The training week: how hard to push each day

Repeating the same sessions at the same pace every week doesn't make better players. How FIFA spreads the load between matches for under-13s, under-15s and under-18s, and how to apply it to a team that trains three days.

Linkalde · 2026-10-19

The training week, what the manuals call a microcycle, is the tool a coach uses most and thinks about least. It tends to be built like this: day one is running, day two is technique and the last day is match preparation. And it is repeated unchanged all season.

FIFA warns against exactly that: the microcycle must not be a simple repeat of the previous one. It has to partly renew the exercises, the formats and the methods, and change the loads from one week to the next. The foundation is always the same: pace the effort and leave time to recover.

In youth football, the week doesn't revolve only around the match

In elite football the week depends on the result, on fatigue and on the next opponent. With young players, FIFA's youth football manual is clear: the microcycle is set by the learning objectives in the plan and, above all, by the team's physical and mental fatigue, and it doesn't have to point towards the next match. If it's the turn of a three-week block on directional control and first pass, you work on that even if the league leaders are coming on Sunday.

How the load is spread

FIFA's rules for organising the week are few and very clear:

1. After the match, active recovery: easy running, flexibility and a little strength work. “Getting the engine started.”
2. The hardest day falls in the middle of the week.
3. Loads come down in the second half of the week.
4. The last session before the match is short and sharp: reaction speed, coordination and activation.
5. Every session has a defined physiological “backdrop”. For example, technical-tactical work on aerobic endurance, or a 6v6 on a 50 x 40 metre pitch to work on aerobic power.

This is the typical week FIFA proposes for the 13 to 15 stage with a match on Saturday:

From 16 to 18 years

At 16 to 18 the structure is the same, with more specific work: technique by position according to the player, separate groups (the strikers finish while the defenders work on aerial play and playing out from the back), pressing and speed in small spaces, and mental training built into the most demanding sessions.

Varying the intensity within each session

Matches aren't played at a single pace, so training shouldn't be either. FIFA picks up Jens Bangsbo's proposal: vary the intensity between the parts of each session and from one day to the next, on a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (very high), imitating the changes of pace in matches. That way the body gets used to changes of rhythm similar to those in a match.

A simple test: write down the intensity you think each part of your session had, from 1 to 5. If almost everything comes out as a 3, you always train at the same pace and you should add moments of 5 (small-sided games, duels) and moments of 1 and 2 (technique, tactical explanation).

What if my team trains three days?

Most academy teams train two or three days, not five. FIFA's models come from training centres, but the principles work just the same. A proposal for three sessions with a match on Saturday:

Those who didn't play on Saturday need a bit more load early in the week: FIFA suggests they do technical-tactical work with more physical demand while the starters recover.