In this blog I am going to be summarising the latest Episode of Daz Dee TV- Episode 5 Periodisation.

I am slowly getting better at giving the elevator pitch- the 30-second summary of what APA’s Training Philosophy is all about.  Only this week I had decided to put a four page summary up on the notice board at Sutton Tennis Academy.  I’ll share it with you here

The Elevator Pitch- what is APA all about in 30-sec

When you play sport at the highest level, you need to be in peak physical condition.  We aim to maximise your athletic potential meaning we make you Fitter, Faster and Stronger so you can excel at sport.

We believe in the 5 S’s of Sport

• Suppleness
• Skill
• Speed
• Strength
• Stamina

The Delivery of our Training Programmes comprise of: 

Complex Sessions (suitable for those coming 1-2 times per week and those with lower training ages).  Each 30-60 minute session will have elements of:

=> 10-20 minutes Skill/Suppleness

=> 10-20 minutes Speed

=> 10-20 minutes Strength

 

Focused Sessions (suitable for those coming 3 or more times per week and with higher training ages).  Each 1 hour will prioritise a specific component of fitness such as:

=> Speed

=> Strength

=> Stamina

=> Injury Prevention (comes under the Suppleness component)

Annual Planning:

Complex Sessions– For the athletes coming 1-2 times per week we believe in training all the components ALL YEAR ROUND however it is important to have a Key Focus.  Typically this will involve progressing from basic skills to more complex ones across three x  12 week terms.

Focused Sessions – For the athletes coming 3 times per week or more we believe in training all the components ALL YEAR ROUND however it is important to have a Key Focus.  Typically this will involve changing emphasis from Endurance => Strength => Power => Power Endurance over six months and repeating this cycle twice in the year

Linear versus Concurrent Periodisation:

Linear Periodisation:

At APA you might say that at first glance the training plans we use for our more committed athletes are based on LINEAR periodisation.  I can’t deny this as we clearly progress over time from those qualities that we can do in greater volume at lower intensity to those that we do at higher intensity in lower volume.  This sets the direction of travel horizontally over time.

So using the example of Strength above- we might work from Strength endurance => Hypertrophy => Max Strength => Power

However, the danger here would be to assume that we take this concept literally.  That would mean we don’t do any power work at all until we come to the end of the training cycle.  This is NOT what we do at APA.  Rather, the Linear route map only informs us as far as what the main focus of TRAINING is.  In any given moment we will also be TEACHING Max Strength exercises such as Back squats and TEACHING Olympic weight lifting exercises for Power such as the Clean.

Concurrent Periodisation:

At APA we always train all components of fitness all of the time.  Concurrent periodisation is based on the premise that we train every component of fitness each week.  However,  again the danger here would be to assume that we take this concept literally.

If you tried to overload ALL the components equally, if that were even possible, you would get a blunting of the training effect as there would be an interference effect.

Interference occurs when the improvement in any one component being trained is reduced in relation to what would have been achieved if this area was trained on its own.

Stafford (2005) Coaching for Long-term Athlete Development, p44. Sports Coach UK

Therefore we choose one or two things to TRAIN and others to TEACH.  The exception is with our advanced athletes where we might TRAIN multiple components in the same session, or at least in the same week.  But we would need to plan the week smartly so as to ensure we don’t try and hit too many qualities in any one day.

Strength Cycles: Volume versus Intensity Deloading

I just wanted to finish with a quick tutorial on how to manage your strength loading schemes for different levels of athletes.  Please watch the video in full to see exactly what I am talking about here

I want to give a shout out to James Baker of Proformance who is doing a great job in Youth S&C with his group in Gloucester, and I refer to an example of his training programme here.

Hope you enjoyed the show!!

Don’t forgot I am running a 1st4sport Level 2 S&C Certificate in June where we talk more about these concepts.  Head over to the website to find out more!!!!