In which period of classical periodisation is training volume highest and intensity moderate, with general exercises dominating?

The general preparatory phase of the preparatory period

The taper before the main event

At half-time a hockey coach changes from man-to-man marking to zonal defence because the first plan is not working. This is an example of

a tactical adjustment during competition

Assertion (A): A transition period is included at the end of the training year. Reason (R): Block periodisation concentrates training on a few abilities in successive blocks. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Which statements about the stages of technique development are correct? Select all that apply.

In the stage of stabilisation the technique becomes resistant to fatigue and pressure

In the stage of rough coordination the movement shows excess tension and unnecessary movements

Competition-like conditions are used mainly in the first stage

In the stage of stabilisation the technique becomes resistant to fatigue and pressure

In the stage of rough coordination the movement shows excess tension and unnecessary movements

The stage of fine coordination comes before rough coordination

Which statements about talent identification are correct? Select all that apply.

Identification should be multidimensional and repeated over time

The relative age effect leads to over-selection of children born early in the selection year

Early single-sport specialisation is always recommended to avoid burnout

Performance at age 12 reliably predicts adult elite success

Identification should be multidimensional and repeated over time

The relative age effect leads to over-selection of children born early in the selection year

An athlete with a major indoor championship in March and a major outdoor championship in August would most likely follow

a transition period lasting the whole year

Sports Training III: Technique and Skill, the Stages of Technique Development and Technique Training, Tactics and Strategy, Planning and its Types, Periodisation, its Objectives and Types, the Preparatory, Competition and Transitional Periods, the Types of Competition, and Talent Identification

The last chapter of Unit VII moves from abilities to their use in competition and to the long view of an athlete's career. It distinguishes technique from skill and follows the stages by which technique is built; separates strategy from tactics; sets out the types of training plan from the multi-year plan to the single session; explains periodisation after Matveyev, with the preparatory, competition and transition periods, single, double and multiple cycles and the newer block model; classifies competitions by their place in the plan; and describes the process and procedure of talent identification. The arithmetic of a training year is worked.

1. Technique and skill, and the stages of technique development

Technique is the procedure, developed in practice and confirmed by biomechanics, for performing a particular motor task in the most effective and economical way: the ideal model of a movement, such as the Fosbury flop or the rotational shot put. Skill is the individual's acquired ability to perform that technique consistently, accurately and adaptably in the conditions of the sport; the same technique is executed with different skill by different athletes. Technique is important because it determines how efficiently strength, speed and endurance are converted into performance, reduces the energy cost and the risk of injury, and underlies tactics, since a player cannot choose a shot he cannot execute. A good technique is biomechanically sound, economical, adapted to the athlete's build and abilities, stable under pressure and variable enough to meet changing situations.

Technique develops in stages, which the Indian sports-training literature, following the German school, gives as three. First, the acquisition of rough coordination: the learner forms a basic idea of the movement from demonstration and explanation and performs it in its general form, with excessive muscle tension, unnecessary movements and many errors; the coach uses simple conditions, demonstration and few instructions. Second, the acquisition of fine coordination: extra movements and tension disappear, the movement becomes smooth and precise under standard conditions, and detailed feedback and correction of errors matter most. Third, the stabilisation of fine coordination and the development of variable availability: the technique becomes automatic and resistant to disturbing factors such as fatigue, pressure, opponents and weather, and the athlete can adapt it to changing situations; training now uses competition-like and varied conditions. Technique training uses the whole, part and whole-part-whole methods, simplified and lead-up exercises, imitation, visual aids and video, special exercises for its components and, later, practice under difficult conditions; errors are corrected one at a time, the most fundamental first.

Strategy is the overall plan for a competition or a season, made in advance on the basis of knowledge of one's own team, the opponent and the conditions: whether to play defensively or attack, how to pace a race, which players to select. Tactics are the means by which the strategy is carried out and adjusted during the contest itself: a change of formation, a surge in the last lap, the choice of a particular shot in reply to the opponent's position. In short, strategy is decided before the competition and tactics are applied in it. Tactical ability depends on technique, physical abilities, tactical knowledge, perception and decision-making, and psychological qualities, and it is trained through tactical exercises, game situations, match analysis and video study of opponents.

⚠️ Strategy before, tactics during

A pre-match decision to man-mark the opponent's playmaker is strategy; switching to a zone defence at half-time because the man-marking is failing is a tactical adjustment. Questions often swap the two words.

