Breaking Down Bondarchuk
Sitting in front of the computer helplessly awaiting every shot put result from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I was ready to throw my television. NBC was showing four heats of the women’s 800 meter run while some of the most explosive athletes battled it out in the infield, their athleticism being neglected. I was left to rely on live updates from the Olympic website. My friend and training partner, Dylan Armstrong was having the best throwing day of his career to date. Over the past ten months Dylan and I spent countless hours training for the shot put in the snow-filled winter of British Columbia with fellow shot putters Jesse Roberge and Justin Rodhe.
Dylan was sitting a centimeter out of second entering the final throw. Staring at the computer, my blood pressure was through the roof while I anxiously awaited news of my training partner’s Olympic success. One by one, athletes continued to fold under the Olympic pressure and Dylan came one step closer to a medal. In the final round, American Christian Cantwell stepped in and bested Dylan’s mark by five centimeters, claiming the silver medal and bumping Dylan off the podium. This was one of the few times that our coach, Dr. Anatoli Bondarchuk, had an athlete barely miss a medal in the Olympics.
Arriving in British Columbia on a cold fall day, all I could imagine was a training regimen straight out of Rocky IV: pulling sleds, collapsing in the snow, the driving beat of a cheesy ‘80s theme song pushing me to my peak while my Russian opponents sweated into high-tech gadgets a continent away.
Childhood fantasies aside, I was about to be trained by an old Soviet master, Dr. Anatoli Bondarchuk. A 1972 Olympic champion and former world record holder, Dr. Bondarchuk coached 18 athletes over 80 meters in the hammer throw, a mark comparable to the 500 home run club in baseball. Three of his protégés are among the best hammer throwers in recent history, including world record holder Yuri Sedych. After leaving the Soviet Union, Dr. Bondarchuk now coaches Dylan Armstrong, Canadian record holder in the shot put, and Sultana Frizell and Jennifer Joyce, current and previous Canadian hammer throw record holders, respectively. His athletes swept four Olympic podiums in non-boycotted Olympics in the hammer throw.
I was praying for a transformation into a thrower version of Aleksander Karelin, the Soviet wrestling legend who could have intimidated Darth Vader in a dark alley. To say I was anxious to meet my new coach and begin training under his expertise is an understatement. In the words of Ivan Drago, I wanted to be made into a piece of iron. A machine.
For the past eight years I had spent countless hours in the weight room. Metal clanged four days a week as I broke down and rebuilt my body. But I always felt as though something was missing from my training. I always believed, and was taught that in training for the shot put, absolute strength was the key. The hours benching four plates and squatting five plates would eventually pay off. At some point, I would hit another big throw and everything would be worth it. All the heavy, slow movements would pay off with a great emotional high.
Dr. Bondarchuk smashed every tenet of training I had learned. Every experience and method he used was different from what I knew. He laughed at me when I wanted to skip and stretch before my first training session. A fellow trainee, Jesse Roberge, told me, “No, buddy, just get in and throw.” Dr. B followed up with a smirk and told me, “Not need, waste of energy.” I soon realized that training was about efficiency. I entered a semi-Soviet style system that focused on training movements with the highest correlation of transfer for competition.
Bondarchuk Lesson #1: Transfer of Training
Focus on a high transfer of training. Use exercises that have a high correlation of transfer from training into the athlete’s competitive movement. If you are a shot putter, throw the shot. If you wrestle, train by wrestling. The transfer of training comes from movements that closely mimic the competitive movement. A shot putter needs to focus on improving the rate of force production. The body needs to be dynamic, move quickly and move power into the implement as rapidly as possible.
But what about the extra strength movements? The heavy bench press and big squats? Dr. Bondarchuk prefers what he calls, “special strength.” Excelling in one type of movement – like getting a personal record in shot, hammer, or discus – requires a type of “special” strength, a strength tailored to that athlete’s focus. The athlete must be dynamic and explosive. Solid core strength in the weight room does not necessarily correlate to specific athletic movement.
A foundation of absolute strength is needed in the throws, but that may be achieved in a relatively short period of the athlete’s training life. In the throwing events, teenagers can develop absolute strength while still training dynamically. Most athletes avoid dynamic training, only accomplishing dynamic movements while involved in their competitive sport or perhaps while moving weight rapidly, such as a clean, snatch, or jump squat. In the U.S., strength is taught mainly under absolute methodology. Unlike Dr. Bondarchuk, rarely, does a coach prescribe movements that require higher coordination of motor skills.
