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| Strategies to Get Your Team Soccer Fit, Part I |
Today’s typical youth team will train two times a week as a team and play one or two games on a weekend or in a tournament. However, in order to develop the complete player, this is less than ideal from a skill and tactical development perspective and is equally undesirable from a physical preparation perspective.
Just as soccer skill development demands attention more than two days a week, proper physical preparation demands attention at least four days a week, preferably five days a week. The immediate question that comes to mind is where will the time come from?
Realistically speaking, proper planning, combined with built-in accountability of your players, will allow you to train some component of soccer specific fitness every day. The following strategies for developing in-season fitness are based upon our experience working with various youth clubs around the country.
On the days of team practice look for opportunities to include components within training. For example, you need to warm up every day specific to the session’s objectives. This is a great time to
attend to speed and coordination development. Integrating footwork drills such as an ABC Speed ladder or short fitness modules throughout a practice will also bring valuable results.
A frequent comment from youth coaches is that they do not have time to address physical training during their practice time. However, through observation of several youth teams over a three-month period, results were somewhat startling. There was never less than 15 minutes of “dead time” in an average 90-minute to two-hour practice. More often it was 20 minutes.
“Dead time” is defined as time standing with no movement, usually waiting in a long line to do a drill or standing in a group listening to the coach talk. This is time that could be productively used for physical development. In the typical week, 15 to 20 minutes of dead time per practice adds up to 30 to 40 minutes a week, which extends to more than two hours a month. Given a team that trains 10 months a year, at least 20 hours are lost to dead time in a training year.
Use this time productively by:
• Being organized — Thoroughly plan practice, not just for the day and the week but at least a month at a time.
• Being intense — The game is intense, therefore training to play should be intense.
• Being specific to the game — The majority of the movements are quick bursts of stopping and starting. Training should reflect this. The purpose is to improve speed of play and decision-making.
• Assigning homework — Written workouts should be given to the players to complete on the non-team training days. (This should only be done above the U-12 level.)
With these thoughts in mind we need to rethink the approach to fitness training for soccer at all levels. It is imperative to work on some component of fitness for soccer each training day, from the youth level on up to the professional level.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the November- December 2002 issue of Soccer Journal.
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