Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Periodisation - it's alive and kicking butt!

Periodisation Is alive, well and kicking butt!

Why? 
Because its been alive for milllenia.

1980, 1984 and 1988 bought strangers into our house.
Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram, Daley Thompson, Edwin Moses, Said Aouita, Carlos Lopes, Nadia Comenici, Mary Lou Rhetton, Joint Benoit, and Linford Christie ran, jumped, twisted and threw their way into my heart via a lounge-room TV. They also sparked a fire. 
Locals Gary Honey*, Darren Dlark, Glynnis Nunn, Debbie Flintoff-King, Patt Scammel, Mike Hillardt & Maree Holland fuelled a dream.

Plato, quoted by a TV commentator, got me reading about Ancient Greek lifestyle, the place and importance of exercise, and the practice of athletes preparing for events like the original Olympics.  I saw snippets of the world through the lenses and of Plato, Socrates. Herodotus. Hippocrates, Galen & Philoglatus.

I didn't know it at the time yet Socrates, Herodotus' The Histories, Jame's Fixx's The Second Book Of Running (1978), Percy Cerrutty's In Sport & Life (1967), and Ken Cooper's Running Without Fear (1985) began to mould me a student of Periodisation in 1985 at 19 years old.

I'm still a student of it ... in 2018 at a young 52.


Is Periodisation dead? Not for me.
Far from it.
And not for others.  I doubt it is for you.

Late high school was a battle-ground for me, especially the prescribed 'texts' in senior English. Reading was hard-work. 
I was slow. I read words and sentences. 
I looked for meaning in visual information. Pictures, graphs and tables became friends. Running and drawing had been allies since 1980. I savoured their solace, speed and security.

That said, I did learn the difference between a noun (naming word) and verb (doing word). I think. 

Experience, trial-and-error, the insights, perspectives and opinions of others, and not to mention insight and perspectives from outside the world of sports-preparation have come to help me understand, refine and apply the process of periodisation.
 Understanding, refining and applying periodisation is still a living, ecological, and fluid learning curve.

Scholinsky's Track and Field: Based on Experience and Scientific Research in Sport in the German Democratic Republic (1983), and Tudor Bompa's first edition (1983) Theory & Methodology of Training: They Key to Athletic Performance had me dream, draw, dissect and disseminate yearly or annual training plans. Only obtained in the early 2000s, Harre's (1982) Principles of Sports Training and Matveyev's (1981) Fundamentals of Sports Training influenced me too.


I still have some. They were prescriptions. On reflection, they're embarrassing. Yet they were a start. And they're indicative of the growth process associated and implicit in periodisation.  
For starters, Periodisation is a noun (name, n) given to a PROCESS (verb, v)



Through 20-teens lenses, understanding (v) periodisation's organic, fluid, chaotic and agile nature as a process is paramount to feeling (v) its pulse, valuing (v) its consciousness, following (v) its principles, and being guided (v) by the lessons of it's trials, tribulations, tributaries and tests. These are vital to understanding it's life and how it lives and breathes.


Periodisation is the process of doing (v), so understanding (v) any of definition is important to application (v).

A training book, on-line blog, e-program, on-line 6-week training program or prescription, an excel spread-sheet and a google-share documents as "annual plans" are NOT periodised programs. They're products, and prescriptions.   

I learnt this the hard way through the 1990s. I had great opportunities with good people and good contexts to learn more about and through it during the 200os.
And, I'm still learning about it. You may have, or are learning too.
Learning implies life, not death.

In essence the process of periodisation - not it's final products or outcomes - has FIVE inter-related components:

(1) DIVIDING (v) a given time period whether multi-year, LTAD, year, season into manageable (v) phases/blocks/cycles of time


(2) MANAGING (v) acute and accumulated/ongoing and cumulative training & competition load/stress


(3) APPLYING (v) common sense and fundamental training principles such as progression, overload, individualisation, specificity, and variety


(4) WORKING (v) with people - their nuances an anomalies - not sports, programs nor prescriptions, and


(5) MOULDING time constraints, restraints and variants.


In reference to (1) Dividing - if you talk, think, write, blog, report, discuss, dream or wonder about any of the following, periodisation IS ALIVE for you too:

  • multi-year, Olympic cycle, World Championship cycle, Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD), youth development; beginner-, novice-, intermediate-, advanced-athletes; generalisation versus specialisation; early- and latter-age sports
  • yearly**; seasonal; Winter and Summer, Autumn and Fall/Spring competitions; Indoor vs Outdoor seasons
  • preparation, competition, transition phases
  • pre-season, in-season, off-season
  • phases, blocks, cycles, macrocycles, mesocycles, microcycles, units
  • general, specific and special phases/cycles, and exercises
  • loading, maintaining, stabilising, unloading, accumulating, intensifying phases/blocks or cycles
  • preparatory, base, build, taper, peak blocks/phases/cycles or weeks
  • 5-day, 6-day, 7-day, 9-day cycle (but not 8)
  • they're all the same process - just different terms for given or defined periods of time (5) with different variables to manage, prioritise and coach

    ** Bompa's (1983) definition around the year or annual plan is often the central tenet for criticising periodising or declaring it dead. That's a limited foundation for critique, and a narrowed bias. His literal definition (see below) - yet neither his premise nor process - mentions peaking for the major competition(s) of the year. More-or-less important competitions are discussed. Of course, it's only one small aspect of his and similar works (Harre 1982; Matveyev 1977, 1981).

