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This is how you get your players to do endurance training reliably at home

Now that the old season is already over for many, preparation for the new season – or at least planning for it – is just around the corner. Every year, many trainers find themselves in the dilemma of not wanting to neglect the topic of general endurance on the one hand, and on the other hand not having enough time for other content in training, because meaningful training of general endurance is always time-consuming. With two or three training sessions a week, that’s an impossible task.

Unless … Yes, unless you get the players to do the general endurance training reliably at home – in addition to normal training. This is possible without any problems, because it does not require a degree in sports science or vast amounts of specialist knowledge. Simple endurance running (possibly with a change of pace, in advanced areas with a specified pace and route specifications) is absolutely sufficient to improve general endurance, from amateur sports to performance-oriented sports. If only it weren’t for that inner weaker self … Endurance training is not one of the most popular forms of training, especially among ball athletes, because of the monotony. Not many amateur athletes manage to pull themselves up to do it – regularly.

Good general endurance is an enormous advantage in all ball sports. Not only does the body regenerate faster after exertion and generally perform longer, the ability to concentrate also remains at a high level for longer. Put simply, a player with good general stamina will be more likely to be capable of decisive action at the end of the game.

The question as is:

How can I motivate my players to do endurance training reliably at home?

The idea presented below was tested with great success in the 2015/2016 season by the first men’s team at HSG Würm-Mitte. You need a GPS running app (Runtastic or Runkeeper) and a Whatsapp or Facebook group in which all players and the team’s trainer are members. The principle is quite simple. At the beginning of the preparation, the trainer gives a plan of which days and which distance is to be run. This is of course all the more effective if the plan is drawn up for each player individually on the basis of test results (but is not a must). The players run at home with the tracking app and post a screenshot of their run in the Whatsapp / Facebook group. There the trainer can see who is working how hard or who is adhering to the given schedule and how well.

But the really motivating aspect comes now. For each week the trainer gives a weekly distance goal for the team. This goal should be chosen in such a way that it contains the cumulative specified distances of all players, but also takes possible failures due to illness and also due to “laziness” into account (there are always two players who will not participate). Each trainer has to decide for himself the exact number of kilometers – in the end the goal should be ambitious but definitely achievable. As long as the weekly target is achieved, no pure endurance training in the form of endurance runs or slow interval runs is done in team training. This motivates the team because it gives them a lot more time to do things “with the ball” right from the start, which is always more fun than just running and gives the coach more time to work out other training content with the team – a win-win situation. The “team goal” means that the players push each other to do home training so that they can then train “with the ball”. A little tip on the side: It is particularly motivating for the players if the coach also participates.

Practical experience: For the team described above, two runs per week were planned in addition to indoor and strength training. The first weekly goal was 275 kilometers with 18 healthy players (between 6 and 9 kilometers per run per player) plus coach. Over the next five weeks, the weekly goal was always achieved and increased to 320 kilometers. At the end of this first phase, all players in the field of endurance had significantly improved in terms of their subjective perception, which was also reflected in the performance tests. The number of runs was then reduced due to training games and training camps.

The best thing about this method is – it works for everyone. From a dedicated amateur club to a semi-professional club with lactate tests and a professional endurance training plan. This motivational method simply gives good results.

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