Tag Archive for: Tactical Periodization

GAINcast Episode 227: Game speed (with Dean Benton)

Developing faster athletes for team sports doesn’t just mean training them like sprinters. Both sports require fast athletes, but in completely different contexts. Like anything, developing speed in a new context comes down to how you train and Dean Benton has spent his career trying to unlock the methods that can make his teams play faster. On this week’s GAINcast he joins us to discuss the significance of speed, how he defines the key elements of team speed, and his approach to developing game speed.

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GAINcast Episode 204: Prepare for the game (with Eddie Jones)

Training is about preparing for the game. It’s a simple concept, but we often lose sight of that when we dive too deep into tactics, strength training, or other facets of training. English Rugby coach Eddie Jones tries to bring this concept to the forefront in his training. Everything they do comes back to the game. The structure of practice, the mental preparation, and fitness training all are designed with the game demands as the central focus. He joins this week’s GAINcast to walk us through is approach to preparing athletes.

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GAINcast Episode 186: Training transfer (with Dean Benton)

An athletic performance coach hasn’t done their job until you see the transfer of qualities onto the field. Rugby Australia’s Dean Benton has been a forerunner in bringing new training strategies to the sport from tactical periodization and exercise classification, to testing protocols and flexibility. The one thing in common is he is looking for ways to ensure developments off the field help athletes on the field. He joins us on this week’s GAINcast to discuss all those topics and more. Read more

Sports Science Monthly – December 2018

Lots of new topics in the December edition of Sports Science Monthly. Our first study looks at the role of genetics in endurance programming. We also look at research on whether athletes eat enough, monitoring acute:chronic training loads, biomarkers, acceleration performance, and some interesting new research on tactical periodization. Read more

Putting tactical periodization into practice

A lot has been written about tactical periodization on HMMR Media this month, including a primer on tactical periodization from Craig Pickering and a detailed discussion of Dean Benton’s experience with tactical periodization. I’ve come to tactical periodization from a different route. Much of the discussion around tactical periodization looks at complex data modeling and GPS metrics. With a background in physical education and coaching rugby at the grass roots, I simply looked at tactical periodization as a tool to help us better define how we wanted to play and train for that. This article aims to show you how I’ve taken some of the ideas from tactical periodization and put them into practice. Read more

Talking tactical periodization with Dean Benton

I first met Dean Benton at the 2013 International Festival of Athletics Coaching in Glasgow. Benton was presenting about his work in rugby at a track and field conference and I was entranced at the dynamics of the sport. As we shared a mentor, Vern Gambetta, we kept in touch. Two years ago he moved to Europe from his native Australia to take over sports science at England Rugby. Since then I’ve had a chance to visit his training several times and see first hand how he puts some of his concepts in practice. Read more

A primer on tactical periodization

This month HMMR Media has been presenting a lot of new content about the work of Frans Bosch and John Pryor. While much of their contributions to coaching have been in the area of coordination and agility training, John Pryor’s work with Japan Rugby has also pioneered another area of performance: tactical periodization. Read more

Tactical Periodization – Is it really new?

What exactly is tactical periodization? Is it the newest buzzword or a new name for what great coaches have always done? Before you jump on the bandwagon and try to understand some of the poorly translated Portuguese books and interviews on the subject look at history for a minute. Read more

HMMR Podcast Episode 114: Bondarchuk for Team Sports (with Derek Evely)

A history of training methods for team sports is essentially a history of adapting individual sports methods to the team environment. We frequently get asked how the methods of Dr. Anatoliy Bondrachuk could be adapted from track and field to team sports. To tackle this question we invited Derek Evely back on the show to exchange some ideas. Read more

GAINcast Episode 54: On Target

Recently I published an article on HMMR Media discussing the role of specific strength exercises in team sports. It is a difficult question that I often get confronted with since I speak and write frequently about specific strength. Contrary to what many people thing, it is not about simply putting work into different categories in training. Good training is about making sure each element is on target, no matter its category. On this episode we talk about how to stay on target and how we often ignore on field training as a means of physical preparation. Read more