A Periodization Tip for Wrestlers
There’s something that separates the wrestlers who have real ambition to go far (say, the Olympics) and the ones who simply are there to train and compete. This “something” actually comes in the form of a question that they ask me when they come through the doors at DiSalvo Performance Training:
Can you and my coach make sure that you’re synced with the periodization of my training program?
This, more than anything, will ensure that you are not spinning your wheels, leaving progress on the table, or worse, making yourself weaker, more tired and likely to injure yourself.
How do you do this? What does it look like, or even mean? Isn’t periodization a granular and measured process? Let’s dig in.
The Coaches Must Communicate
If your strength coach won’t dialogue with your wrestling coach— find another strength coach. If it’s the other way around— you may have some selling to do, as you may not be in a position to replace your wrestling coach.
It’s extremely important that the two coaches communicate because you need to make sure your high volume days don’t interfere with your strength, nor do you want to be doing high rep circuits when you should be tapering.
How else would you even know to do this as a wrestler if your coaches don’t communicate? I see it all the time, and it’s ultimately the athlete that suffers. It’s entirely preventable however, by the athlete simply taking agency and responsibility to make sure everyone is on the same page.
One of the first things Olympic hopeful and former Team USA and current Phillipines wrestler Arian Carpio said to me when we met was “this is my coach, this is our training plan, can we make sure it’s in sync?” It’s no wonder she’s in contention at the Olympic level in wrestling.
Don’t try to do everything at the same time
The worst thing you can do is try to be maximizing 3 or 4 different qualities simultaneously. While you can never just completely ignore something, it’s important you go through periods where one or two qualities are maximized, figure out what it takes to maintain that, and move to the next. It’s important to understand that once you work to build something and move onto to work on something else, you are maintaining it rather than trying to continue to its development.
Don’t know what I mean? Here’s an example:
You train really hard for 6 weeks to increase your explosiveness, but after 6 weeks, it’s time to move onto working on developing more strength. While you in your new phase and are prioritizing strength, some explosive exercises are maintained, but there’s not enough of them to truly get a lot more explosive. That said, you are preserving your explosiveness and putting more strength behind it with your new focus.
This leads us to the next item…
You Need a Long Term Plan
It doesn’t have to be figured out to every tiny detail to every minute of the workout, but it needs to have a bigger picture theme to the month (or cluster of weeks). You need to have a flow of one month into another. You need a plan to preserve what you built, but most importantly, you must be adaptable.
When you’re working with athletes on the world stage, events get cancelled, rescheduled, and everything in between. If you’re a slave to the schedule, you’ll never be able to truly excel. Adaptability is one of the best traits you can have as a coach on the world stage (or any level, truly). Have a back-up plan, understand progressions, regressions, and really get to know your athletes— that way you know what they are capable of and in how much time.
Wrestling is a painful sport with a lot of hard work that goes into it. Don’t waste that hard work by being a knucklehead and not planning. It doesn’t take complex spreadsheets, just the ability to communicate, adapt, and most of all- listen.
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About the Author: Mark DiSalvo, CSCS
Mark is the founder and owner of DiSalvo Performance Training. He brings over a decade of experience training clients and athletes of all backgrounds and is the strength and conditioning coach to grapplers of all levels and disciplines: from youth to professional and Olympic-level. He is currently a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu himself, with 10 years of experience in the sport. You can read more about him here.
A graduate of Northeastern University, he’s an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and Sports Performance Expert with a specialty in combat sports. He’s also a Steve Maxwell Certified Kettlebell Instructor (Levels 1 & 2).