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Conditioning

Conditioning turns each athlete's running test results into the right individual running dose — and hands it to you as a print-ready cone-lane sheet for the field. One squad session, but every player runs to their own numbers.

It runs as a four-step loop: Profile → Prescribe → Deliver → Verify.

Who can use it: admins and coaches. It's a desktop surface (you build and print at a laptop, not on a phone). Conditioning must be switched on for your org under Settings → Features → Running testing.

Before you start — the anchors

Everything individualises off up to three running anchors per athlete, which come from the testing spine (capture them pitch-side — see Running fitness tests):

  • MAS — maximal aerobic speed, from a fixed-distance run (the 2 km time-trial or the 1.2 km shuttle). The aerobic engine.
  • VIFT — the final speed of the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test. The intermittent, change-of-direction ceiling.
  • MSS — maximal sprinting speed, taken from GPS (or set as a manual override). The sprint ceiling.

You don't need all three. A player with only a MAS still gets a full %MAS prescription; the more anchors they have, the richer their profile. Players with no running anchor at all are listed under "Not prescribed" rather than given made-up numbers — test them first.

Want the science behind each anchor and zone? See Conditioning: evidence base.

1. Profile — read the athlete's speed spectrum

Open Testing → Profiles (the Speed profile tab). Each athlete's anchors become an individualised six-zone speed spectrum, from the aerobic floor up to their sprint ceiling:

  • A spectrum bar per athlete with their MAS and VIFT marked, so you can see at a glance who has a big high-speed range and who is bunched low.
  • A target table in km/h — the lower edges of zones Z4 / Z5 / Z6 are the individual speeds you'll prescribe high-speed, speed-endurance and sprint work at.
  • A MAS × MSS scatter with speed-reserve (SRR) boundary lines that label each athlete Speed, Hybrid or Endurance. That label tells you who needs what: Endurance types tolerate more volume at MAS; Speed types need more recovery and are more exposed to high-intensity overload.

The key idea: the same boundaries that describe a player also prescribe their targets. Profiling is how you decide the session, not just admire the data.

2. Prescribe — build the session

Open Conditioning → Session Builder. It has five modes (switch with the toggle at the top); all produce the same grouped lane sheet and all can be saved to the plan.

Goal oriented — pick a training goal (aerobic base, aerobic power, speed endurance, repeated sprint) then a session recipe (e.g. 4 × 4 min at MAS, 15-15 short intervals, a repeated-sprint set; several per goal). Each athlete's target speed is the relevant zone boundary from their own profile, turned into a per-rep distance. The recipes are starting points — nudge the work, rest, reps or sets with the steppers and the lane sheet updates live (a "reset to recipe" link puts it back).

Custom intervals — the classic MAS-calculator most coaches already use on paper. Pick a work:rest (10-10 / 15-15 / 20-20 / 30-30, or custom), an intensity (a free % of MAS, or a band zone), and the geometry (straight-line, or shuttle with change-of-direction correction). Each athlete's per-rep distance is their own MAS × intensity × work-seconds.

Repeat sprints — RST / RSA sets, built time-based or distance-based, for the repeated-sprint end of the spectrum.

Tempo runs — extensive or intensive tempo dosed as a % of MSS: a fixed rep distance (in 20 m steps, straight-line or a there-and-back shuttle) at a target pace off each athlete's sprint ceiling. Extensive is more volume / lower intensity (60–72% MSS); intensive is less volume / higher intensity (72–85% MSS). Works off MSS alone, so a sprint-test-only player still prescribes.

Whichever mode you use, you get:

  • A set of cone lanes — players grouped so everyone in a lane runs the same distance, with stable, learnable lane colours. Run a handful of groups, not 20 individuals.
  • A per-player table — each athlete's target speed, per-rep distance, and total work.

Drill library — your own saved, reusable drill formats. Build a drill once (COD shuttle, straight run, or fixed-distance sprint), tag and categorise it, then pick it any time: it prescribes individual lanes against the squad's current anchors and saves to the plan like any other mode. Search by name or tag, filter by category, and duplicate a drill to spin a variant.

When the session is right, hit Save to plan. That freezes a snapshot — the format plus each athlete's resolved targets exactly as they are today — optionally tied to a scheduled session. Re-testing a player later never silently rewrites a saved sheet, and the snapshot is what Verify checks against.

3. Deliver — the lane sheet on the field

Open the saved session (or the live builder) and print. The sidebar, headers and controls are hidden on print — what comes out is a clean lane sheet: lane colours, per-rep distances, and the players in each lane.

Conditioning is deliberately coach-led, not on the athlete's phone — players can't carry phones onto the pitch. Delivery is cones, lane colours and your sheet. Set the cones to the lane distances, call players to their colour, go.

4. Verify — did the dose land

After the session date passes, open it under Conditioning → Planned. If the players wore GPS, a Verify panel compares prescribed vs achieved:

  • For each athlete it finds their GPS session that day and measures how much running they did at or above their prescribed target speed.
  • It's framed as a minimum dose. A training session also contains games and drills that hit the same speeds, so over-shooting is expected and fine — only athletes who fell under are flagged.

Use it to spot who isn't getting the high-speed exposure you planned, not to police exact rep counts (coach-marked bout windows for precise attribution are a planned upgrade).

A worked example

You want an aerobic-power block. Start on Speed Profile: most of the squad sits low on the spectrum, two wingers have a big high-speed range. Open the Session Builder, choose Custom intervals, set 15-15 at 110 % MAS, straight-line. The lane sheet groups the squad into four colour lanes from ~75 m to ~95 m per rep — same relative intensity, different distances. Save to plan against Tuesday's session and print it. Tuesday you run the lanes off the cones. Wednesday you open the planned session: Verify shows most players met their dose, one midfielder came in under — worth a look at whether he was loafing or carrying something.

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