In training, shot putters may use implements ranging from a five kilo shot put all the way up to a ten kilo shot put, while the competitive weight is a seven kilo. The methodology is unique, changing implements and weight lifting programs are unique to the athlete. After my first throwing session with Dr. Bondarchuk, I headed to the weight room thinking I may start throwing around some heavy weights. After my first lift I told one of my training partners that the weights were unbelievably light. He kept telling me not to worry, that I needed to simplify my expectations for training. I pretended to listen, but in reality I thought maybe the 68-year-old Soviet was nuts and forgot about heavy strength movements. After the rest of the unconventional lifting session we headed into a throwing room and rapidly threw two-kilo discs against a wall.
What I didn’t realize at the time was these types of movements have a high transfer of training to the competitive form. The same lift is accomplished every day at a low intensity, which enables the body to recover fairly well. This also keeps a continuous base of strength levels and bridges together the two dynamic training sessions. The first dynamic session trains the competitive movement, while the second session trains the special strength movements.
A special strength movement is anything that has some sort of simulation to competition. Dr. B’s initial explanation was that, “a 20-21 meter shot put throw is done around 13-14 meters per second. A heavy bench press with absolute strength levels is done at less than one meter per second. Instead of training a heavy bench press, throw a dumbbell, perhaps around 16 kilograms. At this training rate, the dumbbell throw may be done within eight or more meters per second.” Clearly, this would emulate competition more than a heavy bench press. Other dynamic movements for the shot put are throwing shot puts for height, standing bench presses emphasizing speed, or clean and throw a bar for height. Most of these movements are dynamic in the sense that the athlete must address a rapid reflex or accomplish complete acceleration through the final movement.
Lesson Number 2: Do Not Waste Energy
This may be a no-brainer to many but it is definitely worthwhile to reiterate this concept. During my collegiate years of training, practices lasted long hours and began with an extended warm up. My first session with Dr. B really threw my body into a new mode of training. Prior to throwing, I was accustomed to an extended warm up that also included numerous standing throws, half turn throws and finally the competitive full throw. As I said, Dr. B. laughed at the inefficiency of skipping around and stretching. His system is about emphasis on the competitive movement, and he views a proper warm up as lower intensity moves of the competitive form.
For example, a proper warm up for a shot putter would involve two to three standing throws at a medium intensity, followed by two to three full throws at a medium intensity. By this time, the body is warmed up to the specific task at hand and the athlete is then able to amp up intensity as needed. This is a crucial part to Dr. B’s training. No energy is wasted in a long extended warm up. Instead, the athlete is able to focus on the competitive movement with much more energy throughout the training session.
Energy efficiency is also crucial to other points in the training plan. Normally lifts are done at a low intensity to enable proper recovery. The specific lift is done every day, but rarely does the body tire from the lifts because it has adapted to the training which then allows more energy for training specific movements. Even while training special strength, it is important not to go 100%. The all out effort is saved for the competitive movement and if everything else is trained at lower to medium intensity, the competitive movement can then be trained on a much more frequent basis.
Jesse Roberge and I were having daily competitions while throwing a four kilogram shot put for height. We were using a tall cement wall as our gage and decided to compete on nearly every throw of each session. After days of yelling and screaming to throw the shot higher, Dr. B came out to Jesse and me and yelled at us. He reminded us that we were throwing terribly everyday and were wondering why. We were putting in a greater effort to our special strength movements and our bodies could not recover in time for a solid throwing session.
It seems in his training system, less is actually more. Each training session will only last about an hour and a half which allows for proper recovery and multiple sessions a day. The competitive movement is then trained at a greater frequency and injuries are much less common than in a system of high intensity weightlifting.
Lesson 3: Understand Your Body
While training under Dr. B, I became much more aware of my body and when it needed a break from training. I learned when my body was feeling tremendous and when it needed more time to adapt. Dr. B aided me in this endeavor. Throughout the training, I would get increasingly frustrated if I was not throwing as far as I could in each session. I finally realized the simple fact that, the body’s ability to recover varies significantly with stress levels. As an athlete or coach, this is crucial to setting up a peaking program. Charting out progression of the highs and lows in training will allow the athlete to have a much more reliable peak.
Progress is easily charted with the throwing events. By measuring throws on a daily basis, an athlete and coach can see how many days it takes for the athlete’s body to adapt to a program and in turn, set up a program for a major peak later in the year. In other sports, it may seem difficult, but listening to the body enables the process. Chart objective results as well, but notice when your body wants more sleep. Fatigue is a telltale sign that your body is still attempting to adapt to a change in training.
These are all simple methods that can be instituted into any athlete’s training program. A bit of creativity and ingenuity from both the athlete and the coach will spark a program that will foster proper progression. Once these foundations for training are understood, additional methods for honing sport-specific skills can be implemented. Next time, I’ll speak to sports other than throwing and include some of these honing methods from the Soviet master, Dr. Anatoli Bondarchuk.
Dane Miller trained under Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk and now spends time training himself and other athletes at his training center in Reading, Pennsylvania. Visit his website at www.GarageStrength.com or email him at Dane@GarageStrength.com for more information.