Preseason: Low volume & always avoiding fatigue?

There has been a lot of criticism of double sessions (two a days) and high volume preseason training in of late. Now while I tend to agree that many coaches prescribe too many double sessions, and too much volume too early in the preseason, I feel that we may have lost our way here somewhat.

Preseason training is about preparation for the season ahead. There are many elements in the equation that you must consider when designing preseason (in conjunction with your YEARLY plan). It would be beyond the scope of this article to go over them all, but the three that are most relevant here are:

1. The activity / inactivity of the players in the offseason. How much work, the type of training performed, and the length of this period are all things to take into account.

2. How long is your preseason period? In the college game here we strictly only have 2 weeks (which is ridiculous and is not by choice but is essentially enforced upon us by the NCAA). Luckily,we are able to plan the start of the season in a way that this period can be extended somewhat. In my time in the football league, we typically had longer; between 5 - 7 weeks before our first competitive match. This obviously impacts how you approach preparation for the season.

3. What are the demands of the in-season? Where are the "nightmare" weeks that jump out of the page when you look at the fixture list? The 4 games in 9 days / Christmas in England kind of periods. What is the estimated training load that the players will have to deal with during this time? How about travel and other outside stressors? This is another reason to have a monitoring system in place - we can look back at previous seasons and see how players responded to these demands and can estimate (pretty accurately), how it will be in the future.

Preseason needs to be challenging at some point. The timing and the magnitude of the challenge may be the more important point than purely looking to minimize fatigue.

Hitting them hard, early, IS a BIG mistake - especially if they have been relatively inactive for an extended period of time before returning to you. Unfortunately many coaches get caught up in the mental side of things here, saying that they need to be whacked early on to make them mentally tough or to show them who the boss is. I am not saying mental toughness does not exist - there may be something to it - but a small mental advantage will soon be eliminated by extreme fatigue or injury.

Below is a plan I have done with an NCAA college team. The numbers are real based on an extensive monitoring system that we have in place. I have left out some details because preseason is just around the corner and we can't go giving all our secrets away now can we? (the head coach would kill me!)

Essentially there is 4 weeks before the first challenging match (falling in the 5th week shown). The highest training load (week 3) matches the highest load reached the previous season, and is roughly 10% higher than we should reach during any week this season. This is not a coincidence. We have to prepare our players for these demanding times during the season. The concept of avoiding fatigue is not a complete fallacy. We want to avoid fatigue going in to key matches or periods of the season, however our athletes will be in trouble if they have never been exposed to high levels of fatigue (when ready - not the 1st couple of weeks in). Performance, and bodies, will break down.

MANAGING FATIGUE is the term / concept that is more applicable here. Manipulate the training variables to elicit favorable changes in our athletes physiology (and therefore performance). We have helped manage fatigue in preseason by:
1. A good offseason training program with periods of challenging training and periods of recovery and adaptation.
2. A gradual increase in training load prior to the over-reaching period. Yes the training load starts quite high but this is possible due to the offseason program (and compliance to it). The unfortunate regulations of the NCAA also has some part to play. Perhaps we would have a slightly more softly softly approach if it were possible.
3. In week 4, volume is reduced significantly to allow for recovery and adaptation. This should then allow performance to rebound up above baseline for the all important start of the season (where we have 2 games per week, most weeks).

The figure above shows an increase in load in a step like fashion, much like a basic form of periodization for weight training. It does not always need to be like this, however. If we had longer, say 6 weeks, then two step ups followed by a step down, repeated may be more appropriate.

A key to this is that you have a monitoring system and are not just guessing. The more data and information you take, the better and more informed your decisions in the future can be. Examples of simple, effective, and FREE systems are below:

RPE Monitoring Published Poster
Monitoring pt 1
Monitoring pt 2
Monitoring pt 3
Sportably online monitoring

Disclaimer: This is a simplified illustration of the decision making processes that we much make in planning preseason / the year. We have primarily discussed volume. Remember that manipulating intensity is an important consideration also. I do believe, however, that getting a handle on training volume is the first step before putting too much thought into intensity. Volume the major fatiguing factor and so if you manipulate volume, you can manipulate fatigue (outside stressors to one side).