Periodization for swimmers

Periodization is the scientific and systematic process of designing a season by breaking it into various phases. For as long as athletic records have been kept, the best athletes in the world have recognized the benefits of periodized training, starting with the ancient Greeks as athletes prepared for the Games of the Ancient Olympiad. More recently, Eastern European nations used periodized training to maximize performance in athletes participating across a range of sports. Through the 20th and now 21st centuries, the principles underlying periodization have continued to be developed and become scientifically validated. In most sports, the season is typically broken into four phases:

• Preparation and training 
• Building power and sport specific strength
• Competition 
• Rest and recovery

Each of these phases serves a specific purpose in preparing athletes for the unique demands of training and competition. Swimming, as you know, is different from most other sports, and these differences extend to how you should plan your training. For one, since swimming is performed in the water, an environment governed by a different set of physical rules than land-based sports use, the periodized plan should be modified to include a fifth phase - a preliminary phase that allows swimmers to become refamiliarized with the water at the start of the season. This will eventually become the first phase in a periodized plan.

When you follow the approach of breaking a season into phases and focusing your training to achieve certain goals within each phase, you maximize your chances of achieving peak performances at the most important competitions throughout the year. There are many reasons why periodization produces greater results than more traditional training methods, but one of the most important aspects is that periodization  incorporates planned periods of rest and recovery.

Benefits of periodization training

The list of benefits of periodized training is quite long, but some aspects are of specific interest to swimmers:

• It helps you structure your training to develop all the attributes a swimmer needs: endurance, strength, and power. The gains in these areas are often larger than what they would experience if they did not engage in a periodized training plan.
• It adds variety to swimmers training and can increase enjoyment while also helping to prevent performance plateaus.
• It provides a structure and a logical progression to training. You first build a base of strength anf then focus on power development. This type of progressive overload is a healthy way to build strength and improve performance because you do not try to accomplish too much too soon.
• It reduces the risk of overtraining and burnout.
• It aids in injury prevention by providing opportunities for restand recovery.  

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