Library: CON — Conditioning (Part 2)
CON — Conditioning (Part 2 of 2)
CON-21 — In-Season Sharpener
Step-by-step instructions 1. Warm up as prescribed in the daily email. Never run fast movement cold, especially mid-season on tired legs. 2. Choose one of the three formats below based on what your week looks like. 3. Format A — Sharp Shuttles (default): 4 to 6 reps of a 10-yard out-and-back sprint at 90 percent, 45 seconds rest between each. Total work under 60 seconds. 4. Format B — Pipe Snaps: 5 rounds of 10 seconds of maximum-speed pipe-to-pipe shuffling in stance, 50 seconds rest. Short enough that speed never drops. 5. Format C — Build-Ups: 5 runs of 40 yards, accelerating smoothly from a jog to about 90 percent over the first 20 yards and holding for the last 20. Walk back between each. This is the best option the day after a hard game. 6. Stop the session while it still feels good. If you finish thinking "I could do four more," you did it correctly. 7. Cool down: 2 minutes of easy walking plus any mobility the email prescribes.
Coaching cues - "Sharp, not tired. You are polishing, not building." - "Full rest. The rest is what keeps it fast." - "If your times are dropping, stop. You have taken what the session had to give." - "Nothing hard in the 48 hours before a game. Movement, yes. Conditioning, no."
Common mistakes - Adding reps because it felt easy. Feeling easy is the design specification, not a sign the dose was too low. - Running it the day before a game. - Substituting a heavy off-season conditioning entry because the athlete feels out of shape mid-season. Mid-season fatigue is almost always a recovery problem, not a fitness problem — sleep and fuel fix it faster than running does. - Cutting rest to make it feel like a real workout. - Doing it on a day the team already ran conditioning at practice. If practice covered it, skip this entirely.
Progressions and regressions - Regression: 3 reps instead of 6. On a heavy game week, one build-up run is a complete and appropriate session. - Regression: Skip it. During a three-game week, skipping this is the correct coaching decision. - Progression: There is deliberately very little progression here. In-season, the ceiling on this entry is 6 reps or 6 rounds, full stop. If you want more conditioning, wait for June and the summer block. - Variation: Rotate formats week to week so the stimulus stays fresh — A on Tuesday, C after a Saturday game.
How to measure it Time the first and last rep. If the last rep is within about 5 percent of the first, the dose was right; if it dropped more than that, you did too much for an in-season day. Over a season, track how many sessions you completed at full sharpness rather than how much total work you did. The season-long measure that matters is not a conditioning number at all — it is whether you are still fast and communicating in the fourth quarter of games in May.
CON-22 — Summer Base Build
Step-by-step instructions 1. Choose a mode. Running is the default, but cycling, swimming, or rowing build the same engine with less impact and are equally correct choices — especially for a goalie carrying any lower-leg soreness. 2. Start with 3 minutes of easy walking or very light movement. 3. Move continuously at an easy, conversational effort for the prescribed duration. The most common error is going too fast. If you finish thinking "that was too easy," you did it right. 4. Hold your posture: tall, relaxed shoulders, loose hands, easy breathing through the nose where possible. 5. Finish with 2 to 3 minutes of easy walking and a stretch set. 6. Weekly durations by grade, summer block: 7th–8th grade, 12 to 20 minutes, once or twice a week. 9th–10th, 18 to 25 minutes, twice a week. 11th–12th, 20 to 30 minutes, twice a week. 7. Build the duration, not the speed. Add 2 to 3 minutes per week, and take every fourth week easier by cutting back to the starting duration. 8. Pair this with the repeat-sprint and shuttle entries on other days. Base work alone does not make a goalie fast; it makes the fast work sustainable.
Coaching cues - "Conversation pace. If you cannot talk, slow down." - "Nose breathing where you can. It is the simplest pace check there is." - "Tall and relaxed. This is a posture session as much as a lung session." - "Boring is the point. Base work is supposed to feel unremarkable."
Common mistakes - Running it too fast, which turns easy aerobic work into moderate junk work — too hard to recover from, too easy to build speed. This is the single most common mistake in the entire file. - Jumping from zero to 30 minutes. Build gradually or the shins and knees complain. - Doing it exclusively and skipping the sprint work. The goalie position is a repeat-sprint position; base work supports that, it does not replace it. - Running in midday summer heat. Go early morning or evening. - Running distance in-season. This entry lives in July, August, and to a lesser degree the winter block. It does not belong in March. - Treating a slow pace as a lack of effort. Discipline at an easy pace is its own skill.
