Fit For Every Game: How to prepare your team, optimise performance, and enhance player availability.

Fit for Every Game is the definitive guide to football training. Written by one of the top performance directors to emerge from the Premier League it is a bible for football training, providing clubs, coaches, practitioners and players alike with a comprehensive framework to optimise performance and enhance player availability.

Split into four main categories; Planning, Prevention, Conditioning & Regeneration, together with multiple sub-categories, Fit For Every Game consists of underpinning scientific principles, logical processes, real life examples and includes many practical tools to enhance performance from a technical, tactical, physical and psychological perspective.

PLANNING

Planning is an essential process to ensure that every effort is made to achieve the aim and objectives of your training philosophy. Good planning provides a long-term, medium-term, and short-term framework for the team and creates a reference point to then plan for each individual within the team over the course of the season. The term given to the process of planning every training session and every game each week over the course of a season is periodisation.

Periodisation is more commonly associated with an individual athlete preparing for competition. In this instance, the goal is to train in cycles in order to make significant training gains to peak at a particular event. Although this is more difficult in football, as there is a need to peak every game, there is no reason why the principles of periodisation cannot be implemented successfully in football.

Key learning outcomes of the planning chapter include:

• A description of what periodisation entails.
• A deep dive into Verheijen's football periodisation model, how to implement and progress over the course of a season.
• How to plan a complete season effectively to include various cycles, varying training weeks and bespoke training sessions.

PREVENTION

Prevention is always better than cure and is a vital component of any training philosophy, particularly if you are to achieve the aim of having every player fit for every game. Whilst the dynamic nature of football itself places players at potential risk of injury, almost every injury is avoidable when common sense is applied - and combined with sound training methods.

Having a clear training model will undoubtedly reduce the risk of injuries if implemented correctly, but before commencing any form of team training, it is important that coaches and support staff alike do their due diligence, and consider any other aspects that will complement the approach in preventing injury and optimising performance.

Key learning outcomes of the prevention chapter include:

• Type of tests to use to measure player progress, how and when to integrate them around training and games and how to make sense of the results.
• Assessments that can be carried out quickly and effectively to establish player readiness that will help make informed decisions about player load.
• Proactive preparation interventions and techniques to prime players for the demands and rigours or the modern game.

CONDITIONING

There are many different opinions regarding how teams should train and what a typical training week should consist of - all with merits and shortcomings. Providing there is sound rationale behind the philosophy, players remain injury-free, and maintain a high level of performance throughout the season, it may be argued that the correct approach is being implemented.

Regardless of the approach being implemented, it is important to consider the impact of every component of each and identify how players are likely to be responding each day and, therefore, what type of training should be implemented to fulfil the aims and objectives of the training philosophy.

Key learning outcomes of the conditioning chapter include:

• Simple explanations of the demands of different training modalities when using Verheijen's football periodisation model and how to piece each component of training together competently.
• How to recognise individuals in need of special consideration and how to manage them within a team setting.
• An introduction to Frade's tactical periodisation model and how to piece each component of training together competently when using this approach.

REGENERATION

Whenever a player performs explosive actions, because the demand for energy is high, energy stores are rapidly depleted, muscles are damaged, and waste is produced that can cause further damage if it is not removed. Strategies that accelerate the regeneration process should, therefore, form part of every player's daily routine.

Furthermore, while such strategies are essential to keep all players free from injury, it is also important to consider the regeneration and rehabilitation of any players that sustain an injury in order to accelerate their recovery and ensure safe reintegration to training.

Key learning outcomes of the regeneration chapter include:

• The importance of each nutrient on health and performance and how to prepare the perfect plate in terms of proportion and quantity around training and game.
• Types or recovery modalities, how to optimise each protocol and understanding that every individual will respond differently to each stimulus.
• How to implement a rehabilitation model from sustaining the injury to returning to training and match play.