Intense Soccer Fitness Program



Soccer Workouts You Can Do in the Gym to Improve Your Game Certified strength and conditioning coach Will Huntington demonstrates this soccer-specific workout, which will increase your.

  • Dynamic Stretching is a sequence of sport specific movements (in this case, soccer specific movements) that prepare your muscles for the task ahead (game or training). These types of stretches are designed to be done in a safe and controlled way and involve active movements with no long ‘holding’ time.
  • Gatz recommends performing five exercises each in four soccer-specific circuit workouts that address the lower body, the upper body, the total body and core. Gatz’s sample workout lists classic strength exercises such as squats and lunges, seated pull-downs, incline pushups, medicine ball standing full circles and crunches on the exercise ball.
Fitness

Soccer Fitness, Conditioning

Soccer Specific Fitness and Conditioning! Focus on soccer fitness, training, conditioning, and offseason fitness to boost your team's overall success.

Soccer Fitness Programs

Train Like a Pro! Don't let fitness affect your team's performance. Soccer Specific Fitness and Conditioning! Focus on soccer fitness, training, conditioning, and offseason fitness to boost your team's overall success. Take Your Soccer Fitness to the Next Level!

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1v1, One-vs-One, One-on-One

One versus one, also known as 1v1, 1vs1, or one-on-one, is the smallest game-like activity in soccer.

Four Corner Fitness Drill

This soccer fitness drill is designed to improve lateral speed and agility required in soccer.

Shuttle Runs Fitness Exercise– Dribble Pass

In soccer the shuttle run is a fundamental fitness training exercise to build soccer endurance. This movement represents an important soccer specific movement and is a great exercise to not only build…

Soccer Specific Agility Drills

Soccer Specific Agility and Speed Training Drills.

Fartlek Soccer Fitness Traning

Intense Soccer Fitness Program Workouts

The Fartlek (Swedish for 'Speed Play') Training method is a great fitness tool that is excellent for soccer specific conditioning.

Soccer or football as it's called in most of the world is a game that requires a wide range of fitness to play at an elite level. You need not only good cardiovascular fitness; you need core strength, speed, agility and stamina. All of this in one player who can play a full 90 minutes or more, at as close to peak level as possible. How do you reach this goal? Simple, hard work and dedication to being the best you can be.
The components of soccer fitness training include the following: proper warm up, sprint training, Power training, agility training, speed training, and recovery.


Proper Warm Up

You need to start your soccer work out by doing light jog to warm the muscles up. This is followed by a dynamic (active) stretching of your muscles. Stretching is especially important for the optimal performance of your body. The warm up is an area of sports that is most commonly overlooked when it comes to performance enhancement training.


Sprint Training

Sprint training should mirror the game. You should sprint for 30 seconds and then jog or run lightly for 60 seconds. Why, because this is how you run in a game. How many times does a soccer player sprint the field for more than a 30 second burst? Almost never, so why train that way. Some coaches for example, have their players jog for miles at 50% intensity. Do you want your athletes chasing the ball at 50% of what they are capable during a game? Then why would you have them train at 50% intensity, rather than at the intensity level they will experience in a game. It makes no sense. Train the way you play. Two important notes: never start sprint training or a game, until you are properly warmed up and stretched: and Do not do sprint training the day before a game. Always allow 48 hours of recovery before a game.


Power Training

Let's start with Power. I define power as the quick and strong movement of the leg; starting from the hip, to the knee, and ending at the ankle. Olympic (Power) Lifts and Plyometrics help to develop these areas.
The Olympic (Power) Lifts include: the push jerk, split jerk, clean, clean pull, clean high pull, and Dumbbell Snatch.
The Plyometric exercises include: jumps, hops, and bounds. These exercises use the body's weight as resistance.
Power also includes strengthening your upper and lower body. Lower body exercises include: squats, single leg squat, step ups, and lunges. The upper body exercises include: Bench press, push ups, pull ups, lat pull, shoulder raises, curls, extensions, and wrist rolls.

Agility

Intense Soccer Fitness Program

Next is Agility. Agility is the ability to change direction while running or moving. Sometimes we call agility 'quickness.' We've all been at a game and heard someone say, 'that guy's quick.' Quickness should not be confused with speed, it's related but it's not the same thing.
There a variety of agility drills that can be done, including: running around poles, working with an agility ladder, or even jumping over step hurdles.

Speed

The final aspect to consider is Speed. We've all heard the old saying, 'Speed kills.' In soccer this is probably truer than in almost any other sport. The ability of a team to have the endurance and stamina to run the pitch successful for the complete game is critical to success at the highest levels. It's one of the most important attributes of any player. Speed comes to play everyday, and speed never goes to be coached. The faster, and quicker you can become, the better all around basketball player and athlete you will become.
Speed exercises include: sled pulls, band runs, and hill runs.


Recovery

I cannot stress enough the importance of recovery. Too often I see coaches destroy players with their 'No pain no gain mentality.' When you push your players 100% you need to give them a day off or at least do an active recovery day. The key thing to remember about recovery is that during the workout all you are doing is breaking down the muscle and the muscle fiber. When you are recovering or sleeping, that is when the rebuilding process occurs, this is when