Last week we split the word intensity in two. Good intensity, effort as the natural consequence of a clear read. Bad intensity, effort as decoration. This week we take that split into the training session.
Because something strange has happened in football over the last decade. The word intensity, having conquered how we talk about matches, has now conquered how we talk about sessions. Every rep at match pace or above. If you are not in the red zone, you are not really working.
There is truth in some of this, but there is also a serious mistake buried in it.
In this episode: why nobody has ever proved that constant high intensity is the optimal design for learning football over the long arc from age five to twenty-five. What javelin throwers, cross-country skiers and judokas have known for decades that football has somehow forgotten. The wood-chopping image returns — why slow is often where the real learning happens. What a rep actually is in an ecological design, and why counting touches misses most of what is happening. Why the active playing time metric, taken as the measure of session quality, quietly drifts sessions toward bad intensity. And what deliberately varied training intensity looks like on a football pitch.
The Progressão book is on its way in English — more on that soon.
🌍 More at progressao.fi 📷 Instagram @progressaofi 👥 LinkedIn @Project Progressão
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Jani Sarajärvi. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Jani Sarajärvi och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