2. Planning: importance, principles and types

Planning gives training direction, continuity and efficiency: it ties every session to long-term goals, distributes load and recovery sensibly, times peak form for the main competitions, allows progress to be monitored and makes the athlete's and coach's work transparent. Its principles are that plans should be based on clear, realistic goals and on the athlete's current state (established by testing); be long-term and progressive; follow the training principles; be flexible enough to be revised when testing, illness or results require; be written; and involve the athlete. Plans are made at several time scales: the long-term (multi-year) plan, such as a four-year Olympic cycle (quadrennial) or a plan covering a young athlete's development over eight to ten years; the annual plan; the macrocycle, a period of several months leading to a main competition, often one per season; the mesocycle, a block of about three to six weeks with a particular emphasis; the microcycle, usually a week; and the individual training session, with its introduction and warm-up, main part and cool-down.

3. Periodisation: objectives, periods and types

Periodisation is the division of the training year (or a longer cycle) into periods, each with specific objectives, contents and loads, so that the athlete reaches peak performance at the time of the main competitions and avoids overtraining. The classical model is that of the Soviet scientist Lev Matveyev, published in the 1960s, who is often called the father of periodisation; Tudor Bompa developed it further. Its three periods are the preparatory period, divided into a general preparatory phase (a high volume of general exercises building the base of fitness and technique, at moderate intensity) and a specific preparatory phase (more specific exercises, volume peaking and intensity rising); the competition period, divided into a pre-competition phase and the main competition phase, in which intensity is high, volume falls, specific and competition exercises dominate and a taper before the main event brings peak form; and the transition period, of active rest with light, varied activity, which allows physical and psychological recovery before the next cycle.

The objectives of periodisation are to develop and then peak performance for the main competitions, to organise the development of the various abilities in a logical sequence (general before specific, volume before intensity), to balance load and recovery, to prevent staleness and overtraining and to give the athlete a planned break. Its types are single periodisation, with one preparatory, one competition and one transition period in the year, suited to beginners and to sports with one main season; double periodisation, with two cycles in the year, as for athletes with an indoor and an outdoor season; and triple or multiple periodisation for sports with several peaks. Because professional sports now have long competition seasons, newer models include block periodisation (Verkhoshansky, and Issurin), which concentrates training on a few abilities in successive blocks of accumulation, transmutation and realisation, and undulating (non-linear) periodisation, which varies volume and intensity within the week.

Period	Phase	Volume and intensity	Main content
Preparatory	General preparatory	High volume, moderate intensity	General fitness, basic technique
Preparatory	Specific preparatory	Volume peaks, intensity rising	Specific abilities, refined technique
Competition	Pre-competition and main competition	Volume falls, intensity high; taper before the main event	Competition exercises, tactics, peaking
Transition	Active rest	Low volume and intensity	Light varied activity, recovery, evaluation

Competitions are also classified by their place in the plan. Main competitions are those for which the whole cycle is planned and at which peak performance is sought, such as national championships or the Olympic Games. Build-up (preparatory) competitions are used during the preparatory and early competition periods to gain competition experience, test tactics and raise the level of performance towards the main event. Control competitions are used to test the athlete's current state and the effectiveness of training, often as a form of testing, and to select teams. Some texts add supplementary or training competitions and friendly matches. The number and spacing of competitions must be planned so that they help rather than interrupt development.

4. Talent identification: process and procedure

Talent identification is the process of recognising, among young people, those with the potential to become elite performers in a sport, so that they can be given the training and support to realise it. The process is usually described in stages: talent detection (discovering potential performers who are not yet involved in the sport, often through school-level screening), talent identification (recognising, among participants, those with the potential to excel), talent selection (choosing individuals for a squad, academy or programme at a particular stage) and talent development and confirmation (providing the environment and training to realise the potential, with periodic reassessment). Because performance at a young age is a poor predictor of adult success, identification should be multidimensional, repeated over time and linked to development rather than a single selection event.

The procedure uses several kinds of criteria: anthropometric (height, limb lengths, body proportions, somatotype and, for children, predicted adult height and biological maturity), physiological and physical (aerobic and anaerobic capacity, speed, strength, power, flexibility and coordination, measured by standard tests), psychological (motivation, commitment, resilience, concentration, coachability) and sport-specific skill and tactical understanding, together with the rate of improvement and the family and social environment. Two cautions are essential. The relative age effect means that children born early in the selection year, being older and often more mature, are over-selected, and late maturers are wrongly discarded; biological rather than chronological age should be considered. And specialising too early can cause burnout and injury, so a broad multi-sport foundation is generally recommended before specialisation in most sports. In India talent search runs through school and district competitions, SAI's training centres and the Khelo India talent identification and athlete-support system.

⚠️ The early developer is not necessarily the talent

A 13-year-old who wins because he matured early and is born in January of the selection year may be overtaken later by a late maturer. Selecting on current results alone confuses maturity with talent; biological age, rate of improvement and repeated assessment correct for it.

