Close Season Encounters - Day 17

Today is Close Season day 17...

Throughout the month of June players in England are given a break away from the game and only international, small-side, armed forces and scout matches are permitted.

Without any football for a whole month, TheFA.com is here to help you through every day in June with our guide, Close Season Encounters, pointing you in the direction of your daily dose of the Beautiful Game...


That's why The FA has come up with two pre-season training plans, a six-week programme and a three-week programme, so it's about now when grassroots players or teams can head for their peak condition for the start of the season.

The idea was to devise a realistic training programme for the sort of amateur footballers who would like to be fit for the start of the season but are, in practice, more likely to be found in the pub than the gym on a Friday night.

The result is two alternative programmes - a six-week programme and a three-week one. Which is the right one for you will depend on factors such as your own level of commitment, what other training your club does or doesn't lay on and precisely what you hope to achieve.

That's where the three-week plan comes into play, designed for players who want a head-start when their club's own pre-season training begins. The FA's Dr Richard Hawkins, spells out the plan.

"This three-week programme, unlike the six-week version, does not get you fit for playing football," explains Dr Hawkins. "What it does, however, is give you a solid grounding for your club's pre-season training regime, and a head-start on the rest of your team-mates."

The Three-Week Programme is designed to build up fitness, muscle-strength and endurance that will both lessen the pain of pre-season, and give individual players a potentially crucial head-start over possible rivals for their place in the starting line-up.

There is also the Six-Week Programme for individual players whose clubs, like many grass-roots clubs, don't run any kind of pre-season training. It is designed for players to do on their own or in small groups of team-mates, either at home and in the local park.

It is even something that coaches who can't get their squads together for a proper pre-season regime can email or print out and post to all their players, suggesting that they use it individually to get fit for the new season one their own.

The real beauty of both the six-week and the three-week programmes is that neither of them require any expensive equipment, such as weights or bleep machines. All you need is a park with a football pitch, a decent pair of trainers and a couple of hours a week.