15/02/2023
🔥Here's a breakdown of the typical yearly macrocycle for soccer players.🔥
1. General Preparation - This phase will typically occur during the early weeks of pre-season. The goals of this phase are to build baseline strength and aerobic capacity. In soccer sessions, we want to give players a bit more space. This will place more emphasis on aerobic capacity by giving players more space to work with and run around in. The overall training volume should be fairly high with lower intensity.
2. Specific Preparation - As we get nearer to the season, in the later stages of pre-season, we want our training to become more specific. This is when the physical preparation focuses more on repeated sprint ability, change of direction, and accelerations/decelerations. In soccer sessions, we can utilize small-sided games in order to place more emphasis on those physical demands. We also want to start exposing the athletes to match play in scrimmages or friendlies where each player is exposed to 45 -> 60 -> 75 -> 90 minutes of match play.
3. During the competitive season, the training volume should decrease significantly while the intensity peaks. Players should be at their peak performance levels. We want to make sure they are at least maintaining their fitness levels, and improve them where needed/desired, but the emphasis is on recovery. It's important to remember that our role as support staff is to help the players to be able to perform their best on the field.
4. In the off-season, or transition phase, the focus can be placed more on the individual. End of season reports with a needs analysis for each player should be prepared so that each athlete can have an individualized plan for their development. This is also the time that we can better address any lingering niggles from the season and implement risk reduction strategies.