How it works
How Match Ready plans your football week
Your club week stays fixed. The app’s job is to fit the right strength, speed, hamstring, groin and fitness work around it, then adjust each session to how you actually are that day.
Step 1
Tell it how your week runs
Club training nights, match days and season dates. Or pick your club and team to pull in the shared fixture list your teammates keep up to date.
- Season phase is automatic. Off-season in June, pre-season counted back from your first fixture, in-season to your last game. Six to eight weeks of pre-season is recommended; four at the very least.
- Any match pattern. Saturday, Sunday, both, or a midweek cup game. Each game is logged with minutes played out of 90.
- Late starter? A compressed plan that still builds the Nordic and Copenhagen work up gradually.
Step 2
Pick your position and level
Choose a main position and up to two others. The main one sets the emphasis; the second adds one key extra. Sessions per week come from your availability and level, never your position.
You also pick your kicking foot. Single-leg work is done on both sides, weaker side first, so you don’t only build the leg you kick with. Under-16s get general training with goalkeeper basics; positional emphasis comes in gradually from 16.
Step 3
Check in before you train
Three countermovement jumps and four taps: sleep, soreness, energy, mood and stress. Compared only with your own rolling normal.
For the first three weeks it just learns: no readiness flags, only the safety rules. After a double-header or a midweek game it also asks for your minutes across both games. Connected a watch? HRV and resting heart rate count as one extra vote, and can never block a session on their own.
Step 4
Train, log, and let it adjust
Every change comes with a one-line reason, like “Jumps 8% below your normal and a short night, so 2 sets instead of 3 today”, and one tap overrides it.
- Weights from how sets felt. Log reps left in the tank. Easier than planned and the weight goes up; harder and it repeats.
- Warm-up first. A short gym warm-up before app sessions, and the full football warm-up before club training and matches.
- Club sessions count. One tap after club training logs how hard it was, so the week’s total stays sensible.
Principles
The rules it never breaks
The club week is fixed
The app never tells you to skip club training. If a week looks heavy, it trims its own sessions first.
You versus you
Every comparison is against your own history. Pro numbers are shown as reference only. No leaderboards.
Ball work stays with the club
No heading practice, no kicking drills. The app does the physical side your club doesn’t have time for.
No risk labels
No injury predictions, no load ratios, no risk scores. Weekly load is described as higher, stable or lower.
Safety always wins
A possible head injury, pain or illness overrides any green score, every time.
No guilt
No streak punishment and no body-weight targets. Missed sessions aren’t made up; the plan just carries on.
Frequently asked questions
How long does setup take?
About five minutes. You enter your date of birth, position, kicking foot, years of lifting, rough lift numbers or a quick test, your club training nights, match days and season dates, plus a short health questionnaire (PAR-Q+). Players aged 13 to 15 then wait for a parent to give consent before the plan starts.
What if my club week changes?
Edit the day in the app, or let your team’s shared fixture list update it. The club week is treated as fixed, so the app moves its own sessions round it. A rearranged midweek game switches that week to a short in-between session.
Do I have to do the morning check-in?
No. With no check-in your session runs as planned. There’s no penalty and no streak to lose.
How does it know how heavy to go?
From an estimated max that updates from your logged sets. After each set you log how many reps you had left in the tank; the next session’s weights move from the gap between target and reality. Under-18s work from rep targets instead, with no max testing.
Do I need a smartwatch?
No. The jump and wellness check-in works on its own. If you connect Apple Health or Health Connect, HRV, resting heart rate, sleep and GPS from watch-recorded sessions can add detail. It’s off by default.
Coming soon
Train for match day, not for someone else’s week.
Match Ready: Football is coming soon to iPhone and Android. Your plan, built around your club nights and fixtures, with the safety tools free for everyone.
Match Ready Pro
£79.99 a year with a 14-day free trial, or £12.99 a month.
Head injury, pain and illness tools are always free.