Periodization: Applying the Concepts

In a previous post (http://wp.me/p1XfMm-aA ) I provided some general thoughts on periodization and how it is structured.  When it comes to periodization, I have a few guidelines that I try to follow:

1.     Work on strength and power year round: These are important skills for most sports, which means they have to be a constant focus.

2.     Speed and agility need to take place in the context of the sport.

3.     Remember the periodization is the totality of the athlete’s training: Athletes do more than lift weights.  Any periodization program has to account for everything include sports practices.

4.     Link the training together: All of the various training modes should complement each other, not compete.  This way the effectiveness of training is maximized and the athlete has a chance to recover from training.

In the previous post, I laid out three phases that all periodization models have in common (though all models call these something different).  The get in shape phase, the apply fitness to the sport phase, and the specialized training phase.  In this post, I provide some sample programs to show how these phases are different.

These programs are for a basketball player and would be appropriate for high school seniors, junior college athletes, or even division I freshmen.  Because this is basketball, we want to develop strong, explosive athletes with great sport-specific speed and agility.

Get in Shape Phase:

The table below shows a sample week of training for this phase.  The intent is to use Monday as a maximal strength day.  We’re early in training so the intensities aren’t very high, yet.  That will change as training progresses.  Speed and agility training (short duration, maximal effort) is used to complement the strength training.  Tuesday is a power day, so Olympic lifts and plyometrics.  In addition, the athlete is practicing sport skills on this day.  Wednesday is a conditioning day, but this is being used to help recover.  Thursday is a lower body hypertrophy training day, speed and agility work that is longer in duration is placed on this day to complement the strength training.  Friday is an upper body hypertrophy day, conditioning work and more sports skills are placed on this day so that everything complements.

Applying the Fitness:

Training begins to become a lot more focused in this phase.  Monday is still a maximal strength day, but the weights are much heavier now.  Speed and agility training is now focusing on incorporating sport-specific movements and situations.  In addition, the athlete is probably having team practices so this has to be accounted for as well.  Tuesday is still a power day, so Olympic lifts and plyos are performed here.  Wednesday is a recovery day, so only conditioning and practice are done today.  Thursday is another maximal strength day, note that speed and agility are still focused on the sport.  Friday is another power day, so more Olympic lifts and plyometrics.

Specialized training:

This is where things get tricky because the athlete is competing in this phase.   In this phase, we are really focused on basketball.  The athlete is traveling, competing, and practices are on another level.  This means less time to do other types of training.  As a result, to maximize time, training modes are combined.  For example, strength training and plyometrics are combined.  Speed and agility is combined, etc.  For this example, there are games on Tuesday and Friday.  Saturday is used as a complete recovery day.  So that it doesn’t interfere with the games, Wednesday and Sunday are the strength training days.  Note that speed and agility are also performed on these days.  Unless it is an issue, we’re using games and scrimmages to maintain conditioning.