Key takeaways

Technique is the ideal model of a movement and skill the individual's ability to perform it; technique develops through rough coordination, fine coordination and stabilisation with variable availability.
Strategy is the plan made before the competition; tactics are its execution and adjustment during it.
Plans run from the multi-year plan through the annual plan, macrocycle, mesocycle (about three to six weeks) and microcycle (usually a week) to the session.
Matveyev's periodisation has preparatory, competition and transition periods; it may be single, double or multiple, with block and undulating models for long seasons; competitions are main, build-up or control.
Talent identification runs through detection, identification, selection and development, using anthropometric, physical, psychological and skill criteria, with care for the relative age effect and early specialisation.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

A 24-week macrocycle is divided into mesocycles of 4 weeks each. How many mesocycles does it contain? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 6
24 ÷ 4 = 6 mesocycles, each made up of about four weekly microcycles. Mesocycles of three to six weeks are typical, so the same macrocycle could also be split into blocks of different lengths.
An annual plan of 52 weeks has a preparatory period of 26 weeks and a transition period of 4 weeks, with no other periods besides the competition period. How many weeks is the competition period? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 22
A single-periodised year has only preparatory, competition and transition periods, so the competition period is 52 − 26 − 4 = 22 weeks. Forgetting the transition period gives 26.
Who is generally regarded as the father of periodisation?
1. Lev Matveyev
2. Gösta Holmér
3. Coleman Griffith
4. Hans Selye
Show answer
Answer: A — Lev Matveyev
Matveyev's classical model, developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s, founded periodisation. Holmér devised fartlek, Selye the general adaptation syndrome and Griffith was a pioneer of sport psychology.
In which period of classical periodisation is training volume highest and intensity moderate, with general exercises dominating?
1. The general preparatory phase of the preparatory period
2. The transition period
3. The main competition phase
4. The taper before the main event
Show answer
Answer: A — The general preparatory phase of the preparatory period
The general preparatory phase builds the base with high volume, moderate intensity and general exercises. In the competition period volume falls and intensity is high, the taper reduces volume further, and the transition period is active rest.
At half-time a hockey coach changes from man-to-man marking to zonal defence because the first plan is not working. This is an example of
1. long-term planning
2. talent selection
3. a tactical adjustment during competition
4. a transition period
Show answer
Answer: C — a tactical adjustment during competition
Changing the means of carrying out the plan during the match is tactics. The original decision on marking, made before the match, was strategy; planning, selection and transition belong to other parts of the unit.
Assertion (A): A transition period is included at the end of the training year. Reason (R): Block periodisation concentrates training on a few abilities in successive blocks. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: B — Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Both statements are true, but R does not explain A. The transition period exists because the athlete needs active rest for physical and psychological recovery after the competition period; block periodisation is a different model of organising the training year.
Which statements about the stages of technique development are correct? Select all that apply.
1. Competition-like conditions are used mainly in the first stage
2. In the stage of stabilisation the technique becomes resistant to fatigue and pressure
3. In the stage of rough coordination the movement shows excess tension and unnecessary movements
4. The stage of fine coordination comes before rough coordination
Show answer
Answer: B — In the stage of stabilisation the technique becomes resistant to fatigue and pressure; C — In the stage of rough coordination the movement shows excess tension and unnecessary movements
Rough coordination is marked by excess tension and extra movements, and stabilisation makes technique robust. Fine coordination follows rough coordination, and varied, competition-like conditions belong to the third stage, not the first.
A coach enters athletes in a regional meet mainly to check the effect of the last training block and to decide team selection. This competition is best classified as a
1. build-up competition
2. transition competition
3. main competition
4. control competition
Show answer
Answer: D — control competition
A competition used to test the athlete's current state and training effect, and to select teams, is a control competition. Main competitions are the targets of peak form, and build-up competitions develop competition experience towards them.
Which statements about talent identification are correct? Select all that apply.
1. Early single-sport specialisation is always recommended to avoid burnout
2. Performance at age 12 reliably predicts adult elite success
3. Identification should be multidimensional and repeated over time
4. The relative age effect leads to over-selection of children born early in the selection year
Show answer
Answer: C — Identification should be multidimensional and repeated over time; D — The relative age effect leads to over-selection of children born early in the selection year
The relative age effect is well documented, and identification should combine several criteria over time. Early performance is a poor predictor, and early specialisation increases rather than prevents burnout and injury in most sports.
An athlete with a major indoor championship in March and a major outdoor championship in August would most likely follow
1. no periodisation
2. a transition period lasting the whole year
3. single periodisation
4. double periodisation
Show answer
Answer: D — double periodisation
Two separate peaks in a year call for two cycles, each with preparatory and competition periods, which is double periodisation. Single periodisation suits one main season.