proprietary multi-decade research that is not available anywhere else. We ought to know. We invented it!