Soccer Lessons

If you get to know that weight training soccer does not encourage on adding to muscle mass rather it stresses upon the strength of muscle groups that support the joints. For this reason fitness training session should be arranged off the field and away from the ball so that the players pay attention to some special muscle groups.

Focusing on these target areas will generate superior movement and flexibility causing higher velocity and strength.

Core: The area that is first to be targeted are the abdominals, which is usually called the core. “Core” is the portion of the body which starts from the breast bone till the lowermost part of the pelvis area. This area is the basis of strength, the gravitational center, and the balancing point of the body.

Hence all the physical actions are initiated from the core A good and established abdominal core also leads to a well-balanced back, mainly the Lumbar part. This also generates a good posture.

Soccer Fitness

Legs: The quadriceps pump 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.

A lot of energy is exerted in hitting the ground, thus it is very important to have powerful and well-balanced leg muscles required by the hips, knees and the ankles.

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. Throwing your arms in the air adds force to a jump.

Plyometric: For excellent result you should use both weight training with carefully planned plyometric program. Using this technique such players will be produced who will show good results in the first half of the season.

The significant point is to give importance to the core as only a well-developed soccer fitness program to develop the core will certainly target these areas.

Program: Typically a program which is measureable and precise to an individual’s requirement should be functional at the opening 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.

In conclusion, this concept of weight training soccer can be better understood through mental training of the team where both the team and individual players encourage each other to own the program. You should consider joining our youth soccer coaching society 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.

Probability you might not believe this, but just hear me out on this. The play which requires excessive power, and, or explosive power, Weight training soccer is vital while coaching these players. If player do not need strength and power to a large extent even for them, strong abdominal and lower back muscles are helpful.

In this article you will find the basic concept of weight training for soccer using simple techniques for applying those concepts.

A vital principle in soccer strength training is, Specificity. The idea is that to train your players to practice in a manner which is similar to that when they play on the fields. Take for example running and swimming, a great exercise for runners and swimmers respectively.

In order to enhance strength an essential thing to be stressed upon while exercising is speed. 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

When this kind of information is available to a coach while planning a fitness training program, it ensures 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. The effects of injury prevention are not evident directly but  they are essential in player’s performance and confirm that the player is fit to play at the most important occasions of the calendar.

Soccer is a sport which involves running, sprinting, turning and twisting, side-stepping, and setting for an attempt. 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.

The most useful workouts are the core lifts, like squats and deadlifts for forming these muscles. An all-round soccer fitness program may also help, but these two core lifts work wonders for leg, hip, back and abdominal strength.

The program can also consist of swimming to highlight the areas of shoulders, arms and back muscles.

Typically strength programs involve heavy masses with only some repetitions. As we have talked earlier some sports require mass and power but some others like soccer requires a good combination of strength with flexibility, speed and resistance; especially the midfielder.

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

This is it. Please try to consider these areas while weight training soccer as you know now that football unlike other sports do not require weights essentially. 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.

You should know how true it is to work on your team’s weight training soccer program, while they are being trained with weights. One might be missing out great benefits of soccer-specific fitness if he/she overlooks it.

Only a certain number of coaches’ know the correct ideology of soccer strength training. A young soccer player of today should be a “complete athlete”.

They are required to have swift movements plus the strength of upper body to resist challenges. These players are required to have exceptional level of aerobic and anaerobic resistance to last that period. One would be destroying his players, the game and even himself if he just tells his players to lift weights like any body builder.

In body building and the sports which need strength primarily, players struggle to develop themselves in terms of size, bulk and ultimate strength. They will not worry if it destroys their aerobic endurance levels or their quickness and flexibility.

Soccer Fitness

If you also tend do is follow the typical 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions all year round, you’re far from getting the best from your fitness training sessions.

We will now see the reasons

Kicking, jumping, tackling, twisting and turning as well as good speed during soccer comes from lower body strength. Shielding the ball and making the opponts to stay away, requires upper body strength.

