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Article Series: Soccer
Teach Me About Soccer
Conditioning
Exercises For Soccer Athletes
Many sports are characterized by the need
to condition the body in order to achieve optimum performance.
In soccer conditioning is very important. If a coach wants
the best from his athletes, they must be conditioned. Conditioning
exercises give players stamina, and increase their ability
to perform. Although it’s well known that conditioning makes
a better athlete, many coaches don’t know how to condition
their players. Some conditioning exercises to help your soccer
athletes are, integrating power training into normal practice,
warm-up/stability and straight ahead running, and lateral speed
conditioning.
The first
series of conditioning exercises were approved by
a clinician, and can be integrated into any normal practice.
It’s recommended that these exercises be done at the end of
practice, but many coaches do them before, and sometimes in
the middle of practice. The first exercise is a leg circuit;
these should be done about one per second and there should
be 20 reps each. Athletes doing these exercises should go immediately
from one exercise to the next, and dribble a ball between 2-3
sets. The exercise is a body upright squat, with the hands
behind the head. First lunge forward, step up, lunge with the
other foot, and then jump squat with legs apart. This is plyometric
training, which improves power; it’s better to do 100 plyometric
exercises than to do 500 exercises of lesser quality.
The next
exercise in the first series is a second leg circuit.
This exercise is double leg jumps, forward and back. Athletes
should perform lateral jumps forward in one direction, and
then jump backwards in the other direction. Coaches may choose
to have players jump forward over a hurdle (four hurdles position
in a square) and sprint to a ball being played by a server.
Players should lateral jump over a hurdle and sprint to a ball.
This develops core strength. Core strength should be developed
before extremity strength. This exercise may cause some knee
injury, if a player has weak lower abdominal and gluts (butt).
Also, players should catch a medicine ball and stop on one
leg while moving laterally. Athletes should do less of these
exercises, because they are so intense. This should be less
intense for younger players. For example a 11-year old should
not be treated the same as a trained adult; likewise, players
chronologically the same age may need to be treated differently
based upon their training background and foundation.
The second
conditioning exercises involve stability and straight
ahead running. Coaches should always train for speed in long
distances, and not for running a long distance efficiently.
This exercise should always be started with a warm-up. Movements
have to build gradually to gain speed; warming-up raises the
core temperature and engages the nervous system. For warm-up,
players should jog for five minutes, then do ten leg swings
on each leg-forward, and cross body. This exercise involves
a carioca, which is a footwork exercise. While moving sideways,
the trail foot crosses in front of the lead foot.
The next
warm-up starts with the athlete skipping with loops,
or swings. Athletes should perform cross over skips, then take
quick hip swings, players should do long shuffles with turns
in the middle, carioca with turns and carioca at angles. Then
plant and cut; three steps planting and cutting while stopping
and bending. Then perform forward and backward leg swings,
then high leg forward and backward. Next, perform a quick step
backpedal to a sprint. Athletes should master the straight-ahead
movement, before going to the lateral movements, stops, and
cuts.
The next
exercise helps with lateral speed movement. The exercise
starts with a single leg squat. The leg should be in front,
and then moved out wide, finally bent to the side. The leg
should be rolled back and forth and to the side. Next, the
players should perform one touch passing while balancing on
one foot, and walk and stop while balancing on one foot. This
exercise helps improve recognition, reaction, and change of
direction. It teaches obstacle avoidance, and footwork. First,
is the ball drop, and roll recognition drills. The server holds
two balls out and drops one or rolls a ball to one side or
the other, and then player must react. Then, the athlete performs
a timed run and dribble weaves through flags; change flags
to a staggered setup. Players must plant and cut at each flag,
feed balls in random direction at the last flag to ensure balance,
then plant and shuffle at each flag, and finally plant and
turn at each flag.
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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