Why Traditional Periodization Fails Team Sport Athletes — and What to Do Instead
If you play a team sport — football, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, hockey — you know that speed, power, and strength are the foundation of your performance. The problem? Many athletes unknowingly lose these qualities by following outdated traditional periodization or block periodization models.
Traditional block periodization focuses on one quality at a time — for example, spending a month building aerobic capacity, then hypertrophy, followed by strength and finishing with power/speed. While this can POTENTIALLY be effective for beginners, it’s a serious drawback for trained athletes. Why? Because while you focus on one quality, you lose others. Four weeks of only strength work will cause your speed, agility, and explosiveness to fade.
Many team sport athletes are power-speed athletes — and speed and power are the quickest to decline without regular exposure. That’s why a vertical integration approach is more effective.
Vertical integration, coined and developed by Canadian sprint coach Charlie Francis, means keeping all high-intensity/CNS biomotor qualities in your program year-round — through speed work, explosive med ball throws/jumps and weights — while primarily adjusting the volumes based on the time of year and preferred quality of a specific time period.
For example:
If your main emphasis is max strength, you still train speed, agility, and plyometrics — but with lower volume to allow recovery for heavy lifts.
If you’re in a phase where speed work is the priority, you scale back heavy lifting so your nervous system isn’t overloaded. Also, the musculoskeletal system typically doesn't perform at its peak or recover well when you're trying to chase max strength & max speed work simulateously (it also invities a massive soft tissue injury risk).
This way, you never go more than 5-7 days without a high-speed exposure, preventing rapid performance drop-offs. And because team sports often have long seasons with practices, games, and travel, your weight room and speed sessions must support your sport performance — not take away from it.
The takeaway: For team sport athletes, the most effective training plan keeps every key quality present all year, shifting emphasis without abandoning speed or power. That’s how you stay explosive, strong, and game-ready from preseason to playoffs.
💨 Ready to Get Faster and More Explosive?
Check out the Triple Threat System — a 10-week speed, power & strengthprogram built for competitive athletes in any sport.
Learn More Here: https://www.lewisptsr.com/triple-threat-strength-speed
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🎥 Watch the Full Team Sport Programming Breakdown on YouTube
Don’t miss the full breakdown on why block periodization fails team sport athletes and how vertical integration works.
▶️ Watch Now on YouTube HERE
🎙 Listen to This Episode on The Lewis Physical Therapy & Sports Rehab Podcast
Catch the full breakdown of why traditional periodization fails team sport athletes and how vertical integration keeps speed, power, and strength year-round.
🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4A6iBs0CzkAwSu9rUVPfGX?si=lrea2AaWQSy5USIT90KXhQ
