Periodization of Different Training Elements

Expert Discussion Planning and Periodization
1

Give the fact that agility, acceleration and top speed are relatively unrelated. Is it better to designate these training elements to their own specific training day or can these be combined into every training session?

For example, I’m currently training for a sport that involves mostly agility and short accelerations. Is it better to split these elements up as such:

Mon: Agility
Tues: Tempo
Wed: Accel
Thurs: Tempo
Fri: Agility
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Off

Or should they be combined like this:

Mon: Agility & Accel
Tues: Tempo
Wed: Agility & Accel
Thurs: Tempo
Fri: Agility & Accel
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Off

Here’s a study that shows the relation to agility, accel and top speed:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15705049&itool=iconabstr

2

You might want to consider the Nebraska Cornhuskers program, “Strength and Conditioning for Football” I believe that is what it is called.

There program goes something like this,

Mon: Speed/HeavyWts
Tue: Agility/HeavyWts
Wed:Rest
Thu: Speed/IntermedieteWts
Fri: Agility/IntermedieteWts
Sat: Rest
Sun: Rest

Another option,

Mon: Speed/HeavyWts
Tue: Agility
Wed:Tempo
Thu: Speed/HeavyWts
Fri: Agility
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Rest

Another option,

Mon: Speed/HeavyWts
Tue: Agility/Tempo
Wed:Speed/HeavyWts
Thu: Agility/Tempo
Fri: Speed/HeavyWts
Sat: Agility/Tempo Option doing Agility or not.
Sun: Rest

Another option,

Mon: Speed/HeavyWts
Tue: Tempo
Wed:Agility/HeavyWts
Thu: Tempo
Fri: Speed/HeavyWts
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Rest

Or the option you pointed out,

Mon: Agility & Accel/HeavyWts
Tues: Tempo
Wed: Agility & Accel/HeavyWts
Thurs: Tempo
Fri: Agility & Accel/HeavyWts
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Off

With this last option you should make sure the volume of speed and agility are equal or whatever porportions yield the best possible outcome!

3

I like the workouts you suggested Supervenom, especially the second one:

Mon: Speed/HeavyWts
Tue: Agility
Wed:Tempo
Thu: Speed/HeavyWts
Fri: Agility
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Rest

Now my question becomes, will my CNS be able to handle the load from these workouts given that on my Agility days I do alot of explosive quickness work? I am unsure how taxing quick/explosive drills are on the CNS but I’m guessing they aren’t as taxing as speed days.

Here’s another workout similar to yours that I wouldn’t mind trying.

Mon: Agility & light tempo
Tues: Speed & weights
Wed: Tempo
Thurs: Agility & light tempo
Fri: Speed & weights
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Off

4

I struggle with incorporating all of these elements as well while training for football. I share your concern that the second SVS workout (from the Arthur book) is too stressful on the CNS over the long term.

I think there are a couple of ways of approaching this. One thing to consider is that if you are doing team practices, then much of your agility work may be covered by that in a very sports specific manner (actually playing your sport!) In that case, simply doing some quality speed and acceleration sessions, (1/week ea) may be enough.

On the other hand, if you are on your own in GPP or SPP, then things may change a bit. First off, by your own description, your sport “involves mostly agility and short accelerations.”

If that is the case, and you are following a short to long program, it probably makes sense to develop acceleration first in GPP, with a smooth transition to speed early in SPP and then keep that in maintenance (1x week maybe?) during late SPP while you focus your CNS energy back on acceleration and agility (which is the requirement of your sport - LaX?)

Actually, could you even make an argument to not train speed, just acceleration? We certainly can avoid SpEnd. If so, rotation of training modalities would have to occur more often to avoid plateaus.

Personally, after I get out of the early stages of GPP, I like to keep all of my high intensity elements on the same day with a day of rest between them.

So you could do:
M: accel, plyos, weights
Tu: tempo
W: agility, plyos, weights
Th: tempo
F: speed, plyos, weights
Note that depending on how long you take out the accelerations on Monday, this workout could have a bit of a speed component as well. Likewise, agility work usually heavily involves short accelerations.

Or if you want to combine things, something like:
M: accel, speed, plyos, weights
Tu: tempo
W: agility, accel, plyos, weights
Th: tempo
F: agility, speed, plyos, weights
would give you two sessions of accel, speed and agility each week, but that is a lot of different activites to fit into a single session.

Don’t know if this was any help or not? Thoughts?

5

Very informative.

I have pretty much made up my mind that there are only two components that I need for my sport, agility and accel, so I agree with your reasoning not to train speed but to train acceleration.

I’ve had success with having a day of rest between elements, but I think the order of exercises on the high-intensity days needs some tinkering. I think my training would be better if I trained different elements when I am the freshest at the beginning of every workout. I’ve found that I cannot accelerate at 100% after I have done agility drills. Say for instance, that these are in order of priority for each day:

Mon: Agility, Accel, weights
Tues: Tempo
Wed: Accel, Agility, weights
Thurs: Tempo
Fri: Agility, Accel, weights
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Off

This would allow me to focus more on the prioritized element of the day while still training both agility and accel. Would it not?

6

Just be a bit careful about the stress on your joints with so much agility work so often.

I believe that Charlie has said in the past that agility can also be improved (indirectly) by improving reactivity and strengthing the core.

Also, don’t discount the agility work that you get during sport practice as well.

7

Yeah, I bet my deceleration drills are somewhat stressful on the joints… I haven’t had an injury related to them yet “knock on wood”.

By strengthening the core, does that mean low intensity ab work?

8

I would assume that it involves both low intensity work as well as the high intensity work you get as ‘bonus’ core work just by doing heavy lifting, etc.

I’m not sure if Charlie was referring to anything beyond this or any particular core exercises specifically for agility, so I’ll let him chime in here and explain for himself. Charlie?

9

On Charlie’s speed continuum he mentions that 0-12 metres the biggest contributing factor is weights. Therefore, would accel really be that necessary in the GPP phases?