Why’s Training Periodization Important and How It Helps Professional Athletes

By Staff Report
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Updated: June 5, 2020

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In order for an athlete to prepare well for an important competition, it’s necessary for the coach and fitness trainer to do an excellent job in the preparation of an athlete and the application of the training periodization.

There are many fitness trainers/coaches, but not all of them can do the training periodization in a quality way. This is where professionals and amateurs probably separate. The training periodization is a complex matter and requires comprehensive knowledge in the field of training. If it’s done properly, it can produce athletes such as Saquon Barkley. The running back of the New York Giants was ranked first in the list as the fittest athletes in the world by Sports Illustrated.

Why’s Training Periodization Important for the Good Physical Preparation of an Athlete?

One of the important factors for good physical preparation of an athlete is the training periodization, and in addition we’ll list the adaptation. It refers to athletes’ ability to adapt to various external and internal stressful situations to which they will be exposed during the training process.

The trainer exposes athletes with a different combination of training volume, and they act differently to that. Each process of adaptation can lead to changes in the body of an athlete, while the functions of the human body are balanced in the external and internal environment. A state of balance is achieved through the process of adaptation.

“We have benchmarks and training data over several seasons so that we know what each player has got to achieve,” says Richard Collinge, Head of Medical Services at the English soccer club West Ham United.

“How fast he needs to sprint, the number of accelerations and decelerations he makes, the distance he covers.”

It’s necessary for the trainer to suggest athletes one or more combinations of training loads, to which they adapt during a certain time. In other words, athletes undergo changes in the appropriate physiological systems (respiratory system, neuromuscular system, etc.), and their functional abilities improve.

There’s practically an improvement in sports performance until an athlete’s body adapts to a certain combination of training stimuli. Adaptation to a certain combination of training stops when an athlete reaches the level of the so-called “match fitness.” This means that the body has adapted (changed its functions) to certain training loads.

“To be game-ready, an athlete needs to not have any injury limitations holding them back, but also has to focus on the mental and emotional components,” explains Dan Garner to Betway, former coach of UFC champions Ronda Rousey and Michael Bisping.

In order to achieve new improvements in results, it’s necessary to re-apply the training periodization and reorganize the organism and its systems with a new application of adaptation. For that purpose, new and more effective training stimuli and methods must be applied, and in the case of soreness, massage guns are often used by athletes for recovery.

One combination of training load is good for one level of sports performance but is ineffective for different levels of performance. The degree of impact of training on the physiological systems of an athlete must increase with a higher level of sports performance.

What’s a Match Fitness and What Does It Depend On?

Match fitness is a state of optimal (best) readiness for sports performance that’s required in the limited conditions of each training cycle – macrocycle, mesocycle, or a certain period. Match fitness as a whole represents a harmonious set of all components of an athlete’s optimal readiness: physical, psychological, technical, and tactical. It can be said that an athlete is match fit only when all the listed components are present.

In a potential case where athletes are in an extremely high stage of physical condition and technical readiness, if they aren’t in an adequate psychological state, they won’t be able to demonstrate their physical and technical readiness. Therefore, the match fitness is characterized not only by the presence of various characteristics but also by the harmonized relationship of the four mentioned parameters.

How and in What Way to Achieve Success in Professional Sports?

It’s important to point out that the term match fitness is relative, in the sense that it’s part of the process of perfection in sports. It’s stable only in the individual cycle of sports fitness development, where the training periodization is very important. While an athlete improves the results, that optimum changes – the match fitness becomes different in the qualitative and quantitative aspects.

The results from competitions are the main integral parameters of match fitness. Only in the sports results from competitions, all aspects of an athlete’s readiness can be seen when it comes to top sports, and the training periodization is an integral part of all that. Results are a valid parameter only when they are demonstrated with finite frequency under conditions in which they can be objectively compared.