The use of small sided games in football (soccer) to integrate scientific training methods used by athletes -to peak- with skills is a exciting new innovation in repeated sprint sports. I thought it might be useful to add some additional explanation as most readers probably don’t have a background in the science of training and peaking. 

I am going to do the explanation using a typical 10 week running periodization program. For the purpose of the discussion I will focus only on the interval sessions because that is essentially what I want to emphasize in this post; how the interval sessions differ from one phase of the periodization cycle to the next. 

Phase 1; Base line training 

If you follow a 10 week program towards peaking you will spend at least 4 weeks doing base training; laying a foundation. The aim in these 4 weeks would be to do lots of continuous runs just below the lactate threshold. On top of that you’ll do 1 or two interval sessions per week and your interval session will look as follows: 

Table 1; Interval session for the first 4 weeks of a 10 week periodization program to improve 10 km run time. 

This would work best on a treadmill but can also be done outside. The speed selected here is what I’ve been using and is based on my fitness level. Essentially you would select a speed that the client would rate 6 on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being extremely hard and 1 being very easy. So a running speed that is just above comfortable level. If you’re a coach you will use a speed that will push the heart rate to about 60% to 75% of Heart rate max during the high intensity intervals.

So if you look at the third horizontal column (weeks 1 and 2). You will start with a 3 minute warm-up at 10 km per hour. The warm-up is essentially very comfortable running. 

After 3 minutes warm-up you will then start with set 1 during which you will do 2 minutes at 15 km per hour and then recover on 12 km per hour for the same length of time. You will repeat this for 4 sets or until you reached a predetermined overall distance. My aim was to keep rolling on with this sets until I clocked 6 km; normally about 5 sets. Essentially you are learning the muscles to work for longer at higher intensities. 

In terms of team sports and small sided games you will set up games using relatively bigger groups and larger paying areas. Groups of 6 to 11 against each other doing repeated bouts of 2 to 3 minutes skill related tasks with active recovery in between (jogging to a marker and back) and then repeat the activity. The activity could be something like having tackle bags lying on their sides on the sidelines of the square area used. A ball is placed behind the tackle bag lying on its side. Players have to run criss cross to the tackle bags bend over and pick up a ball without going to the ground. Trainers and coaches are standing behind the bags forcing the ball down on the ground providing just enough resistance to make them work. Once the player got the ball he (throws it down) runs to the next tackle bag and so forth until the 3 minutes are over then jogs to the marker for his recovery before he repeats the activity. You can do lineout jumps followed with driving against the coaches or team mates holding a light tackle bag. With kids we do the building a railway track exercise (picking up a ball jumping over a team mate going down placing the ball for the next person to pick it up and jump over go down and place it. This will keep on until the last one in the row is through after which the first person starts again jumping over very one until he get to the ball jump over the last person and place the ball).

With adults you could also set up a circuit around the rugby flied with different task at the various spots. So you blew the whistle players run to their spots and start doing the activity (example repeated lineout jumping, rucking, tackle get- up tackle and so forth) until you blew the whistle after which everyone cycle on to the next task (lineout person go to the rucking spot, rucking person go to repeated tackle spot). The aim is to do interval training with rugby skills. It takes a bit of thinking but players could be involved in coming up with ideas. 

During weeks 3 and 4 you do the same thing but notice the speed of the warm-up is a little faster now. The rest stayed the same. 

The aim during this stage of the program is to get “miles” on the legs and you’ll do the interval sessions to drive the O₂ uptake to close to maximum levels towards the end of the session/run. The adjustment during this phase of training is mostly in the legs/muscles with some heart lung (cardiovascular adjustments) because of the overall duration (6 km total distance in case of the treadmill runs I used as and example). 

Phase 2 – interval training also called anaerobic interval 

In terms of the treadmill program (preparing for a 10 km run) your interval runs will look as follows: 

You are now in weeks 5 and 6 and the aim at this stage is to improve the buffer capacity or the body’s ability to handle lactate. Your intervals pitch now at speeds/intensities that will push you above your lactate threshold levels (75% to 85% of max heart rate). Practically you will have difficulty talking after each high intensity bout, your heart rate will still be accelerating for the first 30 seconds of the recovery run and your legs will get very rubbery, burning like hell and your feet starting to flop during the later sets (sets 3, 4 and 5). The overall duration will be a little less than in weeks 1 to 4 because the duration of the interval is shorter. 

Notice in the table that the speed of the runs have increased to 16 km per hour but the duration have decreased to 90 seconds. The recovery runs is still at 12 km per hour and still 2 minutes. So you pushing harder and then give the body time to get rid of the accumulated lactate before doing it again. In week 6 you start to reduce the recovery time as well forcing the body the start getting rid of the lactate quicker. 

Phase 3 – interval progression also called aerobic intervals 

You now start to do intervals above the anaerobic lactate threshold and the aim is to spend more time training at Vo_2max. Top class athletes can keep going for 3 to 4 minutes. During this stage you work on cardiovascular (heart, lung fitness) and you use short intervals at game pace. In doing so you improve the VO_2max or cardiovascular fitness; you essentially force fitness to a higher level by using short rest intervals and short high intensity work sessions. 

