Off the Bench and Into the Game: 3 In-Season Training Secrets Revealed

One of the biggest errors I see is when the season comes around they stop everything and do nothing.

Being ready for the game is key, this requires physical preparation. But letting yourself become unfit will not keep you playing week in week out.

Having a base of strength, fitness and power is key to playing more games.

So the question is how do you do it?

To begin with, have a plan. Ask yourself what your week looks like from pitch-based sessions? How many games a week do you need to play? Within your life when do you have opportunities to train?

Once you have those questions answered you can look at the structure.

So here are three in-season training errors I see

1.      Always doing high-volume work week in and week out.

Think your body has a finite amount of energy. Every time you train or play you take away from the away from the account. Consistent training with super high volume withdraws energy from your account.

Think about planning your week in waves with periods you go harder,and periods you go lighter.

Use this template as an example

Sat – Game

Sun – off

Mon -Lower body Gym

Tues- training and Speed

Wednesday – Low intensity Cardio

Thursday – Upper body gym and training

Friday -off

2.      Letting the intensity drop

Within the season the goal is to be ready to compete every game. Your base physical qualities allow you to do that. Helping you recover quicker, perform at a higher level, and keep you injury-free. Because training and the games can be so fatiguing it’s key to use the minimum required to improve them. Intensity for strength and power training is key here. Lifting heavy loads (80-90% 1RM) with maximal effort is key to creating overload. However, the key here is to not dig a hole for yourself. Understanding what is required to make a minimum change is a good starting point. This great article by stronger by science states that 2-3 sets are all you need to improve your strength. (https://www.strongerbyscience.com/adaptable-training-program/).

Power development shows that intent is key. The CAT method, something I first read about in the book Base Building, says max bar speed makes you stronger. Dr. Hatfeild who lifted 460kg is well documented to have used this method (https://www.elitefts.com/education/compensatory-acceleration-training-maximizing-each-rep-each-set/). With research supporting its application to training https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-017-0676-4.

Power is key for speed, agility, and contact situations. Jumping and throwing are great tools to improve power. To create true intent is to measure it. I remember at school competing to jump the furthest or highest. We would jump and see who could touch the basketball rim or who could go the furthest. So when doing these actions, get the markers out and measure, and if you can compete!

3.      Not performing max speed and declarations

Sprinting and max declarations are causes of a lot of injuries. This could be because you can’t handle the repeated nature of these events. The other reason is you do not expose yourself enough. Sprinting as close to top speed as possible every week keeps the hamstring, calves, and hips healthy.

Vaccinating your body with sprinting is key to decreasing hamstring injuries. With it suggested it does a better job than direct hamstring training. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/12/5/134. The same is being said for declaration training. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8761154/. Decelerating generates 5x your body weight. This is greater than any squat or deadlift you will do. Practicing these actions will prepare you for repeated exposure from training and matches.

My simple advice for this is to make time for it. Add it to your gym sessions if time. But I think a simpler solution is out there. It's called actually doing a warm-up instead of messing around for 20 minutes at the start of training. Across the world, people are playing Keepy uppies or standing in circles and passing a ball. 15 minutes is all you need to warm up and perform these actions. This will not only make you faster and more agile, but most of all decrease your injury risk.

So there you have it, 3 simple methods to improve your ability to become available this season

Key Points

-          Vary your volume day to day week to week to create waves in intensity

-          Keep intensity high and train with intent, but keep that volume low overall

-          Expose yourself to maximal sprints and declarations to prepare your body for the game.