Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Soccer Conditioning: Discover The Benefits



Soccer conditioning is one topic which is always on people’s mind wherever you go. There is so much money spent these days on hiring certified trainers on board. The plan actually is to get new and innovative soccer schemes into play and train the players on the same. The goal is to groom the players in a special way so that they can face the competition better.

I have witnessed many soccer fitness sessions and got ample chances to see the manner in which they are carried out. They begin with the players taking a few laps around the playing field.

Then a few minutes later, the "training session" moves to a "drill" requiring half of the Players to dribble in and out of cones while the other half run in what is called "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. How silly is that? Instead of engaging the entire team, only half of them are participating.

After a couple of minutes, the two groups swap their activities with each other. Time and again it has been seen that soccer exercises are not taken very seriously by the soccer coaches. It does not consider any innovation. For example, how ingenious would it be to make the players do the field rounds with 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 is now common knowledge that during early days of soccer, the kids should spend maximum time with the ball and if possible, even sleep with it. The idea behind it is that kids shall get one with the ball.

After that, with time, you should introduce soccer conditioning and fitness training.

There is a trick to perform soccer workouts. A few exercises can be simply cardiovascular. You can do this using a predetermined cycle; put your leading foot forward and then use both the feet. Draw out your legs as far as you can, bend down with face towards the floor. Balance the ball at the back of your neck. If you can do it easily, clap your hands.

Then you can move in a turtle walk with the ball lying between the thighs. Rest on your back, balance the ball behind your back and then move in a circle using your feet.

There is yet another exercise to exercise your stomach muscles and back. Toss the ball in the air and let it hit your chest. Once you've become good at that, catch the ball with your hands or feet, then try to have the ball hit your chest twice.

Take advantage of these tips for great soccer conditioning. Our youth soccer coaching community is a treasure of such useful tips and techniques on youth soccer.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in Soccer conditioning and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. To explode your players' skills and make training fun, download your free Soccer Fitness ebook at: Soccer Drills.


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