Most athletes arrive at pre-season either underprepared or already tired. Here is how to build the weeks before your first match.
Pre-season decides the first half of your season. Arrive unprepared and team training breaks you. Arrive overtrained and you are flat in the first games.
Work back from the first match
A good pre-season is planned backwards from the first official game:
| Weeks before the first match | Phase |
|---|---|
| 12-3 | Individual pre-season |
| 2-1 (+1 after) | Transition into the season |
| From game 1 | In-season maintenance |
Individual pre-season
This is your own work before the team starts. Build the engine first, then strength and power:
- Aerobic and repeated-sprint base in the first weeks
- Strength blocks - hypertrophy then strength, 2-4 weeks each
- Speed exposure every week so the hamstrings meet high speeds before team training
The transition: let go to go faster
The most skipped phase. For 1-2 weeks around the first games, heavy work comes down. Volume drops, intensity stays sharp. You let the body absorb everything you built, so you arrive at the first match fresh rather than tired.
You do not get fit in the last two weeks. You only get tired.
Monitor, don't guess
During pre-season the risk of overload is highest. Track:
- Weekly load (session RPE x minutes) - no more than about 10% increase per week
- Acute:chronic ratio - stay roughly between 0.8 and 1.3
- Morning wellness - sleep, soreness, mood, and HRV if you have it
Athletics Pulse builds this whole year for you from your first and last match dates and switches programs automatically when each phase starts.
Train with a plan built around your season
Programs, load monitoring and a yearly plan for your sport.
