I’ve spent thirty-five years standing on touchlines where the wind cuts right through your jacket, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that most modern advice on how to run a preseason is absolute nonsense. I see these coaches out there buying expensive GPS trackers and running their players through high-intensity interval sprints until they’re practically vomiting on the grass, all to prepare for a season that hasn’t even started. They think they’re building athletes, but they’re actually just building a squad of injury-prone players who will be walking with a limp by mid-October. If you’re basing your entire summer on fancy data and “scientific” loading protocols without considering if your lads can actually keep their shape when the lungs are burning, you’re doing it wrong.
I’m not here to sell you on some expensive, high-tech miracle cure. What I am going to do is show you how to build a foundation that actually survives the reality of a long season. I’ll tell you which drills are worth your time and which ones are just a way to kill time in the heat, focusing on the tactical discipline and functional fitness that keeps a team from collapsing in the final fifteen minutes. No hype, no jargon—just the stuff that works when the rain starts coming down.
Aerobic Base Building Without Killing Their Morale
I’ve seen too many coaches start July by making their players run laps around a muddy pitch until they’re puking in the bushes. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. You aren’t training for a marathon; you’re training for a ninety-minute battle of wits and sprints. If you spend the first three weeks purely on long, slow distance running, you’ll arrive at the first competitive fixture with a squad of players who are technically “fit” but have the explosive power of a wet sponge.
Effective aerobic base building shouldn’t feel like a punishment. Instead of the traditional “run until you drop” approach, I prefer integrating movement into something that actually resembles football. Use small-sided games or shuttle drills that force them to change direction. This approach serves a dual purpose: it builds that necessary engine while simultaneously aiding in injury prevention during preseason by getting their joints used to the specific stresses of pivoting and deceleration. If they can’t handle a high-intensity interval within a game context, they certainly won’t handle a breakaway in the 80th minute. Keep the heart rates up, but keep the ball at their feet.
Smart Strength and Conditioning Phases for Real Players
Now, don’t get me started on the “gym rats” who think a heavy bench press is going to help them win a header in the 85th minute. We aren’t training for the Olympics; we are training for a Saturday afternoon in November. You need to move through logical strength and conditioning phases that actually serve the pitch. I start with foundational stability—getting the joints used to the load—before we even think about explosive movement. If you jump straight into high-intensity sprints without building that structural integrity, you aren’t building athletes; you’re just building a list of players who will be in the physio room by mid-October.
The goal here is injury prevention during preseason, not just making them look the part. I like to integrate resistance work with ball work as early as we can. Instead of making them run laps around a cone, I want them doing lateral lunges or resisted sprints while keeping an eye on a teammate. It’s about teaching the body to stay strong while the brain is busy with the ball. If the work doesn’t translate to a sport-specific conditioning drill that feels like football, you’re wasting everyone’s time.
Five Things Most Coaches Forget When the Whistle Blows for Preseason
- Stop treating the ball like an optional extra. If I see a group of lads running laps around a pitch for forty minutes without a ball in sight, I know they’ll be bored out of their minds by week three. You can build a lung capacity with running, but you build football intelligence by playing. Integrate the ball into every bit of conditioning you do; if they aren’t touching the leather, they aren’t learning.
- Respect the recovery as much as the session. I’ve seen too many coaches think that more is always better, but a player who is constantly playing through “niggles” in August is a player who will be in the treatment room by October. You need to schedule the downtime. If you aren’t teaching them how to stretch, how to sleep, and how to eat properly, you aren’t coaching a footballer, you’re just running a marathon club.
- Test their mental grit, not just their legs. Physical fitness is easy to measure with a stopwatch, but the ability to stay tactically disciplined when the legs are heavy is much harder. Use small-sided games where the rules change every five minutes—sudden death, limited touches, or adding an extra defender. It forces them to think under pressure, which is exactly what happens in the 85th minute of a cup tie.
- Don’t neglect the “boring” tactical basics. It’s tempting to spend preseason trying to implement a complex high-pressing system you saw on YouTube, but if your players haven’t mastered basic positional spacing and body orientation, the system will collapse. Use the extra time in preseason to hammer home the fundamentals. You can’t build a penthouse on a foundation of sand.
- Watch the individual, not just the group. Every player arrives in preseason with a different history. One might have had a full six-week break, while another has been playing summer league every weekend. You cannot apply a blanket workload to fifteen different bodies. If you treat a returning player like they’ve been sitting on a sofa for three months when they’ve actually been playing competitive football, you’re asking for a hamstring tear.
The Essentials for Surviving Preseason
Stop treating fitness as a separate chore; if you aren’t integrating ball work into your conditioning, you’re just wasting time and losing their interest before the first whistle even blows.
Build the engine before you try to tune the fine details, because a player with a massive tactical brain is useless if their legs turn to lead by the sixty-minute mark.
Watch their bodies, not just the stopwatch—if a player looks like they’re dragging through a puddle in the middle of a Tuesday session, you’ve pushed too hard and you’re heading straight for an injury list.
The Long Game
Look, we’ve covered a lot of ground, from building an aerobic base that doesn’t leave them gasping for air by the twentieth minute, to ensuring they actually have the strength to hold off a centre-back in a wet tackle. If you try to do everything at once, you’ll end up with a squad of injured players before the first league fixture has even kicked off. The goal isn’t to see who can run the most laps around a muddy pitch; it’s about gradual, purposeful progression. You want to build a foundation that is structurally sound, ensuring that when the intensity ramps up in August, your players have the physical capacity to actually execute the tactics you’ve spent all summer dreaming about.
At the end of the day, preseason is less about the drills and more about the standard you set. It is the period where you decide what kind of culture your club is going to have when things get difficult in November. You can have the most sophisticated periodisation programme in the country, but if you haven’t built a sense of discipline and resilience, it won’t mean a thing. Don’t get distracted by the latest fitness trends or the shiny new apps; focus on the players in front of you. If you do the hard, unglamorous work now, they will find you when the season is on the line. Now, get your kit on and get to work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I balance building their fitness with actually getting the ball at their feet so they don't feel like they're just running laps for a month?
If you spend a month running laps, you haven’t built a football team; you’ve built a group of very fit track athletes who can’t pass a ball. Stop the mindless running. Use small-sided games with high intensity instead. If they’re playing 4v4 in tight spaces, they’re working their lungs and their touch at the same time. Football is played with the ball at your feet, so train it that way.
What do I do if I have a squad with massive gaps in ability, where some lads are ready for a marathon and others are struggling to get through a warm-up?
Stop trying to find a middle ground; there isn’t one. If you train to the level of the strongest, you’ll injure the weakest. If you train to the level of the weakest, your best players will be bored and mentally checked out by November. Split them. Run your high-intensity drills with the fit lads, and keep the others on technical, controlled movements. You aren’t running a marathon; you’re coaching football. Use the gap to your advantage.
How much tactical instruction should I be giving during these sessions, or is it a waste of time until the physical conditioning is sorted?
Don’t go making the mistake of treating preseason like a boot camp for soldiers. If you spend six weeks just running them into the ground, they’ll arrive at the first game with their brains turned to mush. You don’t need complex tactical masterclasses, but you do need to introduce the concepts. Use the drills to bake in the shape and the movement patterns. If they don’t know where they’re supposed to stand, all that fitness won’t save you.
