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Soccer Workout

November 2, 2005 Print This ArticleShare

Author: Michael Greeves


Soccer - The Sport

Soccer is a fast sport that demands repeated high-intensity sprints, alternated with jogging, walking and striding. Throughout the entire game, not only do players sprint distances between five and 30 yards, but they must also turn quickly, dodge, twist, weave, jump, leap and accelerate and decelerate. They must possess explosive power to kick, head, pass and tackle the ball. Over the course of a ninety-minute match, players face a variety of quick, agile, and explosive movements that are the basis of all tricks and turns.

Soccer - The Demand

For these reasons, soccer players must be superiorly conditioned in order to overcome fatigue and continue to play at their best. Their conditioning program, therefore, must address all the physical demands of the game, because players who can outrun, outplay, and outmaneuver their opponents have the winning advantage.

For example, heading the ball successfully may require the player to out-jump the opponent, so training for a high vertical jump is crucial. A farther throw-in can put the ball into the strike zone, increasing the chance for a goal shot, which is why a strong and explosive body -- especially around the trunk, hips, and shoulder girdles -- is highly desirable. First-step quickness (five yards) and pure acceleration (five to 30 yards) are important, so training for sport speed is crucial. Quick changes in speed and directions allow the player to avoid and beat an opponent, thus foot-speed, agility, and quickness must be trained. Moving against an opponent demands great strength for body contact and shoving, therefore strength for the entire body must be maximized.

Soccer - Injuries

But strength doesn’t end there; it has many qualities and many use. Soccer has become such an intense and physical sport, so athletic injuries are not uncommon. Injury areas most common in soccer are ankle, lower leg, knee, upper leg, groin, and face. Injury types are primarily sprain, strain, contusion, and fracture. For those reasons, structural strength in joints, bones, connective tissues, and muscles is critical. Strength in these areas lowers the risk of athletic injuries during inadvertent hard contact with other players, when falling to the ground, or after doing a bicycle overhead kick and landing on the back. Superior performance is highly desirable, but injury prevention cannot be neglected.

The metabolic process that drives the soccer athlete is a mixture of the ATP-PC system (for explosive maneuvers like kicking and jumping), the anaerobic system (for sprinting), and the aerobic system (running, jogging, and walking). Soccer requires tremendous aerobic endurance so that players can last the duration of the game, but it is especially important for the recovery of multiple high-intensity actions. This allows the players to race to the ball quickly, move into positions more readily for teammates, switch from offense to defense rapidly, and preserve mental concentration for quick decisions as well as to commit fewer technical and tactical mistakes.

Although the requirement for aerobic conditioning is high, it is equally critical that anaerobic conditioning is maximized, for it is the metabolic support for fast, powerful actions that are key to successful tactical maneuvers in soccer.

The Soccer Workout

The off-season training should comprise mostly strength training, with low to moderate load intensity (resistance) and high volume. This is the phase, or mesocycle, that concentrates primarily on functional and structural strength. A small percentage is devoted to explosive exercises (cleans, snatches, etc.) so that their technical proficiency can be practiced.

The preseason should continue with strength exercises, with higher load intensity and lower volume, but the emphasis is shifted to explosive exercises in order to maximize the development of power. Early during this phase general aerobic conditioning should be introduced, so that athlete can gain base aerobic conditioning. Around the middle of this preseason, aerobic training should move to high-intensity interval and speed training, using linear sprints and pattern running for more soccer-specific conditioning. Ladder drills are added for foot-speed. Specific soccer skills are also gained as athletes return to pre-season soccer practices.

The in-season continues with strength and power exercises, utilizing high load intensity but with much lower volume and frequency. Studies also show that high-intensity interval training should still be trained, to preserve anaerobic power, but is likewise trained at a much lower volume and frequency. Most of the players’ time is now focused on competition and game strategies, with sufficient time designated for recovery.

The Soccer Workout Program trains the qualities that optimizes soccer performance and maximizes injury prevention. Strength and power training always emphasizes total-body movement, utilizing mostly ground-based exercises. Aerobic conditioning involves steady-state aerobics, but quickly transitions to high-intensity interval training to maximize anaerobic power and recovery.

Our off-season training focuses on general strength, while preseason training shifts its goal to specialized strength qualities such as power, speed, and endurance, in addition to gaining specific soccer skills during practice. The in-season training effectively preserves the strength, power, and speed gained from the previous two mesocycles, while emphasizing competition, game strategies, and sufficient recovery. Our program design delivers and adjusts the appropriate intensity, volume, and frequency, utilizing the most effective exercises for athletic enhancement and injury prevention so that every athlete plays at his or her best.



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