How to properly prepare for your matches

Are you one of those players who rolls out of bed, shoves any food down your throat, puts on your boots and heads off to a game? You definitely aren’t alone.

But if you want to be successful then you need to begin to take pre match preparations much more seriously because it sets the tone for your performance.

Like many, I’m guessing you don’t know where to start. Luckily for you, we are here to show you exactly the right steps to take if you want the best game of your footballing career.

Physical preparation:

This is the most obvious way of preparing and the way that most footballers will try to prepare but this is only one of three parts of your elite preparation for matchday.

The number 1 most important part of being physically ready for your matchday is managing to maintain 7-9 hours of quality sleep every night. A lot of people won’t want to hear this as it can be very tempting to play on the Xbox or Playstation until 3am however, that will not improve your football.

You also need to leave a lot of time in between waking up and playing your match so that you aren’t groggy and you are fully ready to play.

Next week we will cover whether you should be having cold showers or warm showers before/after your games so make sure to tune in.

Now for the classic way to warm up - on the ball and off the ball exercises to loosen up the muscles. How should you structure your pre match to accommodate for this.

We recommend that you spend 10 minutes thoroghly stretching your muscles, with a particular focus on leg muscles. However, this does not mean you should ignore your upper body either.

Now you should split your time with off the ball and on the ball warm ups, spending 20+ minutes on each for the best results. You can see the best examples of these drills at the end of the newsletter, below the nutrition section.

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Mental preparation:

There are many ways that you can mentally prepare for your game, here I will give you a list of things that you can do. I will explain some of these in more detail at the end of the newsletter.

• Visualisation

• Positive self-talk

• Breathing exercises

• Setting goals

• Positional awareness

• Grounding

Nutritional advice

Generally, in the build up to matches (night before and on the day) you should be aiming to eat these food groups: lean protein, fruit, carbohydrates and avoiding fat rich food. Remember, lots of hydration is extremely important too

Here is a sample pre match meal for you: