Free Toolkit · 10-page PDF
One gym session a week. Seven tools that tell you exactly what goes in it.
The free Smart Soccer Strength Toolkit: the 45-minute session, the weekly plan around your matches, and the 15-minute routine that protects hamstrings, groins and knees.
Get the Toolkit by email
What you get
Seven tools. Ten printable pages.
- 01
The 45-Minute MD-3 Session
Minute by minute: warm-up, sprints, a 25-minute gym core, prehab. Includes when to add weight and what to do when you only have ten minutes.
- 02
The Gym-Pitch Decision Tree
Four questions that tell you whether to lift now, wait, or eat first on days you also train on the pitch.
- 03
The 15-Minute Prehab Menu
Five exercises for hamstrings, groins, knees and ankles, with progressions and a weekly groin check.
- 04
Your Week
Three templates: one match a week, the amateur week (train twice, play Sunday), and two matches a week.
- 05
The 48-Week Annual Template
Off-season to the last match on one landscape page.
- 06
The Five-Test Scorecard
Squat, jump, 10 m sprint, 5-minute run and Nordic lean, with level bands and a table to track your own numbers.
- 07
The Ten Exercises
The ten movements that matter most, under injury prevention, strength and power. Each has a figure, the dose, one line for the player and one for the coach.
Why these seven tools
Built for a week that revolves around a match
Most players either skip the gym in-season or copy a bodybuilding routine. Neither fits a week built around a match.
In high-level youth players, strength training produced larger lower-body strength gains than plyometrics, and improved acceleration and change of direction with it.
Oliver et al. 2024 · Sports Medicine
Programs that include the Nordic hamstring curl roughly halve hamstring injuries.
van Dyk et al. 2019 · BJSM
An adductor strengthening program cut the risk of groin problems by 41%.
Harøy et al. 2019 · BJSM
The Toolkit turns those findings into something you can print and follow.
Who it is for
Players and coaches
Players, 16 and over
who train with a team and want one gym session that fits around it.
Coaches
working with individual players or small squads without a full-time S&C department.
It is not a rehab plan. If you are injured, get assessed first.
About the Author
Mario Jovanovic is a strength and conditioning coach and UEFA A licence holder who has worked in professional football in Croatia, Qatar and Singapore. He is the author of Smart Soccer Recovery and Smart Soccer Strength, and the founder of PlayerPlan.