A Simple Soccer Training-Load Log: Record the Week You Actually Have

Put football on the calendar first

Training load can be described in many ways: duration, external tracking data, session rating of perceived exertion, or simple notes. Teams with technology may use several measures. An individual player can still gain useful context from a small written record, provided it is treated as a planning aid rather than a diagnosis.

What the gym can and cannot do

Write the date, session type, minutes, one-to-ten effort rating, and a short note such as “lots of small-sided games” or “long travel.” Add gym sets separately. Over two or three weeks, the log can show where hard sessions bunch together and whether a new lifting block is being added on top of already demanding football.

Use a planning tool, not a slogan

A worked example: Tuesday practice, 75 minutes, effort 7; Wednesday gym, 45 minutes, effort 6; Thursday practice, 60 minutes, effort 8. The useful observation is not the sum as a magic score. It is that Thursday follows two notable exposures. A player and coach can then discuss whether Friday needs a different emphasis.

An illustrative choice

A 2026 systematic review of soccer workload distribution found that session patterns vary and direct evidence for their performance effects is limited. Logging should therefore prompt questions, not manufacture certainty. It cannot diagnose readiness, prescribe recovery, or decide whether someone should play.

Keep categories separate before adding totals

Use one line per exposure: date, session label, minutes, session effort from one to ten, and a concrete note. A match, a small-sided practice, a speed session, and a gym workout should retain distinct labels. A total can be useful for noticing dense weeks, but a total cannot tell you whether twenty minutes of sprint practice was interchangeable with twenty minutes of easy technical passing.

Illustrative example: Monday: “gym, 40 min, effort 6, squat and hinge.” Tuesday: “team training, 75 min, effort 8, repeated small-sided games.” Wednesday: “individual passing, 30 min, effort 3.” Thursday: “team training, 60 min, effort 7, tactical.” The log makes two harder field exposures visible before adding another demanding gym block. It does not calculate readiness or decide selection.

Ribeiro et al. describe variable soccer combined-training arrangements and limited direct evidence for one preferred distribution. Ribeiro et al. Keep the log short enough to maintain: two lines after each session can support better scheduling conversations.

Avoid changing the effort scale midseason. If seven means “hard but repeatable” in week one, preserve that meaning in week four. The number is a personal shorthand, not a laboratory result. Notes add the context the number lacks: wet turf, a tournament match, travel, unusually long drills, or a shortened gym session. Review the log once weekly, not obsessively after every rating. Its purpose is to make scheduling patterns visible.