I gave a presentation titled “A Qualitative Overview of Methodologies of Periodization Used By Elite Endurance Coaches & Academics” on USA Triathlon’s Endurance Exchange Virtual Conference this morning.
View More Power Point Slides from Endurance Exchange Presentation
Since September I’ve published a number of articles about the Periodisation Principles and Methodology of a number of inspirational coaches and academics. Although each coach has their own take or style of periodisation they all have a number of key features that I will summarise in this article, as well as drawing attention to where they differ (and in some instances why they differ).
View More Qualitative Comparison of Periodisation Principles and Methodology
Professor Tudor Bompa is often referred to as the father of periodisation but I personally disagree as Bompa took the concepts of Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) and Leo Matveyev from the 1950’s and 60’s further developing them. Bompa is an academic who wrote prolifically on the subject both theoretically in peer reviewed journals as well as writing books on the Theory and Methodology of Periodisation, and further still on practical application in a range of different sports. Guru or God Father is a more fitting title for the single person who took the theoretical knowledge out of Eastern Block Europe and brought this knowledge to both the Western World and general sports people across a range of sports. The sixth edition of his very popular book Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training is about to be released in a couple of weeks.
View More The God Father of Periodisation – Tudor Bompa
Marc Evans is possibly the first person who referred to themselves as a triathlon coach, as opposed to a swim or run coach that helped triathletes. Marc Evans wrote a number of books about training for endurance events back in the 1980’s and 90’s and was in fact one of the first resources I purchased for my coaching business when I first started it back then. Endurance Athlete’s Edge is still a great resource. He takes a traditional approach to periodisation with five phases.
View More Marc Evan’s Periodisation Edge
Owen Anderson, PhD is world renowned in both running and academic circles. Coaching a number of elite athletes with one world champion, three world silver medalists, two world bronzes, and an African champion in his stable of athletes. In his book Running Science Owen presents an overview of the early science of preiodisation before describing ‘his’ Four-Phase Emphasis Periodisation (I say ‘his’ because he is describing it in his book, but it has been a collaborative effort in developing this method of periodisation by a number of coaches and exercise scientist over a decade).
View More Owen Anderson’s Four-Phase Emphasis Periodisation
This weeks article isn’t from some academic or coach that inspired me early in my coaching career but a coach that I’ve only discovered this year. Sean P. O’Connor was the Boys Head Coach for Lafayette High School, MO and he wrote his book Distance Training Simplified. O’Connor or Coach OC as his athletes call him doesn’t prescribe to the traditional periodisation concepts. Now I don’t use Coach OC’s methodology with my athletes, nor will I but his concept hold’s merit in certain circumstances (that don’t fit with my athletes). I’m including his concept or methodology in this series because I like his concept and believe in it (for a specific demographic).
View More Periodisation Simplified
Dick Hannula is arguably one of the most successful swim coaches of all time. Under his leadership the Tacoma Swim Club won 24 consecutive state championships, a total of 323 swim meets with no loss!!! He was the US National Swim Coach multiple times between 1973 and 1985, as well as manager for both summer Olympics in 1984 & 1988. He has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and is credited with developing the modern swim paddle with holes in them to facilitate feel for the water. He has authored Coaching Swimming Successfully and edited The Swim Coaching Bible.
View More Periodising Swimming Successfully with Dick Hannula
Julian Goater was a top British athlete winning a gold medal with the rest of the British team at the World Cross Country Championships in 1979. He has a 5,000m PB of 13:15.59 and a 10,000m PB of 27:34.58 (which to this day is a still in the Top 10 fastest UK times ever).
In more modern times Julian is now running a coaching company in the UK called Feel Good Factors for runners and cyclists. In his book he wrote with Don Melvin The Art of Running Faster Julian talks about his methodology of periodisation.
Jon Ackland was an early inspiration of mine. It was possibly him who first introduced me to the term Periodisation through articles in NZ Triathlon magazines in the early to mid 90’s. Then in the early 2000’s I attended a number of seminars he held about Ironman preparation and took on a lot of his philosophies from these seminars.
View More The Power of Periodisation With Jon Ackland
Traditional periodisation has four phases (preparation, precompetition, competition and active rest phases). Swimming is different to other sports because it is held in a water environment which is governed by a different set of physical rules than land based sports. For this reason Dave Salo modifies how he periodises a season for his swimmers.
View More Dave Salo’s Complete Periodisation for Swimmers