Category: Afitpilot
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The Transition Phase: How to Plan the Break Between Seasons
The transition phase is the planned break between seasons. This article explains what it is, what is lost when training stops, how long the break should be, and what to do each week, with a simple plan coaches can adapt to their own calendar.
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Macrocycle, Mesocycle, Microcycle: A Season Explained
A season is easier to plan once it is split into levels: year, phase, block, week and session. This article explains the macrocycle, mesocycle and microcycle in plain words, why the names differ between sources, and how to build a season from the top down.
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Testing in Periodization: When to Test and Why
A training plan is a guess about how an athlete will respond, and a test checks the guess. This article covers testing in periodization: baseline, monitoring, and retest. It explains when tests belong in the plan, how often to repeat them, and what to do with the results.
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Complex Training: A Real Post-Activation Potentiation Example
Complex training applies post-activation potentiation in practice: a heavy lift, paired with a sport-specific power movement, timed to a research-backed rest window. This article covers two worked examples, rugby bench press into bench throw, and sprinting squats into a 30-meter sprint, and what a coach needs in place before using either.
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Post-Activation Potentiation: How Long Until Power Peaks?
Post-activation potentiation, or PAP, is meant to boost power output after a heavy lift. Most coaches use a fixed rest period for every athlete. Research shows the ideal window changes with training status and load. This article covers the fatigue-potentiation balance, the research-backed rest window, and how to adjust it per athlete.
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Periodizing Technical and Tactical Load
Most periodization plans track physical stress in detail and leave tactical and technical sessions unweighted. Research on mental fatigue shows tactical load has its own cost: it lowers physical output, degrades decision-making, and may raise injury risk when it stacks with physical fatigue. This article covers the evidence and how to plan tactical load alongside…
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Speed Periodization: Why “Fast” Isn’t One-dimensional
Speed periodization is usually skipped entirely: most programs list “speed work” as one line item. Acceleration, max velocity, and change of direction are mechanically distinct qualities with different force demands and timelines. This article covers the force-velocity profiling method for identifying which quality an athlete needs, and how to sequence the three inside a training…
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Concurrent Training and the Interference Effect
Field-sport athletes need strength and endurance at once, and research on the concurrent training interference effect shows why training both together can blunt strength gains. This article covers the AMPK/mTOR mechanism, what modality and timing change, and how to sequence sessions to manage the interference rather than eliminate either quality.
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Tapering and Muscle Fibers: What Changes Pre-Competition
The final two weeks before competition are not just reduced training. Fast, powerful type IIx fibers revert from the fatigue-resistant profile built by heavy loading, glycogen supercompensates, and accumulated fatigue clears. This article covers the physiology behind an effective taper and the volume and duration ranges the research supports.
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Return-to-Play Testing: What the Symmetry Score Misses
An athlete can hit a passing symmetry score and still carry real reinjury risk. This article covers what research on return-to-play testing has found, why the standard limb symmetry index has documented validity problems, and what a more defensible testing approach looks like.