What to prioritise for a teenager during Off-Season and HOW to do it

For many teenage footballers, the season ends with one simple thought:

"I need to get fitter."

So they lace up their runners and start doing long runs. Or they head straight back into hard conditioning sessions only.

The reality is, the weeks between the end of one season and the start of the next aren't simply about fitness. In fact, they may be the most valuable training period of your entire year. And a lot greater benefit can be attained from this period than simply ‘getting kays in the legs.’

This is THE key part of the season to have clear plan with what you are doing – as it is the 1 part of the season where you are entirely left to your own devices. There are no games or team trainings, and pre-season is 2 months away for even the most serious of programs. So you effectively have at least 8 weeks all to yourself in which you are responsible for yourself. So how do you use it?

First – a key point – when we talk about teenagers, yes I know this is a wide spread of ages as well as ability levels. A 13 year old just starting middle school has a significantly different ability, physical tolerance and of course lifestyle to an 18 year old who has completed high school and potentially even works. When we have this discussion here, we do so with a 13-15 year old in mind – one who is just starting out on their exploration of physical development. However, the principles we cover are universal across the board – just that they are even more applicable the younger you are.

So bear that in mind here. So we are going to cover the most important key principles, where to focus your energy through this period, and what this practically looks like on paper.

A second very key point, particularly when we get to some programming layouts and nuts and bolts, is that in talking to 13-15 year olds, we are also assuming you have more that you do from a sports point of view other than just footy. Most will have summer sports starting – cricket, tennis whatever – or also play social basketball on Tuesday nights, or also do track and field over the summer months (and if you are doing some track – especially sprints – over the spring and summer months – fantastic!!! You are already on a winner with this approach.) So what we will layout will also assume that you are doing other things – and this will not detract from your physical preparation from football either. So keep doing other things (summer sports and social sports) – that is the first recommendation here.

Stop Thinking About "Fitness"

One of the biggest mistakes junior players make is believing running is about accumulating volume, medium to longer distances, and the more the better – especially through the break, because that will make or break their next pre-season.

Fitness matters- there's no argument there. But during these eight weeks, it shouldn't dominate your thinking.

As a quick thought exercise, imagine a game of footy and what you do in a game, and then imagine you improved your ability to maintain your constant speed in a 5km run (for example), but….

...you're still weak or not as strong as you need to be...

...you’re still slow... or not quick enough in your role...

...still struggle changing direction...

...still can't hold position in contests...

...still have poor landing mechanics...

Have you really become a much better footballer? Probably not. Running ‘fitness’ is only one piece of athletic development – and not the most important. And the younger you are, the less important it is compared to the other things. Why, because it is generally the easiest to develop – and it will be the one that is targeted the most when you get back to team training too. The off-season is your opportunity to improve everything else.

What Should You Actually Target?

Rather than endless conditioning, think about building the qualities that improve almost every aspect of football performance.

1. Build Real Strength

Strength is the foundation for nearly everything else.

A stronger athlete has greater potential to:

• Sprint faster
• Jump higher
• Change direction quicker
• Win more contests
• Become harder to tackle
• Stay healthier throughout the season

This doesn't mean chasing massive bench press numbers. It means progressively developing your whole body. Focus on:

• Squats and squat variations
• Deadlift variations
• Split squats
• Single-leg work
• Rows
• Pull-ups
• Pressing movements
• Core strength

The goal isn't bodybuilding.

It's becoming a more capable athlete. And in the younger teenage years, the approach is very much foundational – full body, control, targeting stability and balance, strength in functional movement patterns, and in a wide range of patterns and speeds. Additionally – don’t overthink what this looks like – this will be clear when you look at the 2 sessions included a little lower in this discussion. 2 full body strength sessions, don’t consistently.

2. Learn To Move Better

This ties in a little with the strength work above, but also a little with the speed and change of direction work below The best athletes don't simply produce force - they control it. Form is everything – don’t simply do exercises and tick them off a list – do them well, and do them with intent.

This is where many teenagers have huge room for improvement.

Spend time improving:

• Squat technique
• Hip mobility
• Single-leg balance
• Landing mechanics
• Deceleration
• Trunk control
• Coordination

But they're often what separates athletic players from those who constantly battle injuries or feel awkward moving.

3. Improve Speed

Speed isn't developed by jogging - it comes from quality sprinting. And quality strength training has a high carryover here too. The off-season is one of the few times you can consistently expose yourself to higher running speeds without worrying about having to train with fatigue from games.

Include:

• Acceleration work (10-20m)
• Maximum speed running
• Sprint mechanics
• Resisted sprints where appropriate

Don’t over-complicate the exercises or the drills. Once again, the layout below makes clear just how simple this is – it is the execution of it that is important. Again, not high volume here. Low to medium volume – executed with maximal intent.

You will remember I touched on how track and field is a great way to change up training and sport during the footy off season and even the pre-season. Learning how to accelerate and sprint correctly is seldom done in team training, despite how important it is. Therefore you can either prioritise training this yourself, or participate in this where this is literally the sport itself!!

