The intermittent nature of many sports, such as soccer, football, rugby, basketball, volleyball or hockey, requires athletes to have well developed levels of strength, speed, power, agility and endurance. These physical qualities are traditionally developed through well defined, targeted phases of training, where the athlete progresses from a phase of non-specific, general preparation through to phases of preparation which are highly sport specific. Each component of fitness is developed in isolated blocks of training, which are then combined and translated into a form of fitness ideally suited to the physical demands of the sport, in a process which can take many weeks.
The problem with this approach is that the competitive schedules of many sports, which often have very short off-season and pre-season periods, means that athletes simply don’t have the time available to develop and maintain the physical qualities required for high performance, particularly in-season. For this reason, it is necessary that fitness work is conducted concurrently, in a way that enables physical training to be aligned with technical and tactical training. Contemporary training concepts and methodologies have evolved towards more integrated types of training which are performed under competitive situations, and which emphasise the physical components of sport specific actions within tactical or technical training sessions, instead of having each different training component developed separately in isolation.
One such systematic approach to training is known as the ‘Tactical Periodization Model’. Initially developed for soccer, it has become one of the most widely adopted and implemented training methodologies worldwide, and its influence since its creation has reached beyond soccer and into numerous other sports. The key principle of the Tactical Periodization model is that the main components of fitness are overloaded in a sport specific manner, relative to the demands of competition, between training days rather than between training cycles. This integrated model of training consequently results in a better transfer of the physical abilities developed through training into competitive performance.
Principles of Integrated Training
The fundamental concept of the Tactical Periodization model is that physical training for team sports should not be isolated and trained independently, but instead should be integrated along with technical, tactical and psychological training. The central philosophy which underpins this concept revolves around the importance of team strategy and tactics. Each team will have a very clear playing strategy, based on how they intend to determine the outcome of the game. All forms of training – the technical, the tactical, the physical and the psychological – must be designed and implemented according to this overarching tactical philosophy and be programmed in such a way as to contribute towards improving the ability of the athlete to deliver it within a competitive setting. In other words, everything that coaches do with their individual athletes must relate back to the tactical principles of the team for it to be of maximum value. For this reason, Tactical Periodization stresses the importance of a Game Model, which defines how the head coach wants the game to be played offensively, defensively and in transition.
Importance of the Game Model
The Game Model is a ‘tactical blueprint’ which provides fitness practitioners with a very clear understanding of the physical outputs an athlete will produce during competition. These outputs are a direct result of the technical and tactical demands that are placed on the athlete by the Head Coach’s game plan. This allows practitioners to clearly define the physical requirements of the chosen way of playing and determines the sport-specific fitness which is needed to implement the game plan effectively. Once the Game Model has been established, the physical objectives for each fitness component – and each training session – can be precisely identified, meaning that the coaching team can design highly specific training drills that fulfill the technical, tactical and physical objectives of training, therefore ensuring a fully integrated training session.
Application of Tactical Periodization – Delivering a System of Integrated Training
Once the Game Model has been firmly established, the application of an integrated system of training then requires an understanding of how each of the different components of physical performance fits within an organisational training structure. If we don’t have this, and individual training sessions are delivered without a framework joining them together, then the entire training process becomes inefficient, and we increase the risk of athletes becoming overloaded in certain areas of fitness and underexposed in others.
Within the Tactical Periodization framework, the principal components of physical fitness are prioritized and alternated between each day of the training week. This key training principle, which underpins the entire Tactical Periodization model, is known as the ‘horizontal alternation of specificity’.
Horizontal alternation describes the adjustment of training exercises day-to-day in order to develop different physical components throughout the training week. This is achieved through three prioritized fitness acquisition days, with each day being allocated a different physical emphasis – strength, endurance or speed. The aim of each session is to then overload one of these particular fitness components relative to the physical demands of competition. At this point coaches need to refer back to their Game Model and to the physical profiling of their athletes in order to set highly specific physical targets. By focussing on one specific component of fitness on each training day, practitioners can maximise the training stimulus of one physical element whilst the other physical qualities recover, leading to greater training adaptations. No two days within a training week stress the same fitness component, giving the body time to recover and adapt, and providing the physical framework for weekly sports training to take place.
