Most weekly training plans are really match-week plans -- the rhythm of practice changes depending on how far away the next game is. Planner.coach now anchors training around your fixtures so the timing falls into place automatically.
The MD-offset model
Coaches and sport scientists describe the days around a match using MD (match day) notation. The day of the game is MD; the day before is MD-1; the day before that is MD-2, and so on. Days after a match use a + sign.
Here's a quick reference for what each day in a typical match-week tends to focus on:
- MD-4 -- mid-week load. Skill development, tactical detail, mid-range volume. Moderate to high intensity.
- MD-3 -- conditioning. Higher-intensity conditioning, strength and power, longer small-sided games. High intensity.
- MD-2 -- tactical. Tactical patterns, opposition-specific work, small-sided games. Moderate intensity.
- MD-1 -- activation. Short, sharp activation, set-pieces review, low-volume technical work. Low volume, high quality.
- MD -- match day. Pre-match activation, set-pieces walkthrough, short sharp stimulus. Match intensity.
- MD+1 -- recovery. Active recovery, low-intensity movement, mobility and soft tissue. Low intensity.
- MD+2 / MD+3 -- rebuild. Technical fundamentals, starters vs non-starters split, build back up. Low to moderate intensity.
These are conventions, not rules -- adjust to your sport, age group, and training history.
The match-week banner on session pages
When a session sits within a few days of a fixture, an amber banner appears at the top of the session page suggesting the typical match-day-relative focus.
- The banner only appears if a fixture exists between 3 days before and 7 days after the session date.
- It shows the MD offset (e.g. MD-3) and a one-line suggestion of what that day usually emphasises.
- It is a suggestion only -- it never modifies your session content.
- Dismiss it for a particular session and it stays dismissed in that browser. Other sessions still show their own banners.
This is the easiest way to make match-week awareness part of your routine without changing how you build sessions.
Anchor a season phase to a fixture
Inside a season plan, the Phase Form now has an Anchor to fixture selector. Pick an upcoming fixture and a number of days, and the phase's end date snaps to match day -- the start date is back-calculated from the length you choose.
Use it when:
- You're building a Taper phase ahead of a championship match or tournament.
- You're locking a Competition phase to a specific cup run.
- You want a phase to land cleanly on a known fixture rather than a guessed date.
Default lengths when you anchor (you can override these):
- Taper -- 7 days.
- Competition -- 14 days.
- Recovery / Transition -- 7 days.
- All other phase types -- 14 days.
If the fixture later moves -- say, the cup final is rescheduled -- re-anchor the phase to the updated fixture and the dates fall back into place.
For everything else about phases (types, intensity, goals, calendar overlay), see Season Plans.
Ask the AI Coach about match-week sessions
The AI assistant now sees your upcoming fixtures automatically -- no flag to set, no extra context to paste. Ask things like:
"Give me a Tuesday session. We play Liverpool on Saturday."
"What should Thursday's session look like -- what's my next match?"
The assistant looks up the next 14 days of game-day events on your calendar and structures the response around the right MD offset. If you have a Saturday fixture, a Tuesday session comes back as MD-3 conditioning work; a Friday session comes back as MD-1 activation.
See Getting Started with AI for more on what the assistant picks up automatically.
Set your match-day timezone for away fixtures
When the next match is in a different timezone, set the per-event Event timezone field on the game-day event. The MD-offset banner and the AI Coach use that timezone to work out the right day, so an early-morning kickoff in another country doesn't shift your Friday into Thursday.
Defaults to your profile timezone (Settings) when not overridden.
Best practice: import fixtures first
The match-week banner, fixture-anchored phases, and AI Coach match-week awareness all need fixtures on your calendar to work. The fastest way to populate them is the ICS import.
Pro tip: import your fixtures at the start of the season and re-import after any reschedules. Everything downstream -- periodization, AI suggestions, the match-week banner -- updates with no extra effort. Importing Fixtures from ICS.
Pick your squad for the fixture
Match-week planning gets you to game day with the right training load. When the fixture arrives, open the lineup builder from the game-day event to pick your match-day squad -- starting units, bench, availability, and an optional AI lineup suggestion. See Match-Day Lineups.
See Importing Fixtures from ICS to populate your calendar, or Season Plans for the wider periodization picture.