Progressions and regressions - Regression: Walk-run intervals — 2 minutes easy jog, 1 minute walk, repeated. This is the correct starting point for any athlete new to continuous work. - Regression: Cycle or swim instead of run, which removes impact entirely. - Regression: Cut the duration in half and build back. - Progression: Add 2 to 3 minutes per week up to the grade cap. - Progression: Add short pickups — 4 to 6 strides of 15 seconds at a fast but relaxed pace, sprinkled through the last third, with full easy running between them. - Progression: Convert one weekly session into a fartlek (CON-23) for variety once the base duration is established.
How to measure it Total continuous minutes at conversational effort, tracked weekly. If you have a heart rate monitor, resting heart rate measured in bed on waking is a strong long-term marker — it typically drifts down over a summer block, and a sudden jump of 8 to 10 beats means you need a rest day. If you do not have a monitor, use the simplest measure there is: how long it takes to stop breathing hard after a hard shuttle set. That recovery time shrinking is the base build working.
CON-23 — Fartlek Play Run
Step-by-step instructions 1. Warm up with 3 minutes of easy jogging. 2. Pick your landmarks before you start, or decide to pick them as you go. Trees, lampposts, cones, fence posts, the far goal — anything visible. 3. Run at an easy conversational pace as your baseline. 4. When you reach a chosen landmark, pick up the pace to a hard effort until the next landmark. That burst is typically 10 to 30 seconds. 5. Immediately drop back to easy running. Stay easy until your breathing settles — usually 60 to 90 seconds — then choose the next landmark. 6. Continue for the prescribed duration. Aim for 6 to 12 bursts in a 15-minute run. 7. Finish with 3 minutes of easy jogging and walking. 8. Grade guidance: 6th grade, 10 to 12 minutes with 5 or 6 short bursts, and make it a game — race a partner to each landmark. 7th–8th, 12 to 18 minutes. 9th–12th, 18 to 25 minutes with longer bursts. 9. The goalie version: make every third burst a backpedal or a lateral shuffle instead of a forward sprint. It keeps the movement patterns honest and it breaks up the run.
Coaching cues - "Easy means easy. The bursts only work if the running between them is genuinely relaxed." - "Pick the landmark before you start the burst, not during it." - "Breathing settles before the next burst. Let it." - "Play with it. If you are bored, choose a wilder landmark."
Common mistakes - The easy portions never being easy, which turns the whole run into one long moderate grind and defeats the purpose. - Bursts that are too long. Ten to thirty seconds is the window; a two-minute burst is a tempo run, not a fartlek. - Too many bursts crammed together. Fewer, better bursts beat many tired ones. - Running it on uneven or unlit routes at dusk. Vision and footing matter when the pace changes. - Turning it into a race for the entire run when training with a partner.
Progressions and regressions - Regression: Shorter total duration with only 3 or 4 bursts. - Regression: Walk the easy portions instead of jogging. - Regression: For 6th grade, run it entirely as a game with a partner and no clock at all. - Progression: Longer total duration. - Progression: Longer bursts, up to 45 seconds, for grades 10+. - Progression: Add the goalie movement version with backpedals and shuffles. - Progression: Structured fartlek — 1 minute hard, 2 minutes easy, repeated 6 to 8 times, which is a genuine 9th–12th grade workout.
How to measure it Total duration and number of bursts completed. This entry is intentionally hard to quantify precisely, and that is a feature — it is the entry you run when you need training to feel like play rather than like a test. If you want a number, count bursts and note whether the last burst felt as strong as the first. That answer is the fitness report.
CON-24 — Tabata Intervals
Step-by-step instructions 1. Warm up thoroughly — a minimum of 6 to 8 minutes including build-up efforts. This format punishes a cold body. 2. Choose one movement and keep it for the whole block. Best options for goalies: stationary bike sprints, jump rope, shuttle runs over 10 yards, or pipe-to-pipe shuffles in stance. 3. Set the timer: 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, 8 rounds. Total 4 minutes. 4. Round 1: go all out for 20 seconds. It will feel too easy. It is supposed to. 5. Rest 10 seconds, standing, breathing. Do not sit. 6. Repeat for all 8 rounds, maintaining output as best you can. Rounds 5 through 8 are the workout; rounds 1 through 4 are the entry fee. 7. After the block, walk for 4 to 5 minutes. Do not sit down immediately. 8. If prescribed a second block, complete the full walk first, then repeat with the same or a different movement. 9. Cool down: 3 minutes of easy walking plus a stretch set.
Coaching cues - "Do not sandbag round 1 and do not blow up on it either. Hard and repeatable." - "Stand and breathe in the 10 seconds. Sitting makes round 6 worse, not better." - "Count your output every round. The count is the workout." - "One block. If you can do three blocks, you were not going hard enough on the first."
