Periodisation: Simple Tips and Common Mistakes

Authored by Greg King

I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a broad range of football systems and work with individuals with a deep knowledge of training principles and periodisation strategies.

The expertise I have developed through these experiences, tells me, that when it comes to injury mitigation and physical performance, effective planning is clearly the most impactful factor.

Periodisation: the prioritisation, alignment, timing and loading of the available training modules and exercises for optimal football performance.

The progressive development of my preferred model/s of periodisation has revolved around developing a deeper understanding of the game and learning from the methods which have seen sustained success over decades of football. However, effective planning is so much more than the implementation of a periodisation model. Modern football requires a coaching team that looks at weekly periodisation from 3 angles:

Methadology – Building your own periodisation structure and methods.

Individualisation - Constant assessment and adjustment for specific individuals within your system.

Adaptability - Knowledge and understanding of multiple models and principles, and the ability to adapt to any given set of circumstances.  

In this short article, I will aim to provide some relevant and practical insights by highlighting some of the common pitfalls of planning and periodisation in football.

Common Periodisation Mistakes

1.        Progressing too quickly

2.        Not training hard enough

3.        Incomplete recovery

4.        Uncomplimentary training components

5.        Trying to tick all the boxes.

Progressing too quickly

When you commence with a team, start a pre-season, bring in new players, or start a new training strategy. The first and highest priority task is to develop a deep understanding of your athlete’s physical status.

Complete individualisation, in a team sport environment, is very difficult and often counterproductive so I would suggest using a range of categories to group players. This will give you a baseline from which to commence your new training plan. As a coach, you should have access to match data, playing history and medical information. Additionally, there are many ways to measure general fitness. However, you need to back yourself here to be able to assess your athlete’s level of conditioning. Use the experts around you, if you have that luxury, but ensure you spend the time to do this as it’s vital short-term work for massive long-term gain.

Where should you start? If you are commencing a pre-season, your starting point should be looking at a typical training week from the previous season. This will give you a baseline of the athlete’s typical, weekly resilience to load. As a very simple rule, I would recommend starting your pre-season at around 70% of this baseline and progressing by 10-15% each week.

Not training hard enough

The pre-season and early part of the in-season must be utilised to build strong, resilient athletes. The progression to high training volumes and intensities provides an optimal opportunity for significant time to be spent playing football and developing the game-style, principles, football actions and decision making required for performance.  

A lot of teams make the mistake of starting pre-season with a bang and then tapering off when the athletes start to break down. A more ideal strategy is to start with the right amount then build steadily to loads and intensities that are higher than you thought possible. This will provide the platform for more football, fitter athletes and less injuries.

Incomplete Recovery

Humans are capable of amazing feats of physical performance. There are countless examples of people demonstrating unprecedented physical resilience and succeeding in their physical goals. There is a place for pushing athletes. However, we are measured, not by how fatigued we can make an athlete, rather, by the quality of our performance against an opposition. Where I have seen a lot of coaches go wrong, is by not allowing players sufficient recovery between intense sessions and matches or vice versa.

Please don’t misinterpret. One of my key principles of periodisation is to regularly train at or above the physical requirements of our match demands. The athlete’s level of physical conditioning, to be able execute the game plan at high intensity for an extended period, is absolutely vital for both performance and injury mitigation. THAT’S WHY RECOVERY IS SO IMPORTANT!

General Rule: allow 2-3 days for complete recovery from a heavy match stress. Allow 2 days to recover from a heavy training stress. Recover doesn’t necessarily mean a day-off. The players will often benefit more, from doing sub-maximal football training on the days between (match>conditioning>match). A smart, adaptable coach can continue to develop the players technically, tactically and even aerobically during these sessions.  

Uncomplimentary Training Components

To completely delve into this topic would require a lot more detail than this article allows. However, the most common mistake I see here, is when coaches find a mistake or weakness from the previous match and over emphasize a certain training component the next week. Let’s take for example 1v1 defending. The coach feels that for the past 3 matches we have been poor in 1v1 defending situations. A smart coach would certainly look to address this during the next week. You can probably visualise a situation where on Monday’s session, which would normally be an active recovery, the coach is now including some 1v1 technical actions. On Tuesday, 1v1-4v4 games are incorporated into the conditioning session and on Thursday a heavier than usual focus on 1v1 defending in the tactical session. This is a very simple illustration; however, the situation is quite common. In this example there may very well be an upturn in short term performance of 1v1 defending but there will also be a sudden increase in high intensity decelerations, leading to increased fatigue and possibly preventable injuries in the following weeks.

Planning for complimentary training components is not as scientific as it might sound. If you understand the game (the dimensions, the blocks of time, the repetition of actions, the space required), then you have a good starting point. Your training sessions should provide a balanced exposure to all of these elements of the game. The more training sessions you have, the more you can spread this balance across the week.

Important Tip: Include specific focus points for the week but be careful not to deviate too far from the norm and over-expose the athletes to an unfamiliar stimulus.     

Trying to tick all the boxes

Modern football is no different from most other arts and industries. As science and technology progress so too does our understanding of people and performance. It feels like there is a never-ending list of strategies, protocols and ideas to incorporate into the team schedule.

Most of us are much more likely to add something new into the program than we are to take something out.

Discernment of what is important…

I believe this is where the best coaches will be able to separate themselves in the modern age. Discernment and the ability to connect emotionally with the athletes.

How does this impact our ability to periodise and plan for performance? If you feel like you are box-ticking and re-shuffling to fit in more evidence-based practice. STOP! Go back and revisit your principles and priorities. Even if something does pass the test for importance. Not everything needs to be included into the weekly plan. Some of the most performance proven, periodisation protocols use a form of block planning. For example, a specific stimulus might be included for 2 weeks and then not again for another 4 weeks.

Conclusion

There are many sound periodization models available to modern coaches. I encourage all coaches to read widely on this topic. More importantly, if you are coaching now. You need a plan! You need to be confident in your plan and you need a certain level of adaptability. The very best are consistent and extremely discerning about adding a new stimulus into their program. They also know how to engage the players and develop the athlete’s belief in the program.