(Football Preseason)
Preseason is a chance to raise physical capacity — not a licence for sudden, unstructured hard work. Progress the load, protect availability, and train qualities that transfer to football.
Written by the ALKO Performance coaching team · Reviewed for practical coaching accuracy
Players often return from a break and try to “make up for lost time” in two weeks. That approach raises injury risk and rarely produces durable fitness. Preseason should rebuild capacity in a planned way: strength, aerobic support, high-intensity repeatability, speed and power — with recovery built in.
A preseason strength block can restore force production after time away. Technique and progressive loading matter more than maximal ego lifts in week one. Lower-body strength, single-leg control and trunk strength support later speed and change-of-direction work.
Football needs both a base that supports recovery between efforts and the ability to repeat high-intensity actions. Conditioning should progress. Early weeks may emphasise building training tolerance; later weeks can include more football-specific high-intensity work if the player is ready.
Jumping, acceleration and sprint exposures should not appear overnight at full volume. Introduce them as strength and running quality return. Speed work is quality work — not extra punishment after already-heavy sessions.
Sudden spikes in running volume, gym load or session density are a common preseason problem. A better plan increases work in steps, monitors how the player is coping, and leaves room for club training. Individual players arrive at preseason in very different states.
Sleep, nutrition and spacing of hard days influence whether adaptations stick. Where appropriate, simple testing at the start and later in camp can show what actually improved — provided the tests are interpreted, not collected for decoration. Performance testing in Paphos can support that process.
Not every player arrives with a professional calendar. Amateur players may have limited weeks and mixed gym access. Youth players still need skill practice and must not be buried under adult preseason templates. Players coming back from injury need a different entry point than healthy players who only lost fitness.
If time is short, priorities should be honest: restore running tolerance, rebuild key strength, and add a small amount of high-quality speed — rather than attempting every physical quality at once.
Preseason problems often come from adding hard gym sessions on top of new running volumes. Both matter. The issue is the combined stress on legs, trunk and recovery.
A practical approach is to decide which days are running-heavy and which days can hold strength. On congested weeks, strength work may become shorter and more specific instead of disappearing entirely.
Exact order depends on the player, but a common sequence is: restore movement quality and tissue tolerance; rebuild strength; raise running volume; then add more speed, power and football-specific intensity.
Skipping the early steps to “look fit” in week one is how players pick up avoidable soft-tissue problems. Related reading: football strength and conditioning and returning after injury.
The goal of preseason is to arrive available and physically prepared, not exhausted. ALKO programmes in Paphos are built around the player’s starting point, position and the time available before competitive matches. Explore Football Training and Strength & Conditioning.