Rolim, R., Garcia R., Santos J.A., Paiva M., Colaço P. e Conceição F. (2000). On top as senior...and till up there.... International Congress on Sports Sciences - Programme and abstracts. Hungarian University os Physical Education - Budapest.
The purpose of this research is to investigate how the basic and build-up training process (training and competition) of young athletes (up to junior level) with notorious aptitude for Middle and Long Distance (MLD) runners competition actually occurs.
The sample, 32 trainers (they’re training 84 young athletes) was studied using one semi-structured interview of one reply, previously validated in accordance with reference literature. All the interviews were recorded, put into transcript and treated through the heuristic function content analysis.
The main results and conclusions about training and competition during the basic and build-up training level show important divergences with the general consensus obtained on the review of the literature, for stages of preliminary preparation (SPP) and early specialisation (SES), distinguishing:
(i) an early age at the beginning of regular and specific training (≥5x/week) for the MLD competition, in average, at 10.42±1.74 years;
(ii) exclusive athletics training since SPP, in opposition to the observed with élite athletes when young and the reference literature orientations;
(iii) reduced contents, means and methods in the training prescribed by trainers in the first stages of prospective preparation, denouncing a pedagogically poor and excessively endurance centred unidirectional sportive preparation process.
(iv) an excessively long annual training cycle in SPP and SES for the trainers of sample A, with a period of about 30 days for all the studied stages.
(v) exclusive and exaggerated competitive participation in MLD competition during SPP and SES, and insignificant participation in technical competitions.
As conclusion, due to the early specialisation that all the young athletes with potential for the disciplines of MLD are submitted, it seems necessary, under the light of pedagogical and methodological orientations, to proceed to a deep thinking and the modification of the different stages of prospective preparation training, for instance the number of training units/week and the contents, means and methods privileged during the stages of basic and build-up training, as well as proceed to an extensive change in the regulations.