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What is Periodisation?

Periodisation is not a new concept. It was used by Greek athletes competing in the ancient Olympic games and more recently, perfected by Eastern Bloc countries.

To develop a player's skills in all training areas; i.e., physically, technically, tactically and mentally, it requires a long term programme to maximise the chances of the player reaching their full potential and gives the opportunity to perform at the highest level possible at the individual's most important tournaments in a given year.
The concept of periodisation is one that has been developed over the years and has helped athletes in all sports to reach the highest levels.

In tennis, it has come into prominence over the last ten years and is now a recognised, vital part of total tennis training and is used by associations, programmes, academies and coaches worldwide.

Periodisation Principles

Periodisation was originally developed to train athletes to peak at one event, specifically the Olympic games. It has now been recognised that with a structured training programme, tennis players can play their best between 3-5 times a year, depending on their skill level and experience.

Periodisation deals strictly with time phases. The periods of the year, the seasons, the months, the weeks, the days and the number of hours in which different aspects should be trained.

Jack Groppel, the sports science expert, defines periodisation as ' a long term training programme designed to systematically control the volume of work, the intensity of work and the frequency of training and competition to optimise chances that peak performance will occur at the most desired time. '

Volume of work is the total workload spent on performing given tasks. This is normally high during the off-season and decreases as the season or competitive cycles approach.

Intensity of work is how hard the player works at given tasks. Intensity begins at a low rate and increases as the season progresses at competitive stages.

Frequency of training is the number of days, spent per week, the player performs specific tasks. Frequency of some training aspects will decrease as competition increases.

Monitoring the volume, intensity and frequency of the training can have enormous benefits to both the player and the coach.
It can reduce the risk of burning out and overtraining.

Software Description

The ITA Player Periodisation Software is designed to assist tennis coaches with the implementaion of periodisation and help players to peak at the most important tournament periods of the year. It gives each coach there own personal academy database that may be used and viewed only by them that will keep full records of all on-court activity. The software has a continually growing database of lesson plans that may be accessed by all ITA coaches for each phase of training and also a tournament calendar that relays directly to each phase. By using these training phases now we will start our young players on a journey towards peak performance. This is the pathway to true professionalism and long term success for all your serious tennis students.