Wellness questionnaire in football: recovery and pain, every day
Before training you have one chance to know how your players are arriving: ask them. Two questions, thirty seconds each, and you know who has recovered, who is in pain and where. Here is how to set up a wellness questionnaire the staff actually uses.
The two questions that matter
1. How recovered do you feel? This is the TQR (Total Quality Recovery), a scale from 6 to 20 where 6 means “not recovered at all” and 20 “fully recovered”. It is asked before the session and looks back: how the body has reacted to the load of the previous days.
2. Do you have pain anywhere? If so, where and how much, on a VAS scale from 0 (no pain) to 10 (the worst imaginable). The area is essential: a 4 in the hamstring and a 4 in the back lead to different choices.
Other questionnaires add sleep, stress and mood. They work, but every extra question lowers the response rate: start with two and expand only if the staff really uses the data.
How to collect it without losing answers
- Always at the same moment: on arrival at the ground, before getting changed or during activation.
- One at a time and without an audience: in front of teammates, nobody says they are hurting.
- Everyone, every training day: the useful value is the comparison with each player’s usual, and that needs continuous data.
- An answer must have a consequence: if a player reports pain and nobody follows it up, next time they won’t report it.
How to use it for the day’s session
The TQR should be read against the player’s own average, not in absolute terms: some always answer 17, others always 13. A drop of 3–4 points from their usual is the signal to catch.
| Signal | What to do |
|---|---|
| TQR low compared with usual | Talk to the player, consider reduced volume or modified training |
| Localised pain 3–5 | Inform the medical staff before the session |
| Pain 6 or more | Medical assessment before training |
| Several players down on the same day | Review the week’s load, not just individuals |
These are common-sense guidelines, not clinical thresholds: the decision stays with the staff, who know the player.
Wellness and load: the two sides of the week
Wellness tells you how the player is, RPE after the session tells you how much the training cost them. Together they tell the story of the week: load going up while recovery goes down is the moment to stop and look.
How you do it in dropseet
In dropseet each session has its attendance list and, for each player, the recovery TQR and pain with the body area and the scale value. If recovery answers are missing for a session, the dashboard flags it. Recovery and pain can be read next to the player’s RPE load and injury history.
Frequently asked questions
TQR or a questionnaire with sleep, stress and mood?
The TQR is a single question and takes a few seconds to collect. Longer questionnaires give more information but responses drop. Many staffs start with the TQR and add the rest only once collecting it has become a habit.
Should the wellness questionnaire be done on match day too?
Yes, if it is part of the routine. On match day, though, there are few decisions left to make: the most useful data is from the two or three days before.
Does it work with youth academy players too?
Yes, with simple questions and words instead of numbers. With the youngest it is above all a way to get them used to saying how they feel.