Preparing the players for elite Football – “building intensity”
In the modern game pace is a demand that all teams have to face and, for me, the most difficult stage is to “build” the players ability to keep their performance with composure for 90mins in the first official matches of the competitive period. This subject has been discussed with professional coaches and we all agree that there are various ways to achieve it. In this article, the objective is to leave a possible strategy, which I have experienced and believe in.
Some questions to consider as a starting point… if we want to work the tactical ideas and to build a way of playing, it makes sense to work it with high levels of fatigue (especially in the beginning)? If a group can play 45mins with pace and organization why to play 75 (for instance)? If a team plays 75mins and only 45 to 55 are with good organization why don’t we decrease the time, demanding a high pace and the ideas well settled… Nowadays Football covers many periods of 2 matches in 7 days, how can we deal with that?
We will try to build a progression over a 6 week preseason (training matches in green) to prepare for the 1st official matches. The cycle between training, recovery, match and recovery is important to respect and, especially, the different exercise spaces, shapes and times that demand different types of effort because the goal is to have all the players available preventing injuries. Another variable that we have to have in mind is to select the opponents regarding the stage of the preseason and the identity that we are trying to build creating the conditions that the coach thinks are optimal to deliver his principles.
In the design of the sessions the intermittency between time in exercise and recovery (breaks, days off, …), related with the shapes and spaces will build the opportunity to train or recover working in collective principles. This variation will bring different physiological and mental demands, which allows the players to work fractions of the game philosophy in high intensity.
Before setting the friendly matches it is important that the coach builds the preseason contents regarding his fingerprint (click in the session picture above for more info) because the ideas are the base of the way of playing and have to be connected to the opponents characteristics. This is a process that is difficult to build but key in order to connect the message to the training and to leave the players to work it in the matches producing analysis and feedback.
The opponents are selected and the goal now is to organize the friendly matches. Preseason demands a stable process so it is important that the team is working together as much as possible. Setting the friendly matches for the same days (for different groups of players) is key to establish training and recovery routines (rest, nutrition, recovery baths, medical department procedures, …). In some matches youth players will be needed, which creates a good opportunity to connect with the Club’s youth development and to access youngsters that are closer to the1st team levels.
In the preparation games the coach must induce in the team that the intensity of each game has to be high, this means, for example, that in a 45min period, the possession game has to have a good pace and the collective pressing behaviours also guaranteed as maximum for the moment. Only demanding commitment from the start regarding this variable can promote this progressive increase that comes with quality regarding the team’s ideas for the game. In this vision, principles will overcome the structure/system of the team to achieve a stage where competitiveness between the players is at a high standard, even knowing that some of them are closer to the starting eleven as happens in every team. The season is long and competing for a spot in the eleven is a must towards quality training sessions to play high intensity games.
This ideas towards building the pace in the team are global for the athlete so it is vital to take care about the recovery procedures, including rest (inside and outside the pitch – sessions or matches) and the management of the training exercises because we can recover some structures using others at high intensity. Resting is also training that prepare for top intensity performance. The competitive period in a season is long and teams have to take care of all the players and some routines for the ones that are out of the scoresheet are key to promote competitiveness and a sense of being prepared. For me this group of players is very important and one subject for a future article…
