Soccer Conditioning Drills

You may not agree, but check this out. You can greatly benefit from weight training soccer when coaching your players in a sport that requires a lot of strength, and, or explosive power. Even players for whom strength and power is not a main attribute tend to benefit from strong abdominal and lower back muscles.

This article explains the basic principles of weight training for soccer using common activities for demonstrating those principles.

During soccer strength training, Specificity is a very important concept. It means that if you can train your players in a way that emulates their activity when playing on the field, then you must spend the majority of your time training in that way. For instance: Runners run and swimmers swim.

With a view to develop power, the speed of the training or exercise is vital. The role of players in team sports, their age, physical and mental capacity to take stress and their player’s level must be considered when coaching them in weight training programs.

Soccer Fitness

While developing a fitness training program, all this information is helpful for a coach to ensure a good start.

In order to develop physical conditioning such activities should be planned which improves specific training. You see workouts like running and weight exercises are also performed by swimmers to enhance their aerobic and strength and power fitness.

One more feature in weight training soccer often ignored is prevention of injury.Another area of weight training soccer which is commonly neglected in is injury prevention. Injury prevention even though not directly contributing to the play, is important as it ensures that the players are fit to play at the most critical times of the year.

Running, sprinting, turning and twisting, side-stepping, and getting ready for a shot are all the exercises performed in soccer. The “anterior and posterior chain,” are the chain of muscles which are required to perform these actions must be given importance to develop strength, stability and power.

So for creating these muscles core lifts, like squats and deadlifts are important exercises. The general soccer fitness program may be used commonly but these two core lifts are very essential for leg, hip, back and abdominal strength.

To concentrate on the shoulders, arms and back muscle areas the program should also include swimming.

Strength programs normally consist of heavy loads and a small number of repetitions. Some sports require bulk and strength while some others have to ensure they combine adequate strength with mobility, speed and stamina like a mid-fielder in soccer.

Working on very special muscle groups can also enhance the performance even if primary strength, power or endurance gains are lacking. Thus the lower back and hamstrings, and the quadriceps muscles that aids the knee joint function are such muscle groups.

So there you have it. Keep these points in mind when weight training soccer since football is a sport for which you may not initially consider weights to be an advantage. You should consider joining our youth soccer coaching society that has a plethora of informative articles, weekly newsletters, and videos to help you better understand the concepts of youth coaching.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Soccer Practice Tips.

How about if you get to learn that weight training soccer targets improving strength instead of just increasing muscle mass, particularly the development of muscle groups that support the joints? It calls for special fitness training sessions off the field and off the ball with a view to segregate and concentrate on certain muscle groups.

Concentrating on these areas will facilitate greater mobility and flexibility leading to an increase in speed and power.

Core: Technically the first area to focus on is the abdominals, commonly known as the core. The area of the body ranging from under the breast bone up till the end of the pelvic region is called the “core”. This area is the source of power, the center of gravity, and the balancing center of the body.

In other words, the core is where all physical actions of the body are initiated from. A strong and a well developed abdominal core also ensures a well-balanced back, especially the Lumbar region. This also generates a good posture.

Soccer Fitness

Legs: The quadriceps are leg muscles which are essential in increasing blood flow to the heart. Hence they are the major muscle groups of the body and provide enormous amount of blood volume. Walking can also be helpful in weight training soccer as each step pumps blood supply to the entire body.

Powerful and stable leg muscles are vital for the hips, knees and the ankles to hips, to bear all the power and energy produced in hitting the ground.

Back, Chest and Neck:The linking relationship between the core and the ends is provided by these parts of the body. Thus these portions should never be ignored in soccer strength training, since they will strengthen with the development of the rest of the body.

Arms: For balancing the body arms are very helpful; example while jumping to head a ball or shifting directions. A powerful jump is made by throwing the arms in the air.

Plyometric: You should combine weight training with well-organized plyometric program for great results. Using this technique such players will be produced who will show good results in the first half of the season.

The key again is going back to the core, because only a well-developed soccer fitness program to develop the core will naturally bring these areas into focus.

Programs: Generally, a program that is quantifiable and specific to an individual needs to be applied at the beginning of the season. The complete development of the player involves targeting specific areas of the body starting with the core and then toward each section of the body.

Finally it should be said that weight training soccer can be useful by first preparing the players; as it requires the players and the team to own the program. You can subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and find an answer to all questions as the site offers loads of information in form of articles, videos, and newsletters.

Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Kids Soccer Drills.