Blog Courses Store Jobs Forum Apps Login Become a Member

Always Stay Critical – Review 11 ▻

Posted by Aleksa Bošković on 04/06/2023 in Membership Content 💬 1 Comment

Using the GPS System In Soccer

Planning, Periodization, Load Distribution

Nowadays, GPS systems are widely used worldwide as one more tool to help the coaching staff organize, plan and distribute the load better. As that,
there are different products available on the market. Many clubs have it, but do they use it properly, and does the proper way of using the GPS system
exist? That’s maybe the better question, and I will try to answer on this in the article.

Without giving too many scientific references, I will try to answer it more from the coaching perspective and the real problems that we are facing with it
on the pitch and in the office.

First, serious analysis of the GPS data can’t be done by the fitness or strength and conditioning coaches. This must be done by a sports scientist who
understands at least the basics of sports science, statistics, different machine learning techniques, visualization programs, etc. That’s not a case in a lot
of clubs. Most S&C coaches can give information like: oh, we run good, 11km, 800m HSR, these are high-level values etc. Is that the purpose of the
GPS use in the club? I am sure those things can be read by the guy from the street who loves to watch soccer. We just need to teach him to load the
data into the system.

Some of the following questions I will try to answer in this article:

1. How should we distribute the load during the week with 1 game?

2. Distributing the load withing the microcycle with 2 games?

3. What variable to look?

4. Deload / Maintain / Overload week – how to target and what?

5. What to look on individual level?

6. Absolute and Relative zones?

7. What calculations to use?

In sports science literature, we cannot find many research papers that suggest how to distribute the load properly during the week. A few papers you
can look at will be listed at the end of this article.

Problems of these papers are next:

1. Suggestions can’t be used as some “extraordinary” information and guide for your players and your club. If you read the paper and immediately try
to implement that to your team, then you are in big problems.

2. Most of the papers are not from elite clubs, unfortunately, most are from semi-professional clubs.

3. Very often, authors lack information about the head coach periodization model, style of play (is the head coach playing low zone mostly (defensive
organization), or is he focusing more on attacking pressing most of the time. Playing in 3-5-2 and, for example, 4-2-3-1 formation is a big difference
for most players when we look from the physical perspective.

Here I will give you an example of the way how I worked, and please, do not take this as a model that you must use, take it as information with
potentially new ideas on how you can manipulate your load.

Load distributions during the week

Let go first with a problem:

If the Head Coach is “lost in the universe” and doesn’t know how to distribute the load during the week, then our primary job is not ACWR, EWMA,
Machine Learning, etc., than to teach him how to distribute the load properly. Otherwise, it will “break” our spine working all the time with injured players.
In the end, working is not the problem, the problem is when poor results take you to the end of the contract. Why is it all that simple and complex at the
same time?

First, doesn’t mean that if you distribute the load properly, you will win the weekend game. Second, doesn’t mean that you will lose the game if you do
not distribute the load properly in one week. The result in soccer is affected by, I would say, many more things that distribute the load properly, but poor
load distribution cannot lead to good results in the long term.
Periodization models

Saturday / Saturday game

Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Perform Day Off Recovery/Intro Load Load Taper Taper Perform

Table 1 – Periodization during the microcycle with one game

Model 1: Day Off after the game

I personally love to use this model mostly because of a few reasons:

If we play the home game at 9 pm, the game will end around 11 pm, until the players finish the shower, eating, recovery protocols, etc., it will come to
12 am. It’s already midnight, they are exhausted from the game, and the first recovery tool in my box is sleep.

Most of the players can’t sleep the night after the game (it doesn’t matter if it’s good or poor performance, they just can’t sleep – try to speak with your
players and to get this information about the sleep after the match. That also can give you more insights on periodizing your training load. Away games
are even later, and if we play at 9 pm, we will come home, in a lot of cases, around 3-4 am.

Training load distribution:

If we give a day off after the game and players sleep a minimum 8h, and we give the training on Monday afternoon, they will have more than 36h of
recovery. Enough time to recover and sleep well and enough time to start with low-load activity on Monday.

Monday Load can be distributed in a next way:

Except of individual recovery protocols, different programs, etc., the load on the pitch should be carefully selected.

In Table 2. you will have an example of my work experience for an MD+2 on the field for a different position presented as a % of volume compared to
the maximum game value:

Position: Defenders Midfielders Wingers Strikers

Training Recovery Training Recovery Training Recovery Training Recovery

TD 50-55% 25-30% 50-60% 25-30% 50-55% ~30% ~50% 30-35%

HSR 20-25% 0-5% 20-25% 0-10% 25-30% 5-15% 20-25% 0-10%

Sprint 0-5% 0% 0-5% 0% 0-5% 0% 0-5% 0%

Acc 45-50% 5-10% 45-50% 10-15% 40-45% 10-15% 35-40% 10-15%

Dec 15-20% 0-5% 15-20% 0-5% 10-15% 0-5% 10-15% 0-5%

Table 2: Load Distribution on MD+2 by positions

Two possible training types we have in the table Table 2:

Option 1

When we have normal training (targeting mostly aerobic capacity). As can be seen above, there is no Sprint and Decelerations on MD+2 because of
prolonged fatigue and possible injury risk during the sprinting. Of course, some players have some work done in Decelerations >3m/s/s and Sprint, but
that’s usually not a target on that day.

