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Fundamentals of Sports Training

by Joel Jamieson


Several years ago I went on a relentless hunt for the original book on periodization, “Fundamentals of Sports Training” by L. Matveyev. This book was referenced as a source in just about every single Russian text ever written and cited as the first book ever written on the subject of periodization so I was dying to read it.

The problem I ran into was that it was written in 1977 and the last printing was in the early 1980s. Needless to say, finding a copy, let alone a copy written in English was not easy. Nobody I knew had a copy or had even ever seen it printed in English, and I know a lot of people who are into this sort of material.

Fortunately, after a few months of searching around I was able to find someone who tracked a copy down for me in a library in Canada. I then had it scanned and turned into a .pdf so I could read it. I was amazed at the depth of information and the relevance of the material covered in it. Despite being written more than 30 years ago, this book is still far ahead of so many books on the subject and it actually cleared up several concepts for me.

Today, I’d like to pass along this invaluable piece of historic training work along to those who will value the information and take the time to read it and apply it. I’ve read just about every major book on the subject, those worth reading anyway, and this one is literally the original. Yes, this really is the first book ever written on the concept of periodization.

It’s not my information to sell and the publishers are long gone, so I’m giving it out for free. My motivation for doing so is simply I think the content of the book is important and needs to be passed on. There are probably just a small handful of the books actually out there. In fact, you can find a few used copies on Amazon but they are selling for $200-400 US. I can’t imagine that many people are buying it for that much, though it’s certainly worth it.

In any event, consider this a gift from me to everyone that is a member of 8weeksout. I can guarantee you will not find it anywhere else, like I said it literally took me months to find it.

If you are an athlete, a coach, a trainer, or just take your own fitness seriously, I guarantee you will get something from the book. I think it’s a must read if you really want to understand the original concept of periodization from one of the pioneers in the field. The concepts in the book literally paved the way for the entire architecture of the training system used by all the coaches/athletes in the USSR and the entire eastern bloc as a whole. All the great Russian coaches and scientists started their education with this book and they still consider it one of the definitive works on the subject.

In any event, it is completely free to download, I am simply asking that you share a link on Facebook or Twitter to help spread the word about 8weeksout.com in return. All you have to do is click the “Share to Get” button below and share a post to get access to the free download. As soon as you post, you’ll be given instant access to the link to download the book.

Read it, study it, apply it. You’re welcome

– Joel



Comments

  1. Wow, thanks Joel! I was looking for something new to read since I’ve finished Supertraining, Conditioning for Strength and Human Performance, and IOC Strength & Power In Sport.

    1. I also was unable to get to the second link, but I did share it on my FB page. Can you offer better instructions on how to get to the PDF?

      Thanks,
      Chris

  17. I’m also having trouble getting to the actual pdf in the end. a url that seems to contain the pdf is displayed but the page won’t load.

  18. To everyone having issues….once you hit the “share to get” button and you make a post, there is a link that shows in the same box. You need to right click that box and hit “save as” in order to download the file. It’s a 60MB file, if you just click the link it will try to open in the window and will take forever to download. If you right click and save as then you can save it to your computer.

  33. Pingback: Free Download “Fundamentals of Sports Training” by Matveyev - All Things Gym

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