Overview

An integrated approach to the physical dimension of the game

Physical performance in soccer cannot be understood as something separate from the game. Players do not run, accelerate, recover or adapt outside a context: everything happens within a collective, tactical, emotional and competitive logic.

Based on the modules on movement-body in the game and energy for understanding performance, the course shows that physical performance means understanding the body that plays, decides, feels, interacts and adapts according to the specificity of a team.

Rather than training isolated physical capacities, the course helps coaches and fitness coaches read movement, fatigue, recovery and adaptation as phenomena that emerge from training and competition.

Physical performance is not taken away from the game; it is understood from the game itself.

OUTCOMES

What you will learn

Integrated Vision

To understand physical performance as an inseparable part of the game, relating player-team and training-competition.

Movement in the Game

To interpret player movement as an expression of the tactical-technical context and competitive demand.

Performance and Recovery

Analyze performance-fatigue-recovery and the corresponding adaptation without separating the body from the logic of the game.

Details

Course Details

FORMAT

100% Online
Course in English

SCHEDULE

8:00–11:00 p.m.
Starts October 8

CERTIFICATION

Course certificate
2 UCs for TPTD renewal

TARGET AUDIENCE

Soccer coaches, fitness coaches, physiologists and sport science professionals

SCHEDULE

Module 1, 2 and 3
October 8, 15 and 22, 2026

Language
English

Module 4, 5 and 6
October 29, November 5 and November 12, 2026

Format
100% online

Live Classes
Thursdays

Time
8:00–11:00 p.m.

Program

Program Content

Course organized into 6 modules: movement-body in the game and energy metabolism to understand the physical dimension in soccer.

1.1. The complexity paradigm in high performance: a systemic view on the game, the player, the team, and the body.

1.2. True training individualization: how Tactical Periodisation respects each player’s profile.

1.3. “Injury prevention” through the lens of TP: risk mitigation as a byproduct of the training process.

1.4. Demystifying complementary training: integrating activations, compensatory work, and top-ups into the global training session.

Specific Objectives:

  • Understand the player and the team as complex, non-linear systems.

  • Demystify traditional concepts of “isolated work” (prevention and activation), integrating them into the global logic of tactical-technical-physical training.

2.1. Integrative physiology in football: focusing on adaptability and athletic performance.

2.2. The illusion of metabolic fragmentation (“Anaerobic training does not exist!”): the unbreakable wholeness of the human energetic response in the game.

2.3 The development of specific “strength, endurance, and speed” through the game model.

Specific Objectives:

  • Update knowledge on bioenergetics and energy delivery, moving away from the classical compartmentalized view (aerobic/anaerobic).

  • Understand how the demands of the football game recruit physiology in a continuous and interconnected way.

3.1. Methodological principles of Tactical Periodisation and their implication on the “physical dimension”.

3.2. The Standard Morphocycle: an imperative tool to ensure performance stability (preventing fatigue/load from spiraling out of control).

3.3. Horizontal Alternation in Specificity: managing muscle contraction regimes throughout the week.

3.4. Practical cases of structuring the training week.

Specific Objectives:

  • Understand the mechanics of the Standard Morphocycle (the training week) and how it simultaneously optimizes recovery and tactical/physical acquisition.

  • Analyze the distribution of complexity, space, and work/recovery times across different days of the week.

4.1. Deconstructing the traditional concept of “pre-season”: building the way of playing as a priority from day one.

4.2. The Morphocycle as the “Mother Cell”: how to establish the training matrix without decontextualized overloads.

4.3. Load and complexity progression strategies in the preparation period.

4.4. Practical cases of pre-competitive planning.

Specific Objectives:

  • Break away from the idea of pre-season as a period of isolated “physical accumulation” (commonly known as “filling the tank”).

  • Understand how to build the Game Model and athletic form simultaneously from the very first training session.

5.1. The issue of specificity in injury recovery according to Tactical Periodisation.

5.2. Adaptability as an “anti-protocol”: transitioning to training as a “tailored suit” for the player and their position.

5.3. Managing uncertainty and process-driven reintegration into the Morphocycle.

5.4. Practical cases of return to play processes (from the medical department to full performance).

Specific Objectives:

  • Approach injury rehabilitation as a dynamic process of re-adaptation to the demands of the team’s way of playing.

  • Understand the limitations of overly standardized rehabilitation protocols or those focused purely on gym/linear metrics.

6.1. The role of the performance analyst in TP.

6.2. How to cross-reference gps metrics (high-speed running distances, accelerations, acute/chronic workload) with the days of the Morphocycle.

6.3. The danger of the “dictatorship of numbers”: evaluating performance and the way of playing rather than just isolated metrics.

PRICE

Enrollment Information

Price

360€
10% Discount for Former Students

Minimum

10 Participants

Course opening is subject to the minimum number of enrollments.

Form

Click Here

Faculty

Course Instructors

Miguel Lopes

Instructor

Miguel Lopes

Currently: Technical Director: USC Paredes
Football Coach: FC Porto Sub-17, Vitória SC, Umm-Salal SC (Qatar), SC Espinho, FC Vizela, AD Sanjoanense, FC Penafiel, Padroense FC , Dragon Force , FC Porto, AJEF Hernâni Gonçalves (Portugal)
Technical Director: Dragon Force (Portugal), FC Paços de Ferreira (Portugal)
Academic Qualifications: University of Porto – Sports Faculty (focus Football)

Rui Lemos

Instructor

Rui Lemos

Currently/Atualmente: Free Agent/ Livre
Strength and Conditioning Coach/Preparador Fisico: Sporting Clube de Braga, Olympique Lyonnais, LASK Linz
Former Clubs/Futebol de Formção: SC Braga (sub-17; sub-19; Equipa B)
Academic Qualifications/Habilitações Académicas: Alto Ave Higher Education Institute – Bachelor’s Degree in Physiotherapy / Physiotherapist, University of Maia – UMAIA – Master’s degree in Physical Education Teaching and Coaching, Official School of Tactical Periodisation – Professional Master on Tactical Periodisation / Instituto Superior do Alto Ave – Licenciatura, Physical Therapy/Therapist, Universidade da Maia – UMAIA – Mestrado, Physical Education Teaching and Coaching, Escola Oficial Periodização Táctica – Master Profissional em Periodização Táctica.

Ready to re-think physical performance from the game itself?

«Physical Performance» in soccer — new 100% online course.

Yes. It is an introductory course to «Physical Performance» in soccer through Tactical Periodization.

It starts on October 8, 2026.

Not yet. Enrollment details will be announced once confirmed.

Yes. It is 100% online.