As always the stuff Ash does with rugby is also on the pulse for other sports.
Most athletes once past their period of foundtion training will work by the basics of a broad conjoint principle. So in any week sessions will focus on most of the needed attributes – speed, power, strength, some added muscle mass, appropriate aerobic levels etc. Some sprinters go so far as to incoude at least a small aspect of speed work in every session. Over the top of this broader concept specialisation relative to an individual athlete’s needs is then possible – they can work harder on lagging components or drop out some now and then if they are well developed and they need more recovery time.
The other rationale behind conjoint training is detraining – although most athletes can maintain good strength levels across a reasonably extended period of detraining speed at least in top end performing athletes falls off very quickly – as westside rightly says – if you aint training it you are losing it
even across extended periods of offloading – top british sprint cyclsits for exampe can offload from weights for up to 14 weeks before peak competitions- many of these elements are still addressed conjointly ut at a far lower volume – again using the exampl of sprint cyclists – they may do brief power work but on their bike and then brief speed work – across the same day.