How will coaches know when to progress to higher levels of the programme?

A important feature of Activate is that each version of the programme contains several levels. Each level progressively increases the challenge for players by increasing the exercise difficulty or number of repetitions. Progressing through the levels throughout the playing season will help with the programme continuing to challenge players and providing an appropriate training stimulus while keeping players engaged.

Players must be able to demonstrate that they can complete the exercises at a certain level with good control, balance, and technique to be considered ready to progress to the next level. Although players may be ready to progress to higher levels at different rates, coaches may find it more straightforward to manage progression for the playing squad and so should only consider progressing once the majority of the playing squad have mastered a given level.

As a guideline for coaches, a typical playing squad may be ready to progress after six to eight weeks of using a given level. This duration is expected to give players enough time to master the exercises without spending too long and risking the exercises becoming boring. How quickly coaches progress through the levels will depend on the athletic profile and training history of their players, and how frequently they use Activate. Squads with more extensive conditioning training experience may ready ready to progress more quickly through the lower levels, while more frequently using Activate will provide greater exposure to the training and more opportunities for players to practice the exercises, and so the squad may be ready to progress sooner. 

It is important that coaches plan their training schedule and note when they expect to progress to different levels of the programme during the season. Coaches should also continually monitor their players while completing Activate to assess readiness for progression.

What if the playing squad is not ready to progress after eight weeks?

The guideline of six to eight weeks before progressing assumes that a playing squad will have some conditioning training history and uses Activate once to twice per week. This may not apply in all cases and so it is possible that some playing squads feature players that are new to this type of training, or that cannot use Activate as frequently because of the limited number of training sessions and matches.

If a coach is not satisfied that their playing squad are ready to progress to a new level, it is fine to stay at the same level for longer than eight weeks. To prevent players from getting bored of completing the same exercises for a prolonged period, coaches can look at ways to vary the delivery of the exercises. Some examples of different delivery strategies can be found here.

If the majority of the playing squad is ready to progress to the next level, but a handful of players are not yet ready, coaches can progress to the next level but should consider options for managing these players. Some possible options could involve:

• Progressing the players to the new level of exercises, but to start them at a lower number of repetitions or durations and progress from there.
• Keeping the players at the current level while the rest of the playing squad progress to the next level.
• Maintaining the current level for the playing squad until the remaining players are ready to progress. 

What if coaches progress to higher levels too fast?

If after progressing to a new level a coach notes that the playing squad is finding the new level of exercises too difficult, it is ok to revert back to the previous level of exercises and introduce the progression gradually. This gradual progression could involve moving to the advanced exercises that players can cope with while remaining at the previous level for other exercises, or introducing the new level of exercises but starting with fewer repetitions or durations to allow players to focus on movement quality over the quantity of repetitions.

Progressing to the higher levels too far or before the players are ready will reduce the effectiveness of the programme if the players are unable to complete the exercises properly.