Common mistakes - Running it more than twice a week. This format is far more taxing than four minutes sounds, and stacking it wrecks the rest of the training week. - Pacing rounds 1 through 4 to survive rounds 5 through 8, which produces a much smaller stimulus than the format is capable of. - Using it with athletes below 9th grade. - Choosing a technical movement that degrades dangerously under fatigue. Bike and rope are the safest choices; heavy or complex lifting movements do not belong here. - Doing it within 48 hours of a game or a heavy leg day. - Sitting or lying down between rounds or immediately after.
Progressions and regressions - Regression: 15 seconds work, 15 seconds rest, 6 rounds. This is a completely reasonable introduction and where most athletes should start. - Regression: Choose the bike, which removes impact and lets the athlete push hard with less injury exposure. - Regression: One block, always, for the first month. - Progression: Full 20:10 x 8. - Progression: Two blocks with a full 5-minute walk between them, different movement each block. - Progression: Add a skill task immediately after the final round — 10 wall ball reps or 5 save attempts — to train composure at maximum fatigue. Grades 11–12.
How to measure it Count output every round — revolutions, jumps, shuttle touches, crossings — and record the lowest round. The standard measure for this format is the lowest single round, not the total or the average, because it reflects what you can hold when it hurts. Track the lowest round across a winter block. A rising floor is genuine anaerobic capacity improving. Also record total across all 8 rounds as a secondary number.
CON-25 — Repeat Sprint Ability Test
Step-by-step instructions 1. Set two cones exactly 30 yards apart. Mark the start line clearly. 2. Warm up completely: 8 to 10 minutes including easy jogging, dynamic mobility (MOB entries), and at least three build-up sprints at 70, 85, and 95 percent. Then rest 3 minutes. 3. Rep 1: from a standing two-point start, sprint 30 yards all out. Your timer starts the watch on your first movement and stops it when your torso crosses the far cone. 4. Record the time. Immediately start the 30-second rest clock. 5. Walk back toward the start during the rest. Be standing at the line and ready with 5 seconds to spare. 6. Reps 2 through 6: repeat, exactly 30 seconds apart, all out every time. Six reps total. 7. Record all six times. 8. Cool down: 5 minutes of easy walking, then a stretch set. Do not sit down immediately. 9. Grade scaling: 8th grade runs 4 reps at 25 yards with 35 seconds rest. 9th–10th run 6 reps at 30 yards with 30 seconds rest. 11th–12th run 6 reps at 30 yards with 25 seconds rest.
Coaching cues - "All out on rep 1. Do not save anything — the test is broken if you pace it." - "Be on the line early. Late starts wreck the rest interval and the data." - "Same shoes, same surface, same time of day, every test. Otherwise you are comparing two different tests." - "Walk during the rest. Do not bend over, do not sit."
Common mistakes - Pacing rep 1 to protect the later reps. This is the mistake that ruins the test — the whole measurement depends on an honest maximum first rep. - Sloppy rest timing. Thirty seconds means thirty seconds; a drifting rest interval makes the numbers meaningless. - Testing on tired legs, in high heat, or on a different surface than last time. - Testing too often. Four times a year. Running the test weekly makes you tired and teaches you nothing. - Timing by hand and expecting precision to the hundredth. Round to the tenth of a second and compare trends, not decimals. - Treating a bad test as a character verdict. It is a data point that tells you what to train.
Progressions and regressions - Regression: 4 reps at 25 yards with 35 seconds rest, which is the correct first exposure at any age. - Regression: Run 3 reps as a practice run-through a week before the real test so the protocol is familiar. - Progression: 8 reps for 11th–12th grade in an off-season block. - Progression: Shorten rest to 25 or 20 seconds — but change only one variable at a time, or the comparison to previous tests is lost. - Progression: Add a goalie-specific version: each rep starts from a full stance with a save attempt, then the sprint. Track separately; it is not comparable to the standard version.
How to measure it Three numbers, recorded every test: 1. Best rep — your fastest single time. This is your speed. 2. Average of all reps — this is your repeat-sprint capacity. 3. Fatigue index — the percentage drop from your best rep to your slowest rep. Calculate it as: (slowest minus fastest) divided by fastest, times 100.
The fatigue index is the number that matters most for a goalie. Under 5 percent is excellent, 5 to 8 percent is good, 8 to 12 percent means conditioning is the limiting factor in your fourth quarter, and above 12 percent means the summer block needs real work. A goalie whose best rep gets faster while the fatigue index stays flat has gotten faster but not fitter. Log all three numbers with the date, surface, and weather in the same place every time, and look at the year-over-year trend rather than any single test.