Training for a competition, or season can roughly be divided into build up, pre-competition, taper, competition, and off-season phases.  These are shown in Figure 1. In each phase the priorities of training and the training loads differ. Presuming that you’re doing the right type of training (another discussion), getting the training load right during the season is arguably the most essential variable for ensuring that your athlete is suitably prepared for competition. Sending an athlete into battle underdone or overdone will not produce peak performance!

 

Typically training loads build up steadily approaching the competition or season in the build up phase. This build up period is ideally several months in duration. The gradual build up in training load is periodically broken up with short breaks of low training loads to allow recovery. These are typically every third or fourth week of the build up, depending on the sport and the resilience of the athlete.

Training loads typically increase markedly during the pre-competition phase. This intense overload can last for up to two weeks before training loads are reduced during a taper phase to allow extra recovery before an important event. Tapers can last from several days through to two weeks depending on the importance of the event, the intensity of training, and the type of event.

Figure 1. Typical periodisation for a competitive event

Once competition starts, such as during a team sport season, training loads need to be carefully monitored. If you’re competing each weekend, the highest training loads and most physical sessions should be completed at the start of the week. Later in the week the emphasis should move to skill and tactical work to enable athletes to freshen up for the weekend. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. An example of a weekly periodised plan.

Ideally the off-season phase should be short. The longer the build up, the better prepared the athlete will be for the up-coming competition. A mental and physical break from training is essential after a hard season to reduce the possibility of burnout/overtraining.

Assessing training load is essential if you’re looking to prescribe the right training loads and make changes during the season. Training load is determined by intensity and volume. While there are some amazing advances in technology that enable trainers and coaches to measure training intensity that will be presented in the Sports Conditioning Workshop Training a simple method of measuring intensity is to use a modified rating of perceived exertion Foster et al (1995) ( See Table 1)

 

Table 1: Modified Rating of Perceived Exertion
Rating	Description
0	Rest
1	Very Easy
2	Easy
3	Moderate
4	Somewhat Hard
5	Hard
6
7	Very Hard
8
9
10	Maximal

 

Athletes are asked to rate how difficult the entire session is on a scale of 1 to 10 approximately 30 minutes after completion. Using RPEs during the actual training session can also be useful to check that your athlete is training at the correct intensity. Training volume is determined by the total minutes of training time.

An example of training loads is shown in Table 2.

 

Table 2: Total Training Load for an In-Season Week
Day	Team average RPE	Session Duration (min)	Training Load
Tuesday	6.2	90	558
Wednesday	5.1	60	306
Thursday	5.7	100	570
Weekly Load			1434

 

Kelly and Coutts (2007) have used this method successfully with rugby league teams. It has also been used with Australian Rules. I have also used this method with a variety of team sports and individual athletes in running, cycling, and ultraendurance sport. The specifics of programming and practical programming for sports will be covered in depth at the Sports Conditioning Workshop in New Zealand at the end of September 2010.