As athletes age and improve their sport-specific skills, the level of competition eventually evens out. Meaning that all athletes at a specific level share similarities in sport-specific skills. At this point, a properly designed strength and conditioning plan must enter the equation to ensure the athlete continues to improve not only sports skills, but the physical abilities and traits that keep the athlete a step ahead of the competition.
The combined dynamic effort training day is a modification to the standard Westside Barbell Conjugate Method training schedule used when working with conventional sports athletes. Combining dynamic effort training into a single training day allows athletes to focus on practice, skill development, or recovery on the other four days of the week.
Through the use of maximal, dynamic, and repeated effort methods, we can improve an athlete's absolute strength, explosive power, strength endurance, conditioning, and physical composition. Essentially, the Conjugate Method allows us to develop an athlete to the most significant degree efficiently.
Safe execution of max-effort training comes down to two factors; properly planned training and properly educated players. You want your programming to expose athletes to different levels of volume and intensity while teaching correct execution of the various exercises. As long as these bases are covered, max effort training is no more dangerous than any other training method.
Do not fear max-effort training; fear having weak players who get embarrassed on the playing field.
If an athlete needs to address their absolute strength, speed, endurance, or durability, a Conjugate program can be designed to improve sports performance.
There is a need for high levels of all of the attributes mentioned above in grappling-based sports. Over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to write programming for one of the premier Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitors in the world today, Dante Leon. Dante is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and has used Conjugate-based strength training to take his abilities to the next level.
