Players are humans after all and therefore it is obvious that they too suffer from stress in many different forms arising out of continued activity, training sessions without sufficient breaks, wrong training techniques and so on. In addition, when soccer conditioning is not given proper attention, players suffer from prolonged physical and mental stress. So it is important to include predetermined breaks and recovery techniques into the overall training program.

It is unanimous among coaches today that physical and mental stress in soccer workouts needs to be addressed. However, they find it difficult to control it owing to increased competition, more tournaments and so on. So, how do you fight over-training and stress resulting out of it?

You must first identify if the players are being over-trained? If they don’t feel motivated to compete or train, complain of fatigue, suffer from muscle soreness and stiffness, and their performance begins to decline due to all this, you should gather that they are suffering from the over-training condition.

It is advisable to create a smart conditioning program that not only fills them up with renewed energy but also brings them back to a stage where they start enjoying the game. Soccer conditioning means a mid or long term soccer fitness program that improves the physical condition of the players.

In order to develop an effective conditioning program, you just take into account 5 factors that influence the conditioning levels; warm-up, strength, endurance, agility and speed. These are the building blocks of any conditioning program. Lets discuss each of these.

Warm up : It comprises of 3 phases that have an impact on conditioning. It prepares the body for a training session. It puts a stop to muscle pulls and strains. And finally, it helps the players improve their flexibility.

Strength : Importance of strength can hardly be exaggerated in soccer. Only the best players with a great bodily constitution and energy help the teams win matches. You must include a lot of weight training in training which in turn helps players build muscles and strength. Good strength also improves speed, balance, shielding, dribbling, headers and shooting abilities.

Endurance : It is the ability of the players to keep going for the entire duration of the match. If there isn’t enough endurance, exhaustion will set in and nothing can be worse than that for your team’s prospects. Include a lot of aerobic activities such as sprints, forward runs, long passes and so on in the training session that help build endurance. The players should also do a lot of running both on and off the field.

Agility : This ability of the players helps them both attack as well as defend. If the players are agile, it can make all that crucial difference between a successful dribbling and a turnover. It may also result in a vital tackle and a penalty kick. Agility is as important as skill building. If the players are not agile, you should make it your first priority to incorporate routines in your training that help them develop agility.

Speed : Speed is crucial in soccer and this is what creates opportunities on a soccer field. Players who are fast runners and can make quick moves help the teams win matches. So it makes sense to include drills and exercises in soccer workouts that help the players develop their speed.

Now, let’s quickly discuss a couple of simple fitness drills that can get your players in perfect shape.

Triangular Running

•  Create a triangular grid with 3 cons approximately 20 yards apart from each other.

•  At your instruction, the players start dribbling the balls around the cones for 5 to 10 minutes.

•  Ensure that when the players reach the grids, they sway away a little to prevent bumping into each other.

Sprint Lateral Shuffle

•  For this drill, set up the cones parallel to each other in a pattern of stairs.

•  Ask the players to start at the first cone, sprint forward to the next, drag their feet to the third cone and then sprint to the fourth one.

•  Then, drag their feet towards the fifth cone and so on.

This must be repeated in the opposite direction also so that the other feet is used in the process.

Leave your feedback below!

Yours in soccer,

Andre Botelho

Andre Botelho's Soccer Coaching Blog

Soccer Specific Conditioning Workout

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Soccer Conditioning Drills and Workouts By Pauline Go Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. Here are some tips that can help you become a better player. There are many different types of drills and workouts devised in soccer. The aim behind doing drills and workouts during soccer training is to [...]
Soccer Drills

In soccer training Weight training soccer plays an important role in creating tougher and quicker muscles, this you might have heard a lot of times. Your players will have a chance to play at a higher level if they develop themselves using this soccer fitness plan discussed as follows.

The new theory of soccer weight training is to have strong and fast muscles with higher stamina rather that to keep on adding pounds of muscle bulk. Upper body weight training for soccer is not as important as is for the legs, but we still do it for overall conditioning and strength.

I think fitness training should start with the legs. It should be started with the crouching exercises first. When you are done with this warm up activity players are supposed to do 20 reps, so bar to be loaded should be according to their capacity. Considering that they have good strength, hence give them 220 pounds to start with. The exercise involves getting under the bar then placing it on the upper back and finally standing up with it.

