The Complementary Training Archives: The Early Years, Now in Print

I wanted the early years of Complementary Training on my bookshelf. Something I could pick up, revisit, and one day show my kids. That slightly sentimental idea has become The Complementary Training Archives, Volume 1: 2010–2011 — Ideas, Experiments & Mistakes, now available in paperback on Amazon.

Complementary Training started in 2010, following my summer internship at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in Massachusetts. I needed somewhere to share articles, think through training problems, interview people I respected, and occasionally argue with myself. There was no grand strategy. Over time, that personal blog grew into the collection of articles, courses, tools, and discussions you know today.

What’s inside

This first volume brings together more than 400 pages of early writing, organized around the 2010 and 2011 archives, plus an addendum with material published before the blog began.

The topics will be familiar to CT readers: strength training planning, conditioning for team sports, periodization, monitoring, perceived effort and autoregulation, skill acquisition, and coaching philosophy. You’ll find the three-part “Planning the Strength Training” series, the four-part “8 Weeks Soccer Pre-Season Plan,” and “What the Heck Is Periodization Anyway?”

The collection also includes interviews with Dan Baker, Keith Davids, Mike Tuchscherer, Vern Gambetta, Iñigo Mujika, and others. These conversations sit alongside practical programming examples and the occasional detour into a broader coaching question.

Why revisit the early material?

Some of you will recognize these articles. For members who enjoy reading on paper, this is a way to keep that part of Complementary Training’s history in one place: underline a passage, compare programs, make notes in the margins, and return to a discussion without opening another browser tab.

The subtitle matters. I have preserved the writing as an archive rather than rewriting younger Mladen to agree with everything I think today. Some ideas I still stand behind; others I have changed or refined. This is a record of that process, not a newly revised training manual.

There is practical value in revisiting the questions as well as the answers. How do you fit strength work around team training? What do you emphasize when time is limited? How much should a plan change in response to the athlete? The examples and discussions give you something concrete to compare with your own coaching. Read critically, including when you read my conclusions.

Have a look inside

I’ve prepared a free 20-page preview with the contents, preface, selected articles and interview excerpts, and the About section. Have a browse before deciding whether the full collection belongs on your shelf.

Download the free 20-page preview (PDF)

Get the paperback on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VhSEND

Thank you to everyone who has supported Complementary Training through your membership, questions, discussions, and shared experience. Those exchanges have helped shape this work, and I’m glad to preserve a part of it in print.