During these sessions the lactate levels seems to stay low because the intervals are not long enough for the lactate to accumulate. So you don’t get the rubbery leg feelings any more but your lungs are burning and the heart rates go to 85-100% of heart rate max. 

This is how your intervals will look on the treadmill: 

In week 7 you’ll push the speed of the run up to 17 km but bring the duration down to 60 seconds. So it is 1 minutes at average game pace with 90 seconds recovery. The recovery is slightly faster that in weeks 5 and 6. In week 8 you’ll bring the duration of the recovery run down as well. The overall time of the session is now three quarters of what it was in weeks 1 to 4 (because the intervals is shorter 4×60 seconds + 3 minute warm-up = 7 minutes versus 4×2 minute + 3 minutes= 11 minutes). 

Your small sided games will now be done in smaller areas and with less people forcing everyone to keep working. There is less time to rest, everyone has to keep working. You can set 6 players (two groups of 3) against each other with the task to try and score tries of a rucking situation. Team that scores keep the ball. So the three with the ball will have the ball carrier go into contact and place the ball next person needs to drive over so that number three can pick-up. The tackler(s) try and steal the ball and counter ruck. No passing is allowed it has to be rucking and picking up for the full 1 minute. 

Body position, leg drive, upper body strength, explosiveness and rucking technique are all important but it is all done at game pace/intensity. Trainer will have plenty of balls on the sideline so if one teams scored the game just keeps rolling on until the 1 minute is up. Recovery would be 2 or 3 medium pace sprints across the playing area. 

Phase 4 –Sprint training 

In second last week before the big event you’ll start with true sprint training. The program on the treadmill (for someone preparing for a 10 km race) will look as follows: 

You are now recovering at the speed that you initially did your training intervals (15 km per hour). You can do this because the training bouts are short (40 seconds) and the overall duration of the session is less than half of the sessions in weeks 1 to 4. It is hard and intense but it is short. The speed of your training bout is a almost full out sprint (faster than average game pace). You not trying to force new levels of fitness any more but training the neuromuscular system to work with precision at extreme intensities. You are sharpening-up for the contest. The duration of the sessions is long enough to still test the cardiovascular system; you are doing enough overall work to maintain fitness. This phase can last anything from 1 week to four weeks depending on how much time you have available. 

Phase 5- tapering. 

In the last week you’ll increase the intensity even more but reduce the duration to very short sessions. You are priming the system; not training any more. You want to do this with the most important skills namely tackling, acceleration, explosive rucking, mauling and so forth. 

Here is what the treadmill program for a 10 km run will look like: 

It is full-out sprinting now or at a pace way faster than normal game pace. You are priming the system to work with precision at extreme intensities so that you will feel comfortable at game pace. 

Wave cycle to maintain 

Once you’ve reached this stage you can normally stay up there for 6 to 8 weeks. So in sports like rugby were you have a long season a wave like periodization program is used. 

Table 2: Wave like periodization program for rugby league. 

Provided in Table 2 is an example of a strength periodization program used by league rugby players in Australia. 

A 6 week cycle is followed. In week 1 they work at 75 to 77% of 1 repetition maximum. In week 2 at 80-82%, week 3 at 85-90%, week 4 at 77-85%, week 5 at 85 to 90% and week 6 at 85 to 95%. Essentially increasing the resistance and dropping the amount of lifts over 6 weeks after which they start at week 1 again. 

For those interetsed here is the gym exercises they use in rugby league with some more detail on sets and reps used during the 6 week wavelike periodization program. Note this is used during the competitive part of the season. 

Table 3: Gym exercises used by league rugby players 

The small sided games will be used in a similar fashion namely you’ll go back to what you’ve done in week 5 and then follow what you’ve done until week 10 and then start at week 5 again. 

In summary 

The problem with the boks and the thing I want to point out with this article is that skill training like passing, hand and foot drills need to be incorporated with fitness training. Why, because practicing those skills at slow pace and when you are not fatiqued with lactate pumping through your veins and not under pressure defensively means absolutely nothing in terms of the game. 

Small sided games where you create a competition situation between 2, 4 or 6 players should be used to hone skills and players should do it at high intensity. You can ensure high intensity by manipulating the size of the playing area. There is essentially three types of intervals that need to be done meaning that drills/skills need to be done in small sided games in three different ways (different in terms of length of the run/contest, length of the rest intervals, total amount of intervals done per session and how high the heart rates should go during the session). These three types of intervals produce three different physiological responses. 

Think in terms of the ruck. Every player in the team should contribute at the ruck and body position, explosiveness, leg drive and core strength are required to ruck successfully. This need to be trained at increasingly faster and faster pace and intensity until it becomes second nature; you don’t think about it anymore you just do it no matter how tired you are. 

This is what happened in last Saturday’s test at the last ruck. We had the ball two players in support and Spies. Spies were in lalala land and our two supporting players were too upright and slow. AB came in with speed, low trajectory and just blew us off the ball. Why did that happen because they practice it over and over in small sided games at increasingly faster pace with less and less rest between each rucking contest and then they sharpen-up just before the contest with real high intensity drills.