They should then get out of the stands and stand with their feet and shoulder width apart. After that they must lower their body while holding on to the bar till their hips are a little bit below the top of their knee. Coming up to this point in weight training soccer, they are supposed to stand up fast and exhale. Tell them to continue this practice for at least 20 reps even when they are completely exhausted.

Youth Soccer Drills

They should be given a break of 5-10 minutes before switching to the leg curl machine to work on hamstrings. Your players will be doing 4 sets of 15 reps each. The Stiff-Legged Dead lift with 4 sets of 15 reps should be completed between each set of Leg Curls. As player’s speed is greatly improves by strong hamstrings, so they should be very tough.

Finish the leg workouts on Standing calf-raise machine and doing 3 sets of 25 reps

Begin with using the Incline bench press, for the upper body workout.
Now when the they are warmed up they must go on by including enough weights so that the next set of 10 reps is harder to do. They are supposed keep on doing weights for a total of 5 sets of 10 reps, while stretching their chest and shoulders, however taking a break of 2 minutes between each set.

Now we move to the second workout of this session of soccer strength training which are the pull-up exercises. Players should do this with their palms facing their body to work their biceps as well as the back. The last phase of upper body exercises is to concentrate on the abdominals and leg raises of about 5 sets of 20 or more repetitions. Conclude with 5 sets of 50 or more crunching exercises.

In short weight training soccer is only a small portion of the complete training program required to make great soccer players. You are welcomed to our youth soccer coaching community coming up more information about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; it also has videos, articles, pod casts, and newsletters available for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Coaching

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Soccer Conditioning Drills and Workouts By Pauline Go Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. Here are some tips that can help you become a better player. There are many different types of drills and workouts devised in soccer. The aim behind doing drills and workouts during soccer training is to [...]
Soccer Drills

In soccer training weight training soccer plays an important role in creating tougher and quicker muscles, this you might have heard a lot of times. The program of soccer fitness talked about in this article will aid you make your players ready for playing soccer at an advanced level.

The new theory of soccer weight training is to have strong and fast muscles with higher stamina rather that to keep on adding pounds of muscle bulk. Though the importance of upper body weight training for soccer is not as much as the legs, we still go on with it for general conditioning and strength.

I think fitness training should start with the legs. Start with squats. After a light warm-up set, load the bar to a weight you think your players can get 20 reps with. Let’s say they are pretty strong, so tell them to begin with 220 pounds. The exercise involves getting under the bar then placing it on the upper back and finally standing up with it.

They should then get out of the stands and stand with their feet and shoulder width apart. They must hold it as they go down until their hips are slightly lower than the top of their knees. At this point in weight training soccer, players should quickly rise to the full standing position and exhale. They should be motivated to do this for 20 reps even when they are totally worked out.

Soccer Fitness

A 5-10 minutes break should be taken before moving on with the leg curl machine to work on hamstrings. They are required to perform 4 sets of 15 reps each. In between each set of Leg Curls, they’ll also be doing 4 sets of 15 reps on the Stiff-Legged Dead lift. Hamstrings are vital for players speed, thus we would want them to be strong enough.

The leg exercises will be completed with 3 sets of 25 reps on the Standing calf-raise machine.

Now for the upper body work out begin with the Incline bench press.
Once the players have performed the warm ups, tell them to carry on by putting more weights such that the next set of 10 reps get harder. The players must repeat the 5 sets 10 times with weights, while stretching their chest and shoulders and at the end of each set stop and relax for 2 minutes.

The second exercise for this portion of the soccer strength training is pull-ups. Players should do this with their palms facing their body to work their biceps as well as the back. The final part of the upper body work out involves working on abdominals and doing 5 sets of 20 or more reps of leg raises. The final exercise is sit-ups, complete 5 sets of 50 or more.

In conclusion, weight training soccer is only a small part of the overall training necessary to develop great soccer players. You are welcomed to our youth soccer coaching community coming up more information about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; it also has videos, articles, pod casts, and newsletters available for you.

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Practice.

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Soccer Drills

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