How to Become Robust as a Practitioner in Football (part 2)

As the in-season phase has started for most football fitness coaches these past few weeks, its important to think long term about longevity.

Having worked with many practitioners over the years, its clear a similar cycle repeats itself each season:

Phase 1 – start off fresh after a nice relaxing off-season on holiday with family and friends.

Phase 2 – pressure and stress build up as the season progresses.

Phase 3 – towards the final phase of the season, depending on how well the team are doing, motivation levels can vary significantly.

Phase 4 – crawl over the finish line ready for the next holiday in the off-season.

Rinse and repeat.

A while ago I wrote an article about how to become robust as a practitioner (see link), outlining some key coping strategies and methods to help during the season.

In this week’s newsletter, I’d like to share some further tips and structures that might just help make you become more robust and enhance longevity in the game.

Let’s dive in.

Don’t be a Martyr

In the football world, there seems to be a badge of honour approach when it comes to long working hours.

We pride ourselves on outworking everyone else (including the coaches) to ensure maximal performance.

But what if we keep doing this, season after season, and by the time we hit 30 the engine light comes on?

Asking for help can be seen as a weakness, but necessary for most.

If you have the luxury of working in a large department with numerous staff per position, then this makes life easier.

There are fitness coaches’ out there who are essentially one-man bands.

But even for these people, can we find some help?

What about developing a link with a local university to get interns?

Or doing online internship with remote workers to do some number crunching that you would rather not do and spend time on other areas?

Find creative ways to reduce workload and seek help.

Rotation is the Best Policy

Carlo Ancelotti recently spoke in the media about introducing holidays for players during the season to cope with increasing fixture demands.

Whilst this is obviously easier to implement when you have a quality squad like Real Madrid, the notion seems a logical one.

So why not also do this with football fitness coaches?

Depending on what level of the game you are working at, there are different opportunities to take a break during the in-season.

International breaks are a good one for 1^st team staff.

Academies generally get the Christmas period off too.

But some practitioners opt to work for international teams alongside their club duties, plus do individual player work in the off-season and also rehab players outside of normal training.

This can create a significant workload which, if not appropriately managed, can lead to burnout.

Therefore, staff must be rotated in a similar way that the playing squad would be during periods of fixture congestion.

Become More Efficient

Whilst there is no denying that working in football involves long, unsociable hours, I see many practitioners wasting time.

We all have the same number of hours in a day.

It’s how we use those hours that often separately the great from the average.

There are a number of techniques that you can use to improve work efficiency.

Some of my favourites include: The Pomodoro Technique, The Eisenhower Matrix and keeping your to-do-list short and impactful each day.

We also need to utilise technology and AI-assistance to further enhance productivity.

If you don’t currently use ChatGPT or a similar programme, you are missing out. Learn how to use it effectively through prompts and you will save yourself a lot of time down the road.

Take Home Messages

Each season follows a similar cycle of starting out fresh, gradually declining in motivation then crawling over the finish line.

Buck the trend by becoming more robust as a practitioner.

Below are some key take home points around how to become robust as a practitioner in football:

- Don’t see long hours as a badge of honour. Seek help from others when workload is high.

- Rotate performance staff duties during the season in a similar way you would rotate players during fixture congestion periods.

-Improve your work efficiency and utilise AI-powered technology to make your life easier.

If you would like to learn more about how to become more robust as a practitioner in football, check out my football fitness mentorship community here.

That’s all for this week. See you next time!