Pre-season is the highest-leverage period in a youth footballer's training year. Eight to twelve weeks where athletes have more control over their preparation than any other point in the calendar. Most use this time well. Very few use it optimally — because optimal preparation requires data, and most programmes operate without any.
What Most Pre-Season Programmes Get Wrong
The typical youth pre-season programme: generic runs, some shuttle sprints, a few gym sessions, maybe some agility ladder work. The same sessions prescribed to every player regardless of their physical profile, sport position, or specific deficits.
This is better than nothing. But it's also significantly less effective than a programme built on actual data. An athlete with a velocity deficit spending pre-season doing heavy gym work. A force-deficient athlete grinding out long interval runs. Both training hard, both getting fitter — neither closing their specific performance gap.
The EPP Pre-Season Programme is different: Every athlete starts with a full Photon Sports assessment. The programme is built on that data — individual sprint profiles, force-velocity classification, bilateral symmetry analysis. Eight weeks of targeted work, closed with a retest to measure the gains.
The Assessment-First Approach
Week 1 of our pre-season block is assessment week. Every athlete completes the full EPP testing battery — sprint profiling, FV profile, jump testing, 5-0-5 bilateral analysis. Within 48 hours, each athlete has a report with their precise profile and the training prescription that will govern the next 8 weeks.
Some athletes will spend the block in the gym. Others on the track. Most across both — but in very specific ratios determined by their FV profile. The prescription is individual. The execution happens in the group setting of our sessions, but the training emphasis differs between athletes based on their data.
What 8 Weeks Can Deliver
Our tracked pre-season cohort data shows consistent results across multiple athlete populations:
These are averages. Individual results vary based on training age, compliance, starting profile, and physical maturity. But they are measured results — not estimates or extrapolations. Every claim in this paragraph comes from Photon Sports retest data, not subjective coach assessment.
Who the Pre-Season Programme Is For
Our current pre-season programme cohort is limited to 100 athletes. It is designed for:
- Youth footballers aged U12–U18 preparing for the 2026–27 season
- Semi-professional players who lack formal physical preparation from their clubs
- Any athlete across multiple sports who wants a data-driven 8-week block
Places are capped at 100 to maintain the quality of individual attention and keep the assessment-to-prescription ratio manageable. We anticipate these filling before public launch.
Joining the Programme
The pre-season programme interest list is now open. Join below to receive full details — programme structure, pricing, session schedule, and early booking access — before the public launch. No payment required to join the interest list.
Get Your Athlete's Baseline Data
Everything discussed in this article is quantified in a single EPP assessment session. Sprint profiles, force-velocity data, jump analysis — all in 60–90 minutes at your nearest EPP venue across the West Midlands.
Book Assessment — £65 Free Discovery Call First