No matter where you are, there seems to be someone or the other talking about Soccer conditioning . There is so much money spent these days on hiring certified trainers on board. The idea is that they will introduce new and innovative exercises and activities. And it’s done in the anticipation that kids will be better prepared to compete at a higher level.
I’ve got many opportunities to study the style in which coaches prefer to carry out their soccer fitness sessions. The players are instructed to take a few rounds of the field.
After some time, they are divided in half and are made to perform a “drill”, where one half is required to dribble along the cones and second half runs in something know as “suicides”.
More often than not, this is the way the trainers advance these sessions.
At this point, the players run towards a marked area, come back running to the point of start, run back again to another marked area, come back, and so on. It should be noted that up to this point, half of the squad has not yet touched a soccer ball. That’s something very unreasonable. Where the whole team should have been a part, only half of them are involved.
After some time, both the groups replace their respective activities. Over and over again, it’s been noticed that soccer exercises are not taken very strictly when we talk about the attitude of soccer coaches. It does not consider any innovation. Let’s take an example; tell the players to take the rounds of field with the soccer balls. Almost all coaches ignore this feature.
Also, the goal keeper could be carrying a ball, throwing it up in the air and rebounding it while he runs. It need not be emphasized more that in their early years in soccer, they must spend maximum amount of time with the ball and even sleep with it. It is beneficial in getting the kids acquainted with the ball.
After that, with time, you should introduce soccer conditioning and fitness training.
There is a tip to execute soccer workouts. Some of the exercises can be light cardio. You can do this in a sequence; using your dominant foot first followed by both feet. Stretch out your legs to the maximum, bend over with face pointing downwards. Balance the ball at the back of your neck. If you can do it easily, clap your hands.
Then you can perform a turtle walk with the ball struck between your thighs. Rest flat on your back, put a ball below your back and move your feet so that you are rotating around in a circle.
There is another wonderful exercise involving stomach muscles and back. Thrust the ball up in the air so that it meets your chest on its way back. Once you have attained a good grasp of it, catch the ball with your hands or feet and then make the ball meet your chest twice.
Help yourself with these wonderful tips to get great results in soccer conditioning. Our youth soccer coaching community has a wealth of useful resources on youth soccer.
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 Drills.
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