Build the Base

The pre-season engine — aerobic base, sharp speed, and strength endurance, most of it with a ball at your feet.

Soccer
Adult
90 min
14–24 players
1 coach
Effort 5/5
Full pitch
adult
pre-season
fitness
conditioning
speed

The PitchPlans coaching teamGAA Award 1 & 2 coaches

Kit: 16 footballs, 40 cones, bibs in two colours, a stopwatch, 6 hurdles or spare cones

Warm-up15 min

Raise and Prepare

Setup: A 30×30m grid. Balls shared in small groups. The player-coach runs the sequence so it flows without long stops.

How it works: A proper pre-season warm-up in four gears. Raise: five minutes of easy possession keep-ball to lift the heart rate. Activate and mobilise: glute bridges, lunges with a rotation, leg swings, ankle rolls, calf raises. Then rehearse movements: skips, side-shuffles, gentle build-up runs growing to three-quarter pace. Finish with two eighty-percent strides. Nobody hits the hard work cold; the first night back tends to be where the hamstrings go, so this block earns its fifteen minutes.

What to say

“Tell them: 'ease into it — the first session back is when muscles tear if we rush.'”
“Say: 'full range on the mobility, feel the stretch working, do not bounce.'”
“Build the run pace in steps, never straight into a sprint.”

Easier

Keep the strides at three-quarter pace and extend the mobility.

Harder

Add two more progressive strides and a few quick footwork bursts before you finish.

Activity20 min

The Aerobic Base

Setup: Mark a large 60×40m rectangle with cones, plus a middle possession zone. Split into two or three teams. A stopwatch to call the intervals.

How it works: Build the engine with the ball involved so it does not feel like punishment. Run four-minute blocks: three minutes of continuous team possession keep-ball across the big rectangle at a genuine tempo where a player is always either supporting or covering, then one minute of a lap of the rectangle at a controlled tempo run before straight back into possession. Repeat four times. The heart rate stays high the whole block without any flat-out sprinting; this is the aerobic base that carries a squad through a season. Keep effort honest at around seven out of ten.

What to say

“Say: 'tempo, not sprinting — hold a pace you could just about talk at.'”
“Tell them: 'in possession, never stand still — support or cover, always moving.'”
“Keep the work continuous; the base is built by not stopping, not by going harder.”

Easier

Shorten to three-minute blocks and jog the lap rather than a tempo run.

Harder

Add a fourth minute of tempo running to each block, or shrink the possession area to raise the workload.

Activity18 min

Speed and Agility

Setup: Set two lanes: an acceleration lane of about twenty metres, and an agility grid with cones and a few hurdles for change of direction. Two lines so players rest fully between efforts.

How it works: Now the sharp end, but only once the base work has the body warm. Accelerations first: explosive starts over twenty metres, walk back full recovery, six reps — quality over quantity, every one flat out. Then agility: a course of cuts, a hurdle or two for quick feet, and a reaction start where you go on the coach's call, finishing by attacking a loose ball. Full recovery between reps is not optional; speed work only works when it is truly fast, which means truly rested. Six to eight quality efforts each and no more.

What to say

“Tell them: 'every rep flat out — if it is not maximal, it is not speed work, it is just tired running.'”
“Say: 'drive the arms and the knees on the first five steps, that is where speed is won.'”
“Enforce full recovery — walk back slowly, do not rush the next rep.”

Easier

Fewer reps and shorter distances, building the intensity across pre-season.

Harder

Add a resisted start or a competitive race element, keeping full recovery between efforts.

The rest of this session is free — along with 3 more this week.

PitchPlans coaching team

Free on PitchPlans — new sessions weekly.