‘Fitness’ is relatively simple to develop. Speed is not. When you ae training yourself or have to choose about what to prioritise running wise – focus here.

4. Layer in some power

Almost like a link between strength and fast movement. Football is explosive - you rarely jog into a contest.

You accelerate.
You jump.
You change direction.
You tackle.

Power training helps bridge the gap between strength and football performance.

Examples include:

• Box jumps
• Broad jumps
• Medicine ball throws
• Plyometrics
• Explosive lifting variations

Low volume, appropriately progressed. But this need not be complicated either (see below).

5. Changing Direction

Another common mistake is spending the whole off-season running in straight lines. Running slow is one thing, only ever running in 1 direction is another. Football is played almost entirely while accelerating, braking, cutting and reacting.

Use the off-season to improve:

• Deceleration
• Cutting mechanics
• Side stepping
• Rotational movement
• Balance after changing direction

Being quicker isn't always about running faster - Sometimes it's about losing less speed.

6. Build Robustness

Fancy word for creating a buffer against injury. One of the most overlooked goals during the off-season is simply making your body more resilient. This includes strengthening areas commonly exposed during football:

• Hamstrings
• Calves
• Groins
• Adductors
• Glutes
• Ankles
• Shoulders
• Trunk

The objective isn't simply injury prevention. It's building a body capable of tolerating more training throughout the year. The simplest way to build robustness is just quality training - quality strength training combined with mobility work, and preparing well prior to running. Then layer on 1 or 2 exercises that additionally target those common injury sites like a hamstring isometric or some extra calf work. Nothing more complicated than that.

This information might seem like a lot – and I understand that. However this is merely explaining what it important – the execution looks far simpler (below.) It is just important to have some understanding of the why – to make adjustments and set targets yourself.

So what about conditioning? Not important?

I certainly don’t want it to come across this way. You should still condition - but condition with purpose.

Early in the off-season, your aerobic fitness can usually be maintained or rebuilt with relatively modest amounts of running. You don't need six hard running sessions every week.

And particularly early on – can be done off legs too, for the longer duration efforts, allowing muscles and joints to recover from the other things you are doing like strength training, sprinting, and hopefully playing other sports. In fact, if you are playing other sports, this may also be enough to contribute toward this conditioning maintenance as well (depending on the sport.)

You don’t need to return to pre-season the ‘fittest there’ – as your season would still be 4 months away even at that stage – way too early to focus here. So fill gaps elsewhere, build a base or aerobic fitness (with extra off legs work), and gradually progress up to some moderate volume with some strides. We lay that out below.

So what does that 8 weeks actually look like?

The general weekly layout will not change in this example - the specifics within the strength sessions, but particularly the conditioning and running sessions will slightly. The weekly layout includes;

-2 strength sessions
-2 conditioning sessions
-2 mobility + core sessions (these are only 10-120 minutes and are a way of doing something beneficial without adding to your training load.) 

Once again, I am assuming there is still some extra sport or other acivities that you need to fit in too, so adjust days and layouts where needed.

Weeks 1-2

2 full body strength sessions, including a mixture of power at the start, single and double-leg lower body, a balance of pushing and pulling in different directions, rotation work and core work. Sets and reps progress over the 4 week period.

Conditioning entirely off legs for those first 2 weeks. Focus on heart rate as an indicator of work rate - and consistency throughout the durations.

Mobility is as simple as what is above - this need not change much - just do it consistently. All those key areas around the hips and shoulders are hit here. Add in some basic core work and these become a short session in their own right, without adding any fatigue.

Weeks 2-4

Strength exercises remain the same - progressing through sets and repetition numbers. Form. Consistency. Improvement.

Off legs conditioning expands and becomes slightly more intense. Introduction of the first running-based work - notice volume isn't high - quality in strides, with specific aims. Additionally acceleration work introduced early too. Nothing fancy or complicated, just targeted quality work.

Weeks 5-6

Some progression of exercises - particularly the power. But nothing drastic - not whole sale changes (as there is limited physical improvement with wholesale changes.)

Introducing change of direction work, gradually expanding out volume and/or intensity in running. Maintaining quality, rather than endless junk volume.

Weeks 7-8

Layering in multi-directional acceleration and moving acceleration, building out intensity in running intervals (although by no means maximal - just quality tempo's, and variation in change of direction work.

This discussion here will dive into detail about ways to personalise and get more specific with your running planning with something called Maximal Aerobic Speed. But this is by no means essential - especially with strides and the earliest part of off season.

And that is it in a nutshell - no over-complicating. Clear goals, and clarity on direction. Of course there are hundreds of different potential variations that can need to be made on personal situations. For example, you may also have a budget of 4 sessions, yet decide that based on your priorities, 3 days of strength and power work are more centrally important, and therefore 3 strength 1 conditioning is the baseline instead of 2 and 2. This is just 1 tweak - there are hundreds. But the principles we cover here are universal - simply adapted to situation.

If more personalised direction with programming and/or coaching is something that you would like help with, don't hesitate to reach out.