Load planning

Load planning is the strength & conditioning coach’s tool: you sketch the coming week’s load before it is run. It is a load layer sitting on top of your calendar — you don’t create sessions here, you attach load to the real sessions the head coach has already scheduled.

The week at a glance

At the top of the Planner tab:

• Load forecast (projected ACWR) — projects, for each player, the ratio of acute load (7 days) to chronic load (28 days). Players projected to overload show red, those to watch show yellow, with a hint to spread the load.
• Weekly target — the training phase, the total load target and what’s already planned, with “N left to add” chips per category.
• The week shape — a small day-by-day load sparkline.

Tip

The forecast and target account for all planned load — including pending load (not yet attached to a session). So you see the effect of a full week before it is even placed on the calendar.

Calendar sessions and “pending” load

Each day groups load under the real sessions from your calendar — training sessions and matches, the latter marked with a Match pill. Under each session sit its load components and its total; a “Pending — not scheduled” area collects load not yet attached to any session.

• Load attached to a session appears under that session’s time and name, and feeds its total.
• Pending load counts toward the target and the forecast, but appears on no agenda and triggers no call-up. It publishes itself as soon as you attach it to a session.

Note

The planner never creates a session or a call-up. Sessions, times and call-ups stay managed from the calendar by the head coach.

Adding load

The + Add load button opens a dialog to describe a component: a label, the calendar session to attach it to (or “pending”), a category, an estimated RPE and a duration.

The planned load is computed live: RPE × duration × category multiplier, expressed in AU (arbitrary units) — or in your team’s load unit if you defined one. The i icon recalls the formula.

Caution

A component can only be attached to a session on the same day. If you leave it “pending”, it stays planned but off the agenda.

Load on a match

A match takes load exactly like a training session: its card carries the same + Add load button, which opens the component dialog directly. You describe what the day actually costs — usually a warm-up block, then a match block.

Two things behave differently there:

• The duration starts from the match time as it stands in the calendar. Correct it if the real playing time differs.
• No intensity is suggested. A match RPE is a coach’s read, not a constant: the ACFF reference counts 6 (a match is worth 5 ROB, i.e. 90 min × 6 = 540 AU), another club will count differently, and a friendly is not a final. The field starts from a block’s ordinary default and you set it.

Note

A match’s actual load additionally applies your team’s match multiplier (1.2 by default), where planned load only carries the category coefficient. The dialog therefore announces the expected actual while you set the figures: a match planned at 540 AU will report 648 if the multiplier is still 1.2.

If your reference is already the final load, bring that multiplier back to 1.0 under Adjusting the sRPE formula — planned and actual will then meet.

Targets, categories and models

Three buttons open the week’s configuration:

Button	Role
Load targets	Name the phase, set the weekly target and a budget per category. A live read-out shows what’s left to allocate.
Load categories	Rename, add or re-weight categories (the multiplier weights the load). A “60 min @ RPE 7 ≈ N AU” preview illustrates the effect.
Templates	Save a week’s structure as a reusable model, duplicate the week to the next one, or apply an existing model.

Per-player adjustments

Under each component, + Adjust a player tunes the load for a single player: scale it by a percentage (e.g. 50% on return to play), exclude them, or switch to individual work.

Note

An adjustment only affects that player’s planned load (ACWR forecast and planned vs actual). It does not touch the call-up — that is managed in the calendar.

Planned vs actual

The Planned vs actual tab puts the load you planned next to the load players actually did (RPE check-ins, GPS, wearables), per player and per day.

• The header gives the team variance vs plan and how many players ended above / below.
• Each cell shows the actual (large), the planned as a reference, and the variance: amber above plan, green below.

Tip

The comparison only means something afterwards: planned is known up front, actual fills in as check-ins and imports arrive. The gaps become the input to next week’s plan.

What’s next?

• Zoom out with periodization cycles and the Season view — the Cycles and Season tabs lay your blocks (pre-season, competition…) above the week.
• Schedule sessions and send call-ups from the calendar.
• Track real cumulative load on the Team load page.
• Load peaks surface in signals & alerts and readiness.