Soccer
training program
Repeated sprints, sharp change of direction, and bullet-proof hamstrings + groins across 90 minutes.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
Train Smart’s soccer program is a complete weekly strength and conditioning plan periodised to the Australian soccer season — pre-season February – March, competition April – September. It trains repeated-sprint ability, change of direction and hamstring and groin durability, builds the week around your team nights and game day, prescribes a weight in kilos for every working set, and retests you every four weeks on Max pull-ups and Standing vertical jump, plus the conditioning benchmark your running plan is built around.
Chasing selection? The soccer pathway in Australia — what each level tests, and what separates the athletes who move up.
Why this program exists
You can run all day but you get beaten over the first five metres. Or you have the pace and your hamstring goes in the 70th minute for the third season running.
Hamstring strain is the single most common injury in football, and eccentric hamstring strength is its best-evidenced modifier — which is why the Nordic curl is in nearly every week of this program and why the testing battery measures your Nordic break point. Barbell pressing is de-emphasised: nobody wins a header with a bench press. Lower body is where the money is.
A default soccer week
This is the sport’s own template — the starting point before it is fitted to your days, your equipment and your season. Team nights and game day are protected; everything else moves to the days you are free.
What soccer is won with
These are the qualities the program is built to develop, in priority order. They come from the sport, not from a generic template.
- Repeated-sprint ability
- Change of direction
- Hamstring + groin durability
- Aerobic endurance
| Session | Type | Duration | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Strength + Plyo | Gym | 55–65 min | Single-leg power + injury armour |
| Repeat Sprints + COD | Conditioning | 35–45 min | Match-speed running |
| Upper + Core | Gym | 40–50 min | Robustness for duels + sprint posture |
| Aerobic Intervals | Conditioning | 40–50 min | Last-20-minutes engine |
The season changes the program
Winter community leagues. The app follows the Australian season, not the European one.
- Pre-season
- February – March — set volume ×1.2. Build the engine and the strength base.
- In-season
- April – September — set volume ×0.7, prescribed weights hold. Maintain, don’t drain.
- Off-season
- October – January — baseline volume. Rebuild general strength and fix the niggles.
- Block structure
- Four-week blocks: three weeks accumulating, one week deload. The block’s character changes across the year rather than repeating.
- Game day
- Protected. The day before gets a 20-minute explosive primer with no running, no heavy legs and no prehab block bolted on.
The soccer testing battery
Five numbers, re-run every four weeks. Chosen to match what soccer programs actually measure — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces.
| Test | Measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery 1 | Repeat-effort capacity with recovery, which is how a game is actually played. | level |
| Max pull-ups | Relative pulling strength — the best upper-body number there is for a field athlete. | reps |
| Med-ball chest throw | Upper-body power rather than strength — the speed end of pressing. | m |
| Standing vertical jump | Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own. | cm |
| Nordic hamstring break point | Eccentric hamstring strength — the best-evidenced hamstring injury screen there is. | ° |
What is actually in a soccer program
Every movement below appears in the sessions above, with the coaching cues the app shows you, the sets and reps it is prescribed at, and ranked alternatives if you cannot do it. The weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Appears in | Why it is there | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copenhagen Hold (long) | Lower Strength + Plyo | Adductor strength at full length — groin strain is a top-three injury in every cutting sport, and this is the position it happens in | Groin / Adductors · Abs / Core |
| Front Squat | Lower Strength + Plyo | Quad and trunk strength in the upright posture sport actually loads | Quads · Glutes |
| Hang Power Snatch | Lower Strength + Plyo | The fastest lift in the gym — trains rate of force development directly | Quads · Glutes · Hamstrings · Traps |
| Lateral Bound | Lower Strength + Plyo | Change-of-direction power | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Nordic Curl | Lower Strength + Plyo | Hamstring injury prevention — the #1 AFL injury | Hamstrings |
| Nordic Hamstring Lower | Lower Strength + Plyo | The most-evidenced hamstring exercise there is, done as a slow lower into a hold rather than a fall | Hamstrings |
| Sliding Leg Curl — eccentric hold | Lower Strength + Plyo | Hamstring eccentric with the hip extended — the sprinting position, which a Nordic on its knees never loads | Hamstrings |
| Trap Bar Jump | Lower Strength + Plyo | A loaded jump — peak power output with no barbell skill to learn first | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Cable External Rotation — end-range hold | Upper + Core | The rotator cuff loaded where it actually fails — at the end of the range, decelerating the arm after the ball has gone | Shoulders |
| DB Pullover — stretch hold | Upper + Core | Lat length and thoracic extension held at end range — overhead room for reaching, marking and throwing | Back |
| Incline DB Press | Upper + Core | Upper strength for shielding the ball | Chest · Triceps |
| Seated DB Shoulder Press | Upper + Core | Overhead strength for contests, marks and intercepts | Shoulders |
| Weighted Dead Hang | Upper + Core | Decompresses the spine and loads the shoulder at full overhead range — the cheapest overhead flexibility work there is | Back · Biceps |
| Weighted Dip | Upper + Core | Heavy pressing that loads the triceps and lower chest together | Chest · Triceps |
Staying available
The prehab block is matched to the region of the session it sits in and to the tissue this sport actually punishes — not a generic mobility flow bolted to the front.
Prehab only works if it happens, and the reason it usually does not is that it has nothing to do with the session it is attached to. Rotating a pool by session number puts shoulder work before a squat day and Copenhagen planks before a bench press. Technically covered; nobody does it.
In Train Smart each movement is classified by the region it protects and matched to the session, and the pool rotates across the week so you cover all of it rather than doing the same three moves three times.
More on prehab that people actually do →
What the free month covers, and what comes after
The first month is one complete four-week block — three building weeks and a deload. The first retest comes after that block, and it is the first time the program measures what your training did.
- Week 1
- Testing session on the soccer battery. Your starting weights and paces come from it.
- Weeks 1–3
- The first block builds. Hit your reps and the weight goes up on its own.
- Week 4
- Deload — the week the previous three become fitness.
- Week 5
- Retest. The results re-price your weights and reset your conditioning paces.
- Weeks 5–8
- Block two changes shape, priced from the top sets you just did and the numbers you just tested.
Soccer training questions
What does the Train Smart soccer program include?
When is soccer pre-season?
Can I follow this program if I only train twice a week?
What tests does the soccer program use?
Do I need a full gym?
Related
Get your soccer program
Pick soccer, answer eight questions, and your week is built — around your team nights, your game and the days you can actually train.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
- Install itFree to download on iPhone and Android.
- Tell it how you playYour sport, your season, the nights you train and the kit you have. No account needed.
- See your week, then start freeYour program is built before you pay anything. Start the free month to unlock it, and cancel any time in your store settings.