Monitoring Internal Training Load with MLS Champions – Los Angeles Football Club

Gavin Benjafield, director of performance at Los Angeles Football Club, shows how his staff use internal and external load to compare players, run live training feedback, return injured players to full training and profile drills against match intensity, for performance staff in professional football.

About this webinar

Gavin Benjafield has led performance at LAFC since the club’s inaugural 2018 MLS season. Before that he worked with the Bangladesh national cricket team, at Ajax Cape Town from academy to first team, and in Amsterdam. He explains a lean department built around specialists: a full-time sports nutritionist, a data analyst, a strength and conditioning coach and a mental performance coach. He shows two players with the same external load and different internal cost, the travel demands of MLS, individual load profiles for each match day, and a drill database that compares every drill with match intensity. The Q&A covers players who want extra running, re-benchmarking during the season and topping up non-starters. The session runs 55 minutes and was recorded on 27 March 2023.

What you will learn

• Why two full backs who covered just under 5 km with the same high-speed running and the same RPE of 7 paid a very different internal cost
• Why reconditioning sessions of 60–80 training impulse (TRIMP) don’t prepare a player whose match day minus 3 averages 124
• How LAFC scores drills as a percentage of match intensity, from 109 to 226
• How one change to a drill took a midfielder from 40% to 88% of match intensity
• Why Benjafield uses RPE, not TRIMP, with coaches early in pre-season

Practical examples from the recording

1. Same session, different cost. Two players in the same position covered just under 5 km with almost identical high-speed runs, sprints, accelerations and decelerations, and both gave an RPE of 7. Internally, the session cost the 20-year-old far more than the 23-year-old. Benjafield ruled out injury and inexperience: the older player is a starting full back with more years in the game and simply runs more efficiently. For the younger player, who “burns hot”, the staff make sure recovery between sessions is good, especially in pre-season.

2. A return-to-play target from the player’s own profile. For each player LAFC builds a profile of what match day minus 4, minus 3, minus 2 and minus 1 look like. One player averages TRIMP 124 on minus 3, just over nine minutes in the red zone and an RPE of 8. If reconditioning only reaches TRIMP 60–80, he isn’t ready for that day. Benjafield prefers to overshoot in reconditioning and reintroduces players on minus 4 or minus 2, rarely minus 1, and on minus 3 only when sure they can tolerate it.

3. Drills scored against the match. The team’s match average, 111 m per minute plus zone 5 running at 5.5–7 m/s, sprinting above 7 m/s and accelerations and decelerations, counts as 100. During training, the data analyst on the sideline sends each drill’s score to Benjafield’s earpiece. A repeated-sprint drill with finishing scored 213. An 11 v 11 on a reduced pitch scored 109. After Benjafield suggested opening up the field a little, the next drills reached 183, 218 and 226, which suited a planned overload day.

4. Fixing a drill for one position. In one 10–12 minute drill, center backs worked at over 200% of match intensity while midfielders sat at 40%. Benjafield took it to the coaches: the drill fit the game model, but the overload on center backs wasn’t the aim. After asking midfielders to join the attack and track back to press the first pass, one midfielder’s value rose from 40% to 88%. The staff are now turning this into drill cards for the academy and second team, with field size, duration and physical profile.

Questions answered in the Q&A

What do you do when a player wants extra running after training?
Check his loads against his planned range first. Benjafield rarely says no, but tailors the work to what the data shows the player needs. If he goes past the range, the next day is adjusted. He would rather keep that trust than refuse.

How often do you re-benchmark players’ TRIMP?
Three or four times a season, whenever there is a block of about four weeks with one match a week. In pre-season he uses RPE instead, because after an eight-week off-season TRIMP is very high at first, even for players who followed their programme.

How do you top up players who didn’t play?
Use every opportunity. Benjafield sometimes covers 25–50% of a non-starter’s high-speed running requirement the day before a match. Before two days off, a player who had played only 30 minutes went home with a heart rate monitor and a run for the next day.

Does live heart rate data change the session?
It can. Knowing a big day for one player is TRIMP 140, staff can add a set or lengthen bouts to reach the plan. Benjafield gives feedback to coaches at drinks breaks, only when something needs addressing. TRIMP per minute is the next step.

Who this webinar is for

Directors of performance, sports scientists and strength and conditioning coaches in professional football, plus head coaches, academy staff and return-to-play coaches who plan sessions, design drills and manage travel, injured players and non-starters through a long season.