Athletic Development Training Program

Strength, speed and conditioning in one 12-day rotation.

A strength session makes sense. So does conditioning. But where does the speed work go, and what happens when the next hard session is already on the calendar? This program answers that with a fixed rotation you can work from.

Here’s the full cycle:

Day 1: Lower Body Strength
Day 2: Full Body Pull
Day 3: Long Aerobic Intervals
Day 4: OFF
Day 5: Full Body Push
Day 6: Speed Development
Day 7: OFF
Day 8: Tempo Intervals + Lower Body Strength
Day 9: Full Body Pull
Day 10: Muscular Endurance
Days 11 and 12: OFF
Day 13: repeat the cycle

That’s three strength sessions (Lower Body, Full Body Pull, Full Body Push), three conditioning sessions and one Speed Development session. Lower Body and Pull each appear twice in the cycle. Day 8 is the only double day, so look at the schedule as a whole before you take any session out of it.

The conditioning work

All three conditioning sessions are done on a football pitch. The lines and landmarks of the pitch define the routes.

Long Aerobic Intervals (Improving Capacity). Start at a corner flag and run the perimeter of the pitch as fast as you can for 120 seconds. Then recover to the nearest corner flag for 60 seconds. 4 reps, 4 sets, 180 seconds between sets. That’s 16 two-minute efforts, or 32 minutes of work.

Tempo Intervals (Building Speed Endurance). In 25 seconds, run from the end-line to the opposite end-line, turn, and run back to the halfway line. Then jog slowly back to the starting end-line in 35 seconds. 6 reps, 4 sets, 120 seconds between sets.

Short Intervals (Muscular Endurance). 30 seconds of shuttles: end-line to the edge of the 6-yard box and back, then to the edge of the 18-yard box and back. Keep repeating as many runs as you can until time’s up. 60 seconds rest, 8 reps, 4 sets, 120 seconds between sets.

Every session gives you the route, work and rest times, reps and sets. You can take it straight onto the pitch and know exactly what’s prescribed.

The strength work

The strength sessions are laid out in exercise blocks. You finish all sets in one block before moving to the next.

Each session opens with one main lift for 3 sets of 5 with 90 seconds rest. That’s the Hex Bar Deadlift on the lower body and push days and the RDL on the pull day. After that, most of the work sits at 8 reps with 60 seconds rest.

The part I’d point out is the work around the main lifts. Copenhagen holds, hip abduction and adduction, Nordic hamstrings, Pallof presses, med ball twists. It’s the kind of work that’s easy to skip when a session runs long. Here it’s in the plan, with sets and reps.

The speed session

Block A: pogo hops, box jumps and broad jumps, 2 x 5
Block B: sled pull or push (4 x 15 m) and sprints (4 x 20 m), 90 seconds rest
Block C: hex bar jump squats and Nordic hamstrings, 3 x 5
Block D: DB lunges and hip thrusts, 3 x 8

It starts with jumps, moves to sled work and sprinting, and finishes with strength exercises.

What’s fixed and what’s yours

The program sets the structure: the schedule, the intervals, the sets, reps and rest. What it leaves to you is the load and, when needed, the exercise itself.

It gives two clear rules for the weight room. Keep technique ahead of load: if the weight is too heavy to use correct technique, drop it. And if pain or injury makes an exercise unsuitable, don’t push through it. Swap it for an alternative that hits the same goal. For progression, look to increase the weight the week after your first session, or add reps.

I’d treat the whole schedule as a starting point, especially if the player is also training or playing with a team. The program tells you what to do in each session. It can’t tell you whether that amount of work fits a particular player’s week. That decision still belongs to you.

What’s inside

The 12-day training schedule
Three conditioning sessions with work and rest intervals, reps, sets and pitch instructions
Three strength sessions and one speed development session, with sets, reps and rest for every exercise
YouTube tutorial links for most exercises
An abbreviation key