    Recent critiques - and good ones too - highlight shortcomings to this annual/yearly (only) focus. Competitions are held more frequently, some athletes/teams or play in various competition on various continents all year, and that all games/competitions carry more weight not just finals' series, international or national championships. Sponsorship and greater TV coverage and audiences sees more money and associated values and behaviours (incl gambling) placed upon winning. 

    It's accurate to say that different strategies are required. It's incorrect to suggest that the principles  and process of periodisation don't. The stress of training and competition is still being managed (see (2) below).

    Similarly with new, popular and very well financed sports preparation processes, technologies and personnel different approaches and 'systems' can be used. And, recent insights into the systematic sports-doping systems of the late 1970s and 1980s (during such works) has been eye-opening.

    All true, yet the principles and process of periodisation remain - alive.

    In reference to (2) MANAGING the competition and training load - if you talk, think, write, blog, report, discuss, dream or wonder about any of the following, periodisation IS ALIVE for you too:
    • loading, unloading, holding a load, maintenance load, peaking load, recovery load training load, recovery load, individual loads, squad loads, competition load, tissue load
    • complexity, density, volume, intensity; volume of intensity
    • submaximal, maximal, supra-maximal
    • aerobic, aerobic-anaerobic, anaerobic-aerobic, anaerobic
    • stress, stressor, eustress, distress
    • external load, internal load; inertial load
    • distance, speed, pace, effort, watts, power, zones, units, lactate levels, perceived exertion, ratings of perceived exertion
    • acute, immediate, delayed, chronic, accumulated
    • complementary, supplemetnary; primary, secondary, tertiary, accessory
    • polarised, accumulated, intensified, ad-hoc, intuitive loads
    • rolling load, acute load, chronic or accumulated load, rolling monthly load, acute: chronic training load ratio
    • attractors, facilitators, fluctuators, components, systems 
    • ecological, sustainable, renewable, adaptable, fluid, symbiotic
    • overtraining, over-reaching, under-training
    • monitoring, recording, testing, evaluating, modifying, diarising, journalling
    • RHR, HRR, HRV submaxHR, MaffHR, HR-zone/s
    • above-, at-, below-threshold
    • etc

    • they're all part of the same process - just different terms or strategies for managing components or categories of, or the total exercise (training and competition) load or stress at a given point in time or over time (5) with different variables to manage/change and coach for individuals (4)
     In reference to (3) APPLYING common sense and fundamental training principles and - if you talk, think, write, blog, report, discuss, dream or wonder about any of them periodisation IS ALIVE for you too:
    • progression; easy to hard, simple to complex, known-to-unknown, isolation to integration; slow to fast; internal to external paced 
    • overload, progressive, overload, over-loading, under-loading, load over time, progress
    • specificity, simulation, specific, specifics; complex, simple
    • variety. varied, variation/s
    • repetition, repeat, practise/practice, training
    • individuality, N=1, individualisation, genetic-ceiling;  non-responders, slow responders, responders
    • reversibility, use-em-or-lose-em
    • like (1)' and (2) the basic or fundamental principles of training are an inherent part of the same process. They're the guidelines or rules by which loads are applied to individuals over-time to cause adaptation and improve performance (levels) over time (5) with different variables to manage/change and coach for individuals (4)

    Periodisation has become the sales-pitch and marketing-tool and, conversely, scratching-pole and punching-
    bag for many over the last 12-15 yers. It's broader process and principles have been bastardised. mass-marketed, prescribed and sold through the "fitness industry" as "training systems of the Russians/Germans/Bulgarians", especially weight-training, weight-lifting and body-building. And, on reflection, more recently to age-group and recreational runners, cyclists, and triathletes (to mention a few).


    This has been paralleled with new technologies, the internet, the 'explosion' of more and more reductionist thinking sport-scientists, increased budgets and staff of (professional) spots teams and their coaching department, and a greater number and easier access to sport-science and sport-analytics type courses.


    None of these are a problem in themselves. Apart from the notion that often it's hard to see the forrest for the tress. Or, in other words, many have come to major in the minors. when you do this, you lose sight of the bigger-picture or the process of periodisation and focus predominantly on the miniscule aspects associated with load or stress in small time frames (like day-to-day, session-to-session, inter-set rests, or debating over choosing 2 of 18 exercises for the hamstrings).

    When you major in the minors you worry about your next breath (next set, next session), and lose perspective on the wonders of life and living (the people/athletes around you, getting better, and getting better at getting better).


    In simple terms, periodisation is a process. It'a verb. It's something you constantly engage with  and do. The engagement is its life.


     **"Periodisation is a process of dividing the annual plan into smaller phases of training in order to allow a program to be set into more manageable segments, and to ensure a correct peaking for the main competition(s)....achieved progressively over a long period of time...the  methodology of developing skills, strategical maneuvres and biomotor abilities  also require this special approach..." (Bompa 1983, pp.132-133)


    * I was fortunate (well, sort of) to spend some time in hospital beside Gary Honey in 1986.  I was having my first o (of four) Morton's neuromas removed. He was having surgery on an oesto-arthritic first MTP (big toe joint). AS a 20yo I felt blessed to meet him and talking training and international competition.