It’s the athlete who is able to put that hard work into the most intelligent areas in the most intelligent periodization structure who is going to get the best results.
The term “periodization” simply represents the process of organizing your training into phases. These phases are placed in a logical order for the purpose of optimizing your long-term hockey performance, avoiding psychological burnout and preventing injury.
Single weeks of training are most often referred to as microcycles, and longer “blocks” of training are referred to as mesocycles, while the plan for the entire year (in-season and off-season) would be known as a macrocycle.