Following the best-selling Football Periodization to Maximise Performance book and the first two volumes in this series (Warm Ups and Technical Practices), high performance expert and UEFA Pro Licence Coach Educator Adam Owen PhD now presents a complete football-specific conditioning resource for coaches at all levels.

From his extensive experience in elite football, you will learn how to structure conditioning through the training week and connect physical work to your game model to produce optimum conditioning, low injury rates, and peak match day performance.

Key Benefits of this Book for Coaches:

• Develop Essential Physical Qualities: Improve acceleration, deceleration, repeat intensity actions, movement efficiency, and position-specific demands.
• Clear Training Week Structure: Learn how resistance, reaction speed, speed endurance, and activation conditioning practices fit into the periodization model.
• Smarter Load Management: Apply conditioning without overloading players to reduce injury risk and help them perform at their peak levels on match day.
• Integrated Football-Specific Conditioning: Use conditioning within realistic football practices and build physicality through game actions.
• 50 Practices: Practical conditioning for Pro, Semi-Pro, Academy, and Youth levels

Condition the Training Week for Peak Match Day Performance

This book shows you how to plan conditioning across the week, so each training day has a clear physical focus and purpose.

• Resistance (Match Day -4): After recovery, rebuild robustness with controlled overload, accelerations, decelerations, and duels.
• Speed Endurance (Match Day -3): Deliver the week’s most demanding physical session with game-related high speed running and repeated sprints under fatigue.
• Reaction Speed (Match Day -2): Use low volume, high quality reaction practices to sharpen explosiveness and decision-making as load begins to taper.
• Activation (Match Day -1): Prime players mentally and physically with short, sharp activation work to keep them fresh and ready to start fast.
• Training Week Periodization: Follow a football-specific training structure that prepares your players to perform at their highest level on match day.

Included Practice Examples:

• Resistance: Explosive Pressing Speed and Duel Circuit with Recovery Running
• Speed Endurance: Game-Specific High Intensity Crossing and Box-Entry Runs
• Reaction Speed: Passing and Explosive Acceleration with Timing of Runs
• Pre-Match Activation: Scanning and Mental Activation Reactive Colour Signal Sprints

Full Book Contents