Three broad categories can be made to divide “strength” in weight training soccer.

Absolute or Maximum Strength: It is the ultimate level of force that your muscle group can apply in one speedy motion. For instance, a person who can do 250lbs leg press has greater power than the other player having the ability of doing 200lbs leg press.

In soccer, good maximal strength is advantageous in holding off the opponents and defending the ball. Fundamentally it’s the foundation for muscular speed and power.

Muscular Power: It is the outcome of both absolute strength and the speed of movement. Increasing any one of them, without reducing the other will generate a value added power called explosive power.

Only power will be enhanced if you just simply use the common trainings that almost all of the popular fitness magazines advocate. Those traditional soccer fitness programs can also can be amended if you intentionally increase contraction speed.

Strength Endurance: Strength or muscular stamina is the ability of a muscle group to carry out repeated and high-intensity movements. Like power, strength endurance is also very important to soccer game.

At some point in your soccer training routine, as a coach, you must focus on developing strength endurance. General weight programs are not very useful if you use the common 3 sets of 8-12 reps each.

Make a favor to yourself and put some time in improving your weight training soccer program correctly and I assure you that it will pay back 10 times in the game. You can gain more from the reserve of soccer resources like articles, periodic newsletters, and videos at our youth soccer coaching community. So subscribe today.

Andre Botelho is a recognized expert in youth soccer coaching. He influences well over 35,000 youth coaches each year with his unique coaching philosophy, and makes it really easy to explode your players’ skills and make training more fun in record time. To download your free youth soccer coaching guide visit: Weight training soccer.

In soccer training weight training soccer plays an important role in creating tougher and quicker muscles, this you might have heard a lot of times. Using this soccer fitness strategy discussed in this article, your players will have an opportunity to play soccer at higher level.

The new theory of soccer weight training is to have strong and fast muscles with higher stamina rather that to keep on adding pounds of muscle bulk. Although the lower body strength is more important in soccer but we still carry on with the upper body weight trainings for overall conditioning and strength.

You should start your fitness training with the legs first. It should be started with the crouching exercises first. Now place the bar with which your players can make 20 reps. Considering that they have good strength, hence give them 220 pounds to start with. This practice is performed by getting below the bar, and putting it across their upper back and then stand up with it.

Instruct them to step back out of the racks and stand with their feet, shoulder width apart or wider. Then they should come down while holding it till their hips are only marginally lower than the top of their knees. In weight training soccer, after coming to this point the players should quickly stand up fully and breathe out. The players must be encouraged to continue even when they are worn-out till they do 20 reps.

Soccer Fitness

Next is working on hamstrings, but before that have a 5-10 minutes break. They are required to do 15 repetitions of 4 sets each. They will be required to perform 4 sets of 15 reps on the Stiff-Legged Dead lift between each set of Leg Curl exercises. Since hamstrings are very important to a player’s speed, so you want them to be very strong.

Finish the leg workouts on Standing calf-raise machine and doing 3 sets of 25 reps

Begin with using the Incline bench press, for the upper body workout.
When they are done with the warm ups, they should continue with extra weights so that the next set of 10 reps becomes tougher. A total of 5 sets of 10 repetitions are required with the weights, while stretching their chest and shoulders, yet pausing to relax for 2 minutes in the middle of each set.

Next are the pull-up exercises in this section of soccer strength training. Players should do this with their palms facing their body to work their biceps as well as the back. The last phase of upper body exercises is to concentrate on the abdominals and leg raises of about 5 sets of 20 or more repetitions. Then finish with 5 sets of 50 or more crunches or sit-ups.

We would say in the end that to make quality players of soccer, weight training soccer is only a small fragment of the entire training program. You should consider joining our youth soccer coaching society to know more about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; the community also provides videos, articles, pod casts, and newsletters available for you.

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Practice.