How Often Do Football Players Train?

As viewers of the beautiful game, we only see football players when they play matches, either on the TV or in-person at football grounds. What we don’t see is the hours of hard work that goes on behind the scenes during the rest of the week when players take part in training sessions.

There are a number of variables when answering ‘How Often Do Football Players Train?’ – the number of fixtures they play in a single week, how quickly a player recovers and what time of the season it is. In this Elastico article, we break down this topic in full, read on to find out the answer.

What is Football Training?

Football training is the process of practising for football matches through different types of drills. These sessions are usually run by the manager of the football club and his coaching team. There are three types of football training sessions – physical, tactical and technical.

Pre-season vs Regular Season vs Off-season

How often a football player trains depends on what period of the football season they are in. There are three different periods in the football season – pre-season, regular season and off-season. These periods require different football training demands from players.

Pre-season Football Training

Pre-season football training is renowned for being physically tough. As this period comes immediately after the off-season, players are likely to be less physically fit, following a holiday period after the season has finished.

It’s been known that players will train up to 30 hours per week during this period. There’ll most likely be an emphasis on physical training rather than tactical or technical football training during this time. The reason for this is the aim of pre-season training is to get the players back to a strong physical state before the football season begins.

It has been known for players to train up to three times a day during pre-season. It’s worth noting that the intense nature of these sessions means that there’ll be a focus on football players getting sufficient rest too.

Regular Season Football Training

Similar to pre-season football training, training during the regular season can be up to 30 hours per week for players. The difference between these two periods is that they’ll be more emphasis on tactical and technical sessions during the regular season rather than physical sessions.

This is because players are expected to be in a strong physical condition during the season. Players recovering from injury or illness are an exception to this and will have their own training schedule made for them by the club physios.

Off-season Football Training

The off-season starts as the football season concludes. This is when footballer players enjoy a well-earned break and go on holiday. The off-season duration varies each year depending on international tournaments, it can sometimes be as short as 3 weeks for some players.

During this period, it’s normal for players to do some light training of their own accord. The aim of off-season training is to make sure players don’t become too sluggish before pre-season begins. If they do, it’ll make the process of getting them back up to speed tougher.

How Many Days a Week Do Football Players Train?

If a team has one fixture in a single week, it’s common for football teams to train 5-6 days of that week. If there are two games in a week, another rest day will be needed, so they’re more likely to train 4-5 days a week.

Number of Training Sessions

So how often do football players train when it comes to the number of sessions in a week? Training days will usually consist of a session in the morning and another one after lunch, so two in total. Across the week there can be 10-12 sessions taking place.

The purpose of morning sessions is to warm up the players, activating their muscles. This will include some agility and speed work, as well as some team training. Gym work could also be part of the morning session.

Lunch helps players refuel after the morning training session, and then the afternoon session might consist of more technical or tactical work as they prepare for upcoming matches.

When Do Football Training Sessions Take Place?

On training days, there are usually two training sessions. One takes place in the morning and the other after lunch.

Do Football Training Sessions Take Place on Match Day?

No, it’s not common for training sessions to take place on the day of the match. This is because it could risk injury to the players or fatigue them before the match starts. 

Players will be taken through a specific warm up routine on match days. This starts around an hour before kick off and aims to get the players muscles engaged.

Number of Fixtures in a Week

How often do football players train? When considering this, we have to take into account how many fixtures a team has during a single week. Some teams will take part in other competitions as well as their domestic league, meaning they have extra fixtures in the calendar.

Football players may train less in these clubs as an extra day will be used for a fixture and a further one for a second rest day. We have to consider that these clubs usually have bigger playing squads, so not all players will be involved in both games across a week. This means that they may train as often as players who have one fixture in a week.

Recovery

A big factor when considering how often football players train is recovery. Recovery is equally, if not, more important than the training sessions themselves. It’s common that the day after a match is a recovery day for the players involved in the game (depending on how many minutes they play). This will factor into the training schedule for the week.

Some players will recover quicker than others, this can be down to age and genetics. For example, Pep Guardiola has said on several occasions that full-back João Cancelo recovers really quickly and is able to play numerous 90 minute matches in a row.

Real Madrid Football Training Schedule

Now that we’ve discussed the variables that affect how often football players train, we’re going to discuss how often football players train at a big club like Real Madrid? Here’s what Real Madrid’s training schedule might look like:

• As an average, they’ll train for 4-5 hours per day (not on rest days).
• Those 4-5 hours will be made up of a mix of drills – physical, technical and tactical.
• If they have two fixtures in one week, let’s say a Champions League game on the Tuesday and a La Liga game on the Saturday, Wednesday and Sunday will be rest days for playing players.
• On top of this, the players will be following a strict diet set by the nutritionists at the club.
• Physical sessions will involve cardio and sessions in the gym.