3 Insights from High-Performance Expert: Introducing Tactical Periodization
What is Tactical Periodization?
Tactical periodization has been involved in sports training methodologies since the 1950s and it includes programs training in cycles that seek to keep athletes in good physical conditioning, whilst not overworking them throughout seasons but also helping them to build towards specific competitions.
Periodization cycles consist of Micro, Meso, and Macro time periods: short, medium, and long term.
Microcycle
The building block of an athlete’s training programme, providing the basis for the planning of a small number of sessions in the immediate future. The content of each microcycle determines the quality of the overall programme, so coaches must have a clear picture of the goals of each microcycle to ensure the appropriate metrics are effectively monitored.
Example: a spot shooting session or power gym session.
Mesocycle
A mesocycle consists of a number of microcycles and enables coaches to engage in the advanced planning of training programmes. Generally speaking, mesocycles in the preparatory phase are longer (4-6 weeks) than during the competitive phase (2-4 weeks) to allow for a more sustained focus on specific physical qualities.
Example: a preseason program or NBA Playoff series.
Macrocycle
The macrocycle can be thought of as the annual plan which can be split into clear training phases. Relatively little detail will go into the annual plan, but it allows coaches and athletes to get a general overview of key dates and periods throughout the year
Example: the whole NBA season.
Micro, Meso, Macro
When planning a training programme for your athletes, it’s important that you structure it
according to these common principles. By doing this you will be better able to manage training load, recovery, and progression, thereby giving your athletes the best chance to succeed.
Why is periodization so successful?
Tactical periodization follows the reasoning that performance on-court is a result of tactics and so training should mimic and model around the game demands and intensity. In doing so, teams and athletes can be objectively primed for games and competition.
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How do you Tactically Periodize in Basketball?
To help coaches understand and enact the principles of tactical periodization within their basketball, High-Performance Expert, Terrance TK Kennell, outlined 3 insights for coaches, during his presentation, titled “Tactical Periodization in College Basketball: Development and Optimization Framework”.
Watch TK’s presentation here:
3 Tactical Periodization Insights:
#1 The basis of tactical periodization is the game model.
“So the focus should always be on making athletes robust to the game model and planning training for the athlete’s development and performance,” said Kennell.
The game model is a level of organization that the team achieves in-game as a direct consequence of pre-determined behaviours (tactics) that coaches want their players to adopt at each moment of the game: half-court offense, transition defense, half-court defense, transition offense.
During his presentation, Kennell detailed how to structure the basketball organization to ensure “tactical periodization starts with the sport itself.”
How to structure your organization for tactical periodization?
“Tactical periodization features within the technical and tactical phase of the structure detailed in the diagram.”
Behind this structure are Kennell’s principles:
- Athlete-centred approach (see the athlete in the centre of the diagram).
- Performance and development planning.
- Agile training and periodization.
- Process evaluation and iteration.
For those new to monitoring technologies in basketball – Monitoring example for elite basketball:
Click here to find out how Catapult’s Vector system can help you to monitor your player’s workload. Use the objective data, derived from Vector to plan your athletes’ training to improve their performance and mitigate injury risk by preparing them for the demands of your game.
#2 Relationships with the coaching staff are key to developing trust.
When trying to implement tactical periodization it is important to get work with rather than against your coaches and other relevant practitioners like the medical staff.
“Working that relationship with your coaching staff is key to developing trust and earning a seat at the table,” said Kennell.
The challenge for those implementing tactical periodization in developing trust is “working to solve some of the problems your coaches are facing, whatever that may be”. Day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year, if you can address any of the challenges your coaches are facing, for example, the demands placed on your athletes, your presentation and communications should actively focus on how you are addressing this challenge.
“In doing so, you build trust with your team’s key stakeholders. From there, it is far easier to implement your periodization work. Helping within this process can be the data you collect from your monitoring systems,” said Kennell.
How can Data help Build Trust and Collaboration:
Catapult’s solutions capture and integrate every performance dataset with video. Discover how your team can capture performance for every athlete at every moment of play using both Catapult Vector Athlete Monitoring integrated with the Catapult Pro Video suite .
#3 Tactical periodization is another way to push performance, not restrict it.
“It’s not a way of doing less, it’s actually a scientific way to do more, pushing performance through increased physical outputs further,” said Kennell.
For basketball, tactical periodization significantly benefits load management practices. By using monitoring technology and periodization principles you can “objectify the process and plan for the future … Catapult is helpful from that angle”.
According to Kennell, load management in basketball: ”What is it and what it’s not – Monitoring of players’ workload within the practice and game settings while providing actionable management strategies to aid in player health and freshness … It’s not simply sitting players out from practice or games because they want to.
Learn how Duke Basketball uses Catapult to monitor performance and support load management and injury rehabilitation:
How to structure a basketball season with load monitoring technology:
Kennell shared his in-season optimization and development model for his athletes who play differing minutes:
| High minute players | Inconsistent minute players | Low minute players |
| 20+mins per game | 10-18mins per game | ‘Get better gang’ – few mins per game |
| Lift twice a week | Lift two to three times a week | Lift three to four times a week |
| Limited reps in high-intensity practice in-season and some light work | Full participation in all practice | Full participation in practice |
| Full participation in lower intensity drills. | Individual sessions 30-40mins one to two times a week (1 light session of spot shooting, 1 higher intensity session) | Individual and small group 40-45mins sessions (two to four a week – 2 high intensity, 1 light spot shooting) |
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