Let it be known that a soccer conditioning program is the very basis on which the success of any team depends. The result of following soccer exercises is strength, agility, and endurance which permit them to be called fit for the game, let alone winning it.
However, there may be situations when you and your team do not get enough days to train before a tournament. But you don’t need to compromise on the conditioning exercises because of this. You don’t intend to see your players suffering injuries during or prior to the game.
If you design a good soccer fitness training program, your players can get fully conditioned even in as less as 3 days time. All that is required is sincerity, good plan, and execution. Here are a few tips to work with short but effective conditioning programs.
Warming up: Guide the players to open with any of these; high knees, jumping, or heel flicks or a five minute jog. Take adequate rest for a few seconds in between. Then do some stretching for another 5 minutes that will tone up the muscles. Be sure to include all the major muscle groups in these soccer workouts.
Running: Some coaches have a tendency to make the players do constant running. While that is not bad, I recommend that you make the players do soccer-specific running. It implies that they do running, jogging, walking, and sprinting in no set order for about half an hour.
This form of running at different speeds helps the players get strong and have more control over their bodies. And they do not feel tired since a walk after a sprint keeps the heart rate normal.
Just let the individual players make a decision as to what they want to do and when. If they want to do sprinting for a longer time but only limited jogging, even that is fine. As the players progress and their strength increases, you can augment the time of the soccer conditioning program by 5 to 10 minutes.
Stretching: Impress upon the kids to do stretching after the match as well as a training session. Focus on the whole body but lay emphasis on hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back. Keep the stretching positions longer than in the warm-up sessions. Usually, 20 to 30 seconds is perfect.
Make the players rest a day before the match. This will give the muscles time to recuperate and also overrule the possibility of an injury before the big day. Also, this is a great time to talk to the players and giving them a high.
Crack jokes so that they get relieved of tension.
Understand me! Once these techniques are applied, your players shall start playing dramatically well. If you wish to know more about soccer conditioning, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and equip yourself with loads of relevant information.
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: Soccer Drills For Kids.
Tags: conditioning for soccer, Soccer conditioning, soccer exercises, soccer fitness, soccer fitness training, soccer workouts