A training schedule your squad will stick to
A training schedule only works if the squad sticks to it. Picking days isn’t enough: you need to choose the right time, give every session a purpose and know in advance who’ll be there. This guide shows how to set a rhythm that lasts the whole season.
How many sessions a week
It depends on what the club wants. A team that only plays friendlies gets by fine with one session a week. A team in a league needs two, because one isn’t enough to work on organisation and match sharpness at the same time.
Three sessions a week are for short spells, such as pre-season or the week before a decisive cup tie. Kept up for months, they wear the squad down and the answers start drifting from in to maybe.
Count everything you ask of the squad, not just training. Two sessions and a match make three evenings a week. For anyone who works, studies or has a family, that’s already a big commitment.
Choosing the day and time
Before you fix the schedule, ask each player which evenings they have free and from what time. Then pick the slot that suits the core of the team, not the one that suits everybody. That one rarely exists.
Prioritise the positions that are hard to replace. If the goalkeeper and both centre-backs can only make Tuesdays and Thursdays, training is on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Start time and duration
Set a start time and a fixed duration, and stick to both. A session that always starts twenty minutes late teaches the squad to turn up twenty minutes late. An hour and a half is enough for most sessions and leaves the rest of the evening free.
Avoid changing the schedule mid-season. If you really have to, give a week’s notice and keep the new schedule for several weeks before touching it again.
Give every session a plan
A session without a plan ends up as aimless kickabouts with no discussion. Write down beforehand what you want to work on and share it with the squad, so everyone knows what they’re turning up for.
- Building out from the centre-backs
- Set pieces, attacking and defending
- Pressing straight after losing the ball
- Playing with the likely XI for the next match
Pick one or two themes per session. Any more than that and nobody remembers a thing in the next match.
In VOC, you set up the weekly session once, as a recurring event, with day, time, duration, location and plan. The squad sees everything in the app or on the web, without having to dig for the right message in the group chat.
Making sure people turn up
Ask everyone to answer for every session: in, maybe or out. A short note helps, such as finishing work late or only being able to make the second half. That way the coach plans with information, not hope.
Treat a maybe as a no when you’re planning. If the session only works with eight players, count only those who said they’re in.
A minimum to go ahead
Set a minimum number of confirmed players and a cut-off time to decide. If there aren’t enough people by the agreed time, adapt the plan or cancel early. Cancelling in good time costs less than leaving the ones who showed up waiting.
A reminder the day before, only for those who haven’t answered yet, deals with almost every case of forgetfulness. In VOC, that reminder goes out on its own, in the app and on the web, and anyone who has already answered isn’t bothered.
Scrims and video reviews
Not everything fits into weekly training. A scrim against another club or a video review after a defeat are one-off events and should be scheduled separately, with the same clarity: day, time, duration and what you’re going to do.
A video review doesn’t need to be long. Twenty to thirty minutes on three or four moments is enough. Choose the clips in advance and don’t let the session turn into a list of who’s to blame.
Use scrims sparingly. They’re the closest thing to a real match, but also the hardest to arrange. One a fortnight is already enough to test what you’ve been working on in training.
Review the schedule
Once a month, look at attendance. If the same person answers maybe to every session, there’s a conversation to be had. If half the squad always misses the same day, the problem is the day, not the squad.
Adjust the schedule to the time of year: exams, holidays, shift changes. A schedule that rarely changes, and always with notice, is one the squad learns to stick to.