Objectives of the annual plan

A good annual plan has its objectives that the coach plans or pays special attention to. Those objectives help the athlete to concentrate on the factors that might limit his/her perormance.

According to Bompa (1999) the methodological sequence of the objectives and training factors are the following:

1. Performance objective – at what place the athlete will achiev during the competitions ie. „Finish in top three at National Championships.“ It migt be useful to state also the probability of achieving this objective, like 80%. Which means that this achievement is highly probable.
2. Physical preparation – preparation of different abilities (endurance, strength, coorination, etc….). For cross-country skier – improve leg strength for skating (strength) and finish spurt (speed endurance)
3. Technical preparation – improve double poling technique;
4. Tactical preparation – improve placing strategy during mass start at the initial stage of the race;
5. Psychological preparation – improve concentration during during mass start to focus on important breakaways;
6. Theroretical preparation – know all the rules during racing

Reference: Bompa T. Periodization. Theory and methodology of training. Human Kinetics, Chicago, IL. 1999.