Awesome replies everyone! Soccer chats on here are fantastic.
Having prepared players from the high school level to play college, I can say for certain there needs to be an element that prepares you to do well on the coaches fitness test, whatever that may be. Nearly 20 college coaches my athletes played for always started fall off with some type of fitness test. This alone can separate you from the team being in top shape, as many of my players would set team fitness records as incoming freshman doing tempo.
I would recommend reducing to 1 game weekly. I have timed my athletes in actual games (not pickup) and found most possessed the ball less than 90 seconds of a 90 minute game. To me, skill mastery is important, (as was stated previous). I would look to add skill training sessions where your quality and quantity of touches will far exceed those in a pick up game. I would also try to figure out how much fatigue a pick up game causes. My guess is not much.
In the past during the summer, I have used this weekly set up with my players with long training history with me
Monday: AM: Speed & wts PM: tempo
Tuesday: AM: skill training (or practice): PM: tempo
Wednesday: Speed & wts
Thursday: Am: skills (or practice) PM Tempo
Friday: Tempo:
Sat: Game(s)
Sun off
Part of this was set up not ideally, but due to other issues. I also might replace Friday’s tempo with the athlete’s fitness test. I felt it was important at least every 2 weeks to test them so they can see the improvement and for them to get comfortable with the test. In many cases, athletes playing time was determined on their fitness test score so this was important to the ultimate goal (getting them playing time).
For speed work days, I usually did 2-4 reps of resisted sprints (tires orsled, no hills around), did many medBall throws found in GPP, push up sprint variation (including visual reaction into sprints), and change of direction drills emphasizing technique mastery (placement of feet relating to hips etc), not just running around cones. Since they practiced and played 3 days a week, I figured this into their weekly schedule as “agility” days and felt no need to add this to workouts.
Maybe Duxx can comment on his experiences, I never used balls for tempo work as I felt it was more kick and chase. I believe Duxx has developed some interesting ball drills.