An AI soccer coach in ChatRPE handles the work around the pitch: the gym sessions, the running, and the record of what you did. You tell it your position, your match day and your team training days, and it builds strength and conditioning that fits the week without leaving your legs heavy on Saturday. It then logs your sprints, fitness tests, minutes played and soreness by voice or text, so the plan can change when your week does.
Plan the week backwards from match day
Players and coaches often label days by their distance from the match: MD-1 is the day before, MD+1 the day after. Most weekly plans for players with one match a week settle into a similar shape.
| Day | Typical job |
|---|---|
| MD+1 | Recovery: easy movement, mobility, a walk or bike |
| MD+2 | Off, or light |
| MD-4 or MD-3 | Strength in the gym, plus any hard running |
| MD-2 | Shorter, sharper work: sprints or speed, low volume |
| MD-1 | Light: activation, short sprints, set pieces |
The heavy lifting goes early in the week so it has three or four days to clear before kickoff. Tell the coach your match day and team training days, and it fits the gym and running sessions into the gaps. When a midweek cup game turns the week into two matches, say so and ask what to drop; the usual answer is to cut the gym session to a short maintenance version and keep sprints.
"Save as a goal: central midfielder, Saturday matches, team training Tuesday and Thursday, preseason starts August 1st. I want to be fitter and quicker over the first ten yards."
Once saved, your schedule is the starting point for every later plan and check-in.
Preseason: build the engine and the legs
Preseason is the window for building what the season will only maintain. In practice that means two or three strength sessions a week, regular running that mixes longer intervals with repeated sprints, and a gradual rise in total load so the first weeks back do not leave you hurt.
Running for soccer is intermittent. You jog, stride, sprint, stop and turn for 90 minutes. Long steady runs build a base, but most conditioning should look more like the game: 15 to 30 second efforts with short recoveries, shuttles with turns, and small-sided games once team training starts.
ChatRPE can run a conditioning block as a live session, calling each interval with a countdown so you do not have to watch a stopwatch:
"Start a live session: 10 minutes warm-up, then 3 sets of 8 x 20 seconds hard, 40 seconds jog, with 3 minutes easy between sets."
The session saves to your log when you finish. For strength, a plan built around squats or split squats, a hip hinge, single-leg work, calf raises and some upper-body pulling covers most of what a player needs. The strength guide covers progressing the lifts.
Two cheap habits with good evidence: the Nordic curl and a proper warm-up
The Nordic hamstring curl is a kneeling exercise where a partner or a fixed bar holds your ankles while you lower your body forward as slowly as you can. A 2019 meta-analysis of over 8,000 athletes found programs that included it roughly halved hamstring injury rates. A later reanalysis judged the effect less certain, but it remains one of the better-supported options for a common soccer injury.
The FIFA 11+ is a 20-minute warm-up of running, strength, jumping and balance exercises. A meta-analysis of randomized trials in recreational and sub-elite players found teams that used it had about 39% fewer injuries. It works when it is done consistently, not occasionally.
Both are easy to forget. A recurring reminder with a condition helps: ChatRPE checks your logs before it sends, and "this week" means since Monday.
"Every Wednesday at 6pm, remind me to do Nordic curls, but only if I haven't logged any this week."
Logging Nordics as sets and reps, with a note on how far you could control the descent, gives you something to chart across the season.
Track the numbers that tell you whether it is working
Fitness for soccer shows up in a few measurable places, and each can be logged as its own entry with whatever fields it has.
- Sprint times: a 10 m or 30 m time, timed by a teammate or with a phone app, saved with the surface and conditions so comparisons are fair.
- The Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test: the level and shuttle you reached. It is a widely used soccer fitness test, and testing it at the start of preseason, the end of preseason and midseason shows what the work did.
- Minutes played, logged after each match, it tells the coach how much load the weekend added.
- Soreness and sleep: a 1 to 10 soreness rating the morning after a match, and hours slept.
Anything logged consistently becomes chartable. Ask for your 30 m sprint times since June with a trend line, or minutes played on one axis and next-day soreness on another. A chart shows the two moving together; it does not prove one caused the other. The custom data tracking guide covers inventing a metric and naming its fields consistently.
"Yo-Yo IR1 today, reached level 17.4. Save it, and chart it against my previous tests with my weekly gym sessions."
During the season: hold, don't build
In-season, the target is to keep what preseason built while the matches do most of the conditioning. One or two short strength sessions a week, kept early in the week, usually holds strength for months. A short sprint session a week keeps you running at full speed, which a match does not always ask for.
The practical risk is missing weeks. A training frequency heatmap shows logged sessions as a calendar grid, so a run of empty Wednesdays stands out at a glance. If you play two matches a week, tell the coach, and it will cut volume rather than stack sessions.
Sudden pain in the back of the thigh during a sprint, a knee that gives way, or any head knock means stopping and seeing a physio or doctor, not logging it and playing on. ChatRPE does not give medical advice and will tell you to get it checked.
Frequently asked questions
Can ChatRPE build a soccer workout plan?
Yes. Give it your position, match day, team training days, available equipment and goals, and it builds strength and conditioning sessions that fit around your team schedule, with heavier work early in the week and lighter work before matches. It adjusts in conversation when a cup game, an injury or a busy week changes things.
Does it coach dribbling, passing or shooting?
No. ChatRPE does not analyze ball skills or count touches. It covers fitness, strength, speed, recovery and the records that go with them. You can log technical practice as notes or counts if you want it in the same record, but the coaching on technique should come from your club coach.
How many times a week should a soccer player lift?
Two or three sessions a week in preseason and one or two in season is a common pattern for players with one match a week. Keep the heaviest session at least three days before a match. A short session done consistently through the season keeps more strength than a long one that gets skipped.
What is a good Yo-Yo test score?
It depends on age, sex and level, and published norms vary by test version (IR1 or IR2). The most useful comparison is with your own previous results under similar conditions, which is why logging each test with its version and date matters more than any single number.
How do I track minutes played and soreness?
Say them after the match: "played 75 minutes, soreness 6 this morning." Each saves as a field you can chart later, alone or against gym sessions, sleep or sprint times. Over a season that record shows how your body handles a heavy weekend and how long it takes to bounce back.