The History of Periodisation

[Guest guest]

Bompa was quoted:

" That year represented the year when I created periodization of strength. "

Mike Roose:

< Created the term for publication? Maybe. Formalized the term for the

strength world? Possibly. Do I think Bompa was the first to think of a formal

training plan, scheduled with recovery periods and a moving system of

loading and unloading? No! Let's see the published proof that Bompa was the

first ever to develop periodization.>

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*** Here is an abbreviated history of the organisation and periodisation in

sport, taken from my textbook. You will notice that many of the origins of

periodisation took place before Bompa was born.

Programming and Organisation of Training

Siff M C " Supertraining " 2000 Ch 6

The organisation of training into phases of different types of exercise done

at varying intensity and volume, however, is a much more recent development

which gained a great deal of impetus near the beginning of the 20th century

when researchers began to probe human physiology and psychology with an

enthusiasm which has not yet abated. Scientists such as Pavlov studied how

the body adapts to environmental stimuli and the idea of conditioning soon

became an integral part of understanding adaptation.

The foundations of modern training organisation and periodisation were laid

in the Soviet Union at about the time of the Russian revolution. One of the

earliest texts on this subject was written by Kotov (Olympic Sport, 1917),

who considered it appropriate to divide training into general, preparatory

and specific stages. The general stage was aimed at developing the

vegetative (cardiovascular-respiratory) and muscular systems, while

preparatory training of about two months' duration was devoted to improving

strength and muscle endurance. The specific stage was used to prepare the

athlete for a given sporting event in two parts: initial and main training,

both of about four months' duration, but there was still no overall

methodology of periodisation in the form of definite cycles of different

types of training.

The preliminary steps towards establishing this methodology appeared a few

years later in two books: 'Scientific Foundations of Training' by Gorinewsky

(1922) and 'The Basis of Training' by Birsin (1925). Some of the first

practical applications of early periodisation were made in track-and-field by

Vsorov ('Basic Principles of Training Athletes', Moscow, 1938), in skiing by

Bergman ('Training programmes and Periods of Training in Skiing', Moscow,

1938), in gymnastics by Korijakovsky ('Gymnastics', Moscow, 1938), in boxing

by Gradopolov ('Manual of Boxing', Moscow, 1938) and in water sports by

Shuvalov ('Swimming, Waterpolo, Diving', Moscow, 1940).

In Finland, Pikhala had already published his treatise called 'Athletism'

(1930), which drew up a series of basic principles, especially the prevention

of overtraining by using an undulating rhythm of training which alternates

periods of work and rest. Like many other authors at the time, his planning

was founded upon the traditional importance of climatic seasons, rather than

quantitatively determined phases of loading.

At about the same time, research findings and the practical experience of

athletes were assembled by Grantyn in an article 'Contents and General

Foundations of Training Preparation' (Teoriya i Praktika Fizischeskoi

Kultury, Moscow, 1939: 7). In it, he divided the annual training cycle into

three periods: preparatory, main and transitional, with the transitional

period comprising two stages, namely a gradual detraining to rest, followed

by active rest using methods of general physical preparation at reduced

intensity. Other sports such as gymnastics and jogging were recommended as

suitable for the transition period, thereby already suggesting the role of

'combinational training' as a form of restoration and predating the

commercialised idea of 'cross training' by many decades.

The importance of considering the competitive calendar and climatic factors

in periodising training was stressed by Ozolin in his important text

" Training the Athlete " (Moscow, 1949). In it he also emphasized that active

rest should form an integral part of the transition phase to maintain and

improve preparedness. This view was supported by the research of Hettinger

and Müller in 1955, who found that lowest trainability occurred during the

winter months and highest trainability took place in summer and autumn, with

a sharp drop in trainability at the onset of winter (Hettinger, 1961). This

work suggested that the changes seemed to coincide with changes in the levels

of ultraviolet radiation, especially since exposure of athletes to artificial

ultraviolet light during the winter eliminated the observed changes in

trainability.

In fact, the book by Hettinger which quoted these studies ('The Physiology of

Strength' 1961), like some of the early work by DeLorme, still remains one of

the best pioneering texts on popularised scientific strength training, with

the team of Hettinger and Muller undertaking many studies which were often

well ahead of their time.

Another useful contribution was made by Letunov, who wrote an article

'Reflections on the Systematic Formulation of Training' (Sovietsky Sport,

1950: 125) which strongly criticised the formulation of training regimes on

the basis of the competition calendar alone. He felt that the stages of

training were a consequence of biological processes, although he failed to

appreciate that these processes, in turn, were modified by the training loads.

In England, Geoff Dyson [whom I had the pleasure to meet when he spoke at our

university in the 1960s] was one of the first Westerners to popularise

periodisation by using his knowledge of Eastern and Western training methods

to write a textbook " A New System of Training " (1946), which delineated a

five-phase system of periodisation for athletics........

...... many more details of periodisation and how to use it are given in Ch 6

......

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Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA

Supertraining/