Does it plan team training or drills?
Smash Coach is a training app for adults who play sport. Tell it the sports and classes you already do, and with Pro or during your trial its coach plans the strength, conditioning and mobility sessions around them, in one weekly plan. The coach is AI, not a person.
It does not plan team training: no drills, no set pieces, no tactics and no analysis of your game. Training night belongs to your club. In the app, football is a sport your coach supports from the outside, so, with Pro or during your trial, it plans the rest of your week around your football instead of writing it (add a sport or a class).
Football here, and in the app's sport list, means association football, the game also called soccer, from eleven-a-side on a full pitch to five-a-side. Walking football goes in under Other (see the questions below).
How hard is a football week?
It depends which football. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, a list widely used in research to rate how hard an activity is, rates activities in METs, multiples of a standard resting rate: 7.0 METs is seven times that rate. Three of its football entries cover a match, a casual game and walking football.
| The game | Compendium entry | Rating and band | Where measured figures are |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitive match | Code 15605: soccer, competitive | 9.5 METs: vigorous | Leg day: how long a match leaves the legs weaker |
| Casual game | Code 15610: soccer, casual, general | 7.0 METs: vigorous | Five-a-side: heart rate in recreational small-sided games |
| Walking football | Code 15615: walking football/soccer | 3.5 METs: moderate | No article here covers it; the rating is the guide |
A competitive match sits well inside the vigorous band, and a casual game is vigorous too. Walking football is at the low end of moderate, a little over a third of a match's rating. Futsal, the indoor five-a-side game, has its own entry at 7.8 METs (code 15195), also vigorous. Five-a-side on an outdoor or cage pitch has no entry of its own; in our view a social game sits closest to the casual code. The authors call the Compendium a starting point, not a precise value for any one person.
The World Health Organization asks adults for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity a week, or a mix, plus muscle-strengthening activities for all the major muscle groups on two or more days. Football counts towards the minutes. In our view it asks a lot of the legs and little of the upper body, and the strength days are what gym work adds.
What does the plan do for football?
Football goes in with two steps:
- On You, under SPORTS STACK, tap + ADD and choose football (add a sport).
- Pick Fixed days and tap every weekday you train or play, since each day you pick is one session a week, then set how long a usual session lasts. If your football has no set days, Flexible lets the app choose them instead (sport settings).
Fixed days fit football because the club sets training nights and the fixture list sets match day. At the top of football's settings is a line about what the sport does to your body; with Pro or during your trial, that is what your coach is working around.
With Pro or during your trial, your coach plans your strength, conditioning and mobility sessions around those days and everything else you do, and rebuilds your plan when you change football's days or length and save. When one fixture moves, reschedule that session: it stays where you put it, and one move does not reshuffle the week (move or delete a session). A cup tie on another day goes in with Add upcoming session: one session on one day.
On the free plan, football's own sessions still go on its days, but your coach is paused, so the rest of your plan stays as it is.
Five-a-side midweek as well?
If it is a regular night, tick that weekday too. If it is now and then, add a game you know about with Add upcoming session, from the plus at the top of Home or Agenda; with Pro or during your trial, your coach first checks whether the rest of your week needs to change around it, and rebuilds the days around it only when it does. Log a game you did not plan for afterwards, from the same plus, with its length, how hard it felt and a note for your coach. It goes into your history and what your coach knows about you, and the week ahead is left alone (log a workout you already did).
Football articles
- Leg day: why a football week already loads your legs, and where heavy leg work fits around training and matches.
- Five-a-side: what a recreational game already trains, what it leaves out, and how to get fit for it.
- HYROX and football: for players who also race HYROX and need one week to hold both.
- The day before a match: whether a gym session the day before costs you anything, in football and other sports.
The other sports, and how long a match tires you, are on the sports page.
Match week, in the app
Turn on Coach warm-up and cool-down in football's settings and, with Pro or during your trial, your coach writes a short warm-up and cool-down around your own football sessions (sport settings).
In the gym, workout mode walks you through a session one step at a time, counting sets and rest, with the left and right sides of a one-sided move as separate steps. It works on the free plan. Exercises are shown as clean illustrations: the movement on a plain background, with nothing extra. The team is exploring video and moving images (exercise illustrations).
With Pro or during your trial, the coach chat knows your week: ask it to move a session away from a rearranged fixture, or to make this week easier, and the change arrives on a card you Confirm (apply a change). If something hurts after a game, report an injury or a fatigue flag, from Cleared to Serious, and with Pro or during your trial your plan is rebuilt around what you report. Smash Coach is not a medical service: if something hurts, see a physio or a doctor.