Because the training emphasis of each physical component varies according to different training days, this then creates the need for different performance metrics to be used daily, both to establish individual training targets and then to determine if the specific aims of the session have been achieved. For example, in those training sessions where the physical objective is to improve locomotor strength, practitioners would give precedence to the number and intensity of accelerations/decelerations and the number of high intensity agility movements performed by the athlete during the session. Individualized GPS targets relating to these specific metrics are created prior to the session, through reference to the athlete profile and the demands of the Game Model. Similarly for endurance sessions, practitioners would prioritize GPS metrics such as Total Distance Covered, High Intensity Distance Covered, Meters Covered per Minute and heart rate response to analyze training and to determine the level of success. For speed-oriented sessions coaches would utilize GPS metrics including Number of Sprints, Maximum Speed and Sprint Distance covered, and so on. By profiling the physical outputs of the Game Model according to these targeted metrics, coaches develop an athlete and sport specific loading fingerprint, from which training loads can be judged relative to equivalent physical outputs in competition. These fingerprints have upper and lower thresholds which define the individual performance profile for training, thereby increasing the likelihood of the entire training process being successful.
Apollo’s Dynamic ‘Performance Load Tracker’ Enables Practitioners to Implement a System of Integrated Training with a Higher Degree of Accuracy
But how do performance practitioners go about identifying these tactically specific physical targets for each individual athlete? How can they be certain that each daily target is being achieved? Are they seeing the whole picture, or just a fragment of an athletes’ physical output? This all relates back to the need to have a highly effective and dynamic athlete profiling and performance analysis system, and for this reason, Apollo have created their Performance Load Tracker.
Player Profiling: GPS Reports Must be Created in Function of Each Team’s Unique ‘Game Model’
The Apollo Performance Load Tracker is a single page player report which summarizes all data essential to performance in one place – essentially, it is the performance fingerprint of each player. It is specifically designed to create and continually update athlete profiles which are then monitored and displayed in a way that highlights those performance metrics relevant to each team’s unique Game Model. The report provides customized data visualizations which gives coaches instant access to vital player information in a clear, precise and easily understandable format. This then equips each coach with the specific information that they need to constantly refine their training plans and optimize the process of athlete development.
Mapping out the physical components of the Game Model requires a systematic and complete analysis of the outputs each athlete will produce during competitive performance. This game related data is constantly updated following each competition, ensuring that the athlete profile remains both unique and applicable. This is a key feature of the Apollo Performance Load Tracker, where the positional outputs of each athlete in competition are displayed as a ‘red line’ for each individual loading metric. This form of dynamic performance profiling is essential, because it provides coaches with the up-to-date information they must have if they are going to establish individualized physical objectives for multiple different types of training – strength, endurance and speed. This not only informs their future training decisions, but allows them to analyze training performances relative to the demands of competition, which puts their training data into a much more relevant and meaningful context.
Monitoring Training: Accurate Player Evaluations Emphasize Specific Performance Metrics
Following a training session, coaches quickly want to assess the levels achieved by their athletes in relation to specific training targets – this enables them to identify whether the aims and objectives of the session have been achieved. Coaches need clear data imagery which promptly evaluates training performance and identifies the impact that training is having on the team – and in this capacity, the Apollo Performance Load Tracker provides real competitive advantage. The Tracker’s adaptable platform enables multiple data points to be viewed in a way which gives practitioners the ability to evaluate those performance metrics which are specific to the aims and objectives of each individual session, according to the principles of integrated training. For those teams who are applying a Tactical Periodization model, this feature is a game changer. Total Distance, High Speed Running, Accelerationss & Decelerations, Sprint Distance and so on can be viewed as individual metrics within a timeframe of the coaches choosing, from daily to yearly. The report doesn’t merely display each individual athlete’s physical output for the training session, but calculates the % of that output relative to the athlete’s output in competition, and then indicates how the athlete’s performance compares to that of the rest of the squad. This allows coaches to quickly identify adaptation trends with the athletes they are working with, informing future decisions and ensuring that training is optimized for each individual athlete.
Where Apollo Makes the Difference
Apollo’s athlete performance software unlocks data silos allowing coaches, trainers, doctors and players to become masters of data-driven performance with real-time data visualization and collaboration tools. Our software is integrated with the performance focused technologies used by college and professional athletes. With Apollo, teams have the information they need to minimize injuries, optimize player availability and maximize performance.
To learn more about Apollo email info@apollov2.com.