Usually, when I give suggestions to the Head Coach on MD+2 when he requires to work on the pitch, that day is wider space with full control during the
training.

Option 2

Second option is complete recovery training, where usually we have only recovery training with some corrections from the game. If we take two or more
laps only jogging on that day, we are coming to approximately 1000m in TD or, let’s say, around 7-10%. % in HSR can be taken as an example where
the Head Coach is showing the wrong decision of the player and requires him to do it properly, but again, it’s not meaningful distance, and on that day,
we are focusing mostly on recovery.

It’s important to note that these are absolute values for the players who played >60 mins.

Distribution of the load during the whole week, targets (if perfect):

Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

MD MD+1 MD+2 MD+3 MD-3 MD-2 MD-1 MD

TD +++++ ++(+) ++ ++++ +++(+) +(+) +++++

HSR +++++ + +(+) +++(+) ++(+) + +++++

 Sprint +++++ / +(+) ++(+) ++++ + +++++

Acc +++++ +(+) ++++ +++ ++(+) +(+) +++++

Dec +++++ (+) ++++ +++ ++(+) + +++++

Table 3: Load Distribution on MD+2 by positions

But will every microcycle be like this? The answer is simple but complex – no.

Let’s split the microcycle Load in 3 ways.

Weekly Targeted Load:

Deload Week – Our players get fatigued and tired after a certain period, and we need to rest them, but at the same time, we need to train)
Maintaining Week – We will go later about the load and parameters, but let’s say this in the load from Table 4.
Overload Week – Getting the load in all (or certain) variables more than usual.

Percentage based In-Season Weekly Load from the maximal Game Values (Game is not included)

Total Distance HSR Distance Sprint Distance Accelerations Decelerations

Deload Week 120-150% 60-100% 60-100% 200% 200%

Maintaining Week 200-250% 100-150% 100-150% 300% 300%

Overload Week 250-300% 200% 200% 350-400% 300-400%

Table 4: Weekly Load Distribution based on Maximal Game Values exposed in %

Let’s take the Athlete who have 11000m, 800m HSR Distance, 400m Sprint Distance, 120 Accelerations, and 110 Decelerations

Translated to the metric

Total Distance HSR Distance Sprint Distance Accelerations Decelerations

Deload Week 13.200 – 16.500m 480-800m 320-400m 240 220

Maintaining Week 22.000-27.500m 800-1200m 400-600m 360 330

Overload Week 27.500m-33.000m 1600m 800m 420-480 385-440

Table 5: Weekly Load Distribution based on Maximal Game Values exposed in meters

Deload and Maintaining Week can be modified based on the team’s needs, but the question is for the Overload Week. Can we load all the variables? In
Table 4, I put for all the variables additional load, but in case we are following all these variables at the end of the week, we can potentially open a
hospital.

Besides loading all the variables, I would focus more on specific variables like HSR, Sprint, or Mechanical Load (Acc+Dec) if we need to put Overload
Week. The example can be next:

Members Only! Join Us Today and Continue Reading This Article »

Start Your Membership Today

Join Us Today
And Claim 3 Bonuses
 Standard Membership
$35 per month

OR

Go Annual and Get All Bonuses for FREE!

Join Us Today
And Instantly Save $2140

Premium Membership
$350 per year

About Aleksa Bošković

Aleksa Bošković is a strength and conditioning coach from Serbia. During his career, he worked in professional
soccer clubs from Serbia, China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Bulgaria and Uzbekistan. He holds a Bachelor’s
Degree in Sports science from the University of Novi Sad. He is a certified ASCA Level 2 coach and EXOS
Performance Specialist.

Tags: Guest Article, Soccer

Share this article:     ✉

Related Articles
Investigation Of The Effect Of Tapering Physiology Markerless Motion Capture And Thoughts Can Be Fragile, Not
Hemoglobin Values Of Elite Its Application In A Sport-Specific Your Neck
Football Players On Endurance Setting

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices, and was last updated by Minekazu Isobe 4 days, 16 hours ago.

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

◅ Back to forum Posted in: Blog Posts and Articles

Minekazu Isobe
08/06/2023 AT 09:26 #38539

Hi Mr. Bošković,

What a kind of software do you use for managing GPS Data?

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Don't miss this great opportunity. Join Our Community Now! Become
Become a Member
Member

About | Privacy Policy | Contact us

©2023 Complementary Training. All Rights Reserved.