How to create high intensity training sessions

As we reach the last eight teams in the Champions League, all teams share the exact same characteristics as those who reached the same stage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil; the ability to play with consistent high levels of quality, tempo, and intensity. They can press high, transition quickly, possess the ball with ease, create space for each other with dynamic movements, and can provide the same attacking threat in the last minute as they do in the first minute. Elite players today are more athletic than ever before and, with the help of sports science, we are reaching new levels of speed and strength. There is no doubt that tempo rules on both sides of the ball, as Barcelona have proved for years. However, if you want your team to play with a purpose, focus, and high tempo, it starts well before the referee blows their whistle. Over 95% of a player’s time is spent training, while only 5% is spent competing. Therefore, the better your team trains the better they will compete. From a personal point of view, the most successful teams I worked with won games during the week in training. This is where habits are created and confidence is earned. It is not as simple as demanding intensity on the training field however – as coaches we have to produce it. Below are five ways to improve and drive intensity in a training program:

1. Preperation

A high-intensity training session will not get off the ground if the coach is not prepared. Personally, I believe that if a coach steps on the field without anything written down, the session is probably a very basic one. A training template should be manufactured well in advance of the session to remind the coach of set-up, coaching points, tactical themes, and what players need to play in what areas. Another aspect of preparation is organization. It is difficult for a session to flow when players have to spend ten minutes in the middle of it lifting goals and picking up cones. When Steve Clarke worked with Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, it was one of the first things he noticed about his training program. “Everything in the session was geared around being organized: one drill moved onto the next drill with minimum time in between and I think the players appreciate that.” Just like the players, a coach must be mentally prepared for the session also. Are you focused enough to see coachable moments as soon as they occur? What happens if something isn’t going right? Will you get frustrated at a difficult exercise if the players cannot grasp it quickly enough? These are all aspects of a training program that a coach must be prepared.

2. Choice of Exercises

To train well, the coach should make the sessions increasingly like the matches they are preparing for. All training therefore, must replicate match stimuli. If you want intensity, there must be opportunities for players to sprint and work at their maximum. However, exercises should not be restricted to the physical side of the game; there must be an element of quality control on the technical side, as well as mental challenges for the players. It is important that we train smart as well as hard. Intelligent training is when players know the why of an exercise, as well as the what and how. Transitional play tends to have much greater intensity than possession play because of the directionality. Also, a varied training program will help lift the tempo and intensity of each session. If your training is always the same it becomes easier and players get less benefit. Growth and improvement require unusual stress through constant change. Boredom typically kills focus, so if the players walk out and know what you have planned for them every day, you will never reach high levels of intensity.

3. Use of time

The amount of time a team spends on the practice field won’t win games, the quality of the work will. A coach’s management of time is a critical factor in determining the intensity of a training session. We should be using the clock to challenge and stimulate players’ thinking, instead of as a guideline to how close they are to being finished. One important thing to realize is that the nature of your timekeeping will dictate the intensity of your session. For example, allowing any exercise to continue after 15 minutes will see the tempo drop very quickly. Instead, if you try keeping the exercises and games to 3-5 minutes duration, with one minute recovery, and five sets, this then allows players to play at their maximum heart rate. How long a session lasts should also be closely monitored. While high tempo sessions consistently improve a team’s performance and efficiency, long duration typically does the opposite. Plenty of good teams have left their legs on the practice field, so energy management is huge for a coach. Keep the breaks short and for recovery only, that way the players will learn to refocus quickly and often.

4. Remove the "tempo zappers"

Although coaches are in search of new and innovative exercises to use with their players, the secret to training at a high tempo is sometimes removing what is already there. Bruce Lee famously called it “hacking away at the unessential”. Often coaches do not realize that there are aspects of training that do more harm than good simply because they have been using them for years. Here are three ‘tempo zappers’ which can hold sessions back:

Long Lines – Exercises that have more than four players waiting to perform an activity means that they have too much time to switch off mentally and drop their intensity levels.

Lectures – Although feedback is vital for success, if you stop the play every five minutes to talk in great detail, the pace of the session drops very quickly. Remember how frustrated you get when the referee continually stops the game for infringements? The players feel the exact same way when the coach turns practice into a sermon.

Laps – Sending the team out for a few laps to warm-up will give them the opportunity to joke around and have “social time”. Start the session at full speed and then watch players focus and zone into their work.

5. High standards

Mindset always drives performance and it starts with the coach. Pep Guardiola once said, “I only get mad at my players when I feel the training session isn’t the most important matter of the day.” That statement speaks volumes about the environment he wants to create and what he will/won’t accept from his players. I guarantee every Bayern Munich player shows up ready to work at their highest levels possible. Although not every coach can use press conferences or the media to drive home points, they all communicate how important training is to their team. Everything communicates. Players will pick up on body language very quickly and can easily tell if their coach would rather be elsewhere. The best coaches have a high quality control in every aspect of the club/program. If you want your players to give the best possible account of themselves in games, they need to develop the habit of doing it every day. Teams naturally develop their own rules and habits, so we must make sure they are good ones. Not every player will embrace high intensity training because you are asking them to work harder, push limits, and operate outside their comfort zone. You will have resistance from a few, and must be willing to deal with those players. The key to developing a team who trains at a high intensity is to squash destructive behaviors before they embed. Remember Brendan Rodgers addressing Raheem Sterling on the ‘Being Liverpool’ documentary in 2012? He was shaping the mentality of a talented young player to work in the right way every day. (Click on link below or copy into your browser)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=13&v=wujTSELwsPA

What is the common theme of the five areas above? Quite simply, the coach has complete control of every one of them. Just like our players, we will ultimately get out of the session what we put in. It’s not about yelling and screaming at our players but instead finding ways to develop winning habits through quality training. This involves being prepared, well organized, focused, and maintaining high standards each day on the practice field. It is a process but without a shadow of doubt it is a choice. The coaches who choose to challenge their players physically, tactically, technically, and mentally, will most likely see it rewarded when it counts.