Periodization Planning for a Tennis Athlete?

[Laba]

Alrighty, so I've been studying fitness and sport for the last year and a half at college and I'm the final week of this current semester to earn a Diploma of Sport (Athletes Support). I don't know if any of you have done any such study before but if any of you currently coach or have coached, you could be of assistance. For my major assignment, and it revolves around one single tennis athlete for me.

I must;

- Profile the athlete
- Profile the sport
- Assess the athlete
And a bunch of other stuff... I've been comfortable with that though and what I am having difficult the most with is;

Writing a periodized plan (accurately and properly)

A yearly plan is required spawning across twelve months, with tournament/competition schedule included and how long the training phases will last with what kind of details/specifics to them such as developing speed, strength, base conditioning, skills etc.

The four phases are; Preparation, Specific Preparation, Pre-Competition, Competition and then an extra fifth is Transition (recovery after comp)

For competition I'm thinking there will be two tournaments; a one week warm-up one and then a full-fledged two-week one. How long should general prep (fitness) be? Two-two and a half months maybe? Then spec prep (skills), pre-comp (perhaps tactics and strategy incorporated with skills) and the comp itself which then is kinda maintenance...

Hmm, does anybody know what I'm talking about? And if so, whether you're an athlete who follows one or a coach who implemented one.... can you help a brother out?

The overall assignment is due in three days, and I've been doing bits and pieces around the periodization section which then goes off into breaking down the macrocyle following by giving details about specific training, microcycle summaries and more along there such as Heart Rate Intensities for various tennis training which I'm also not sure about.

Cheers in advance.

[xtremerunnerars]

Periodization is WAY above what 90+% of the people on this board have even heard of.

I'm really interested to see what you came up with (since I missed this post...sorry!) and I could offer some input/comments if you post it. I'm not a trainer or anything but I've done a lot of reading and have done quite a bit on periodization.

[Ash_Smith]

It depends on how many peaks you require for your athelete. Pro players would mostly try to peak four times per year in respect of the grand slams but may change according to their personal goals for the year. In respect of good junior players I would probably go for a double or triple peak, with key events spread around easter and the summer or easter, sumer and end of season.

So you'd be looking at about 6-8 Weeks Preparation, 4-6 weeks specific prep, 2-3 weeks competition, 1-2 weeks active rest. Depending on how your players peaks fit into the calendar - if they're on a double peak then they could go longer in each period.

The other thing to consider is the Volume and Intensity of training at each phase for the four performance factors, for example in the Prep phase the Technical volume is high (as this phase is where you make your technical improvements) and the intensity is lower. As you move through Spec-prep to Comp the volume lowers and the intensity rises to match competition levels.

Have a look at the planner below which I produced for one of my players a few years ago - should give a rough idea on how to get going. This part shows the first 2 peaks of a multiple peak year.



If you need any more help drop me a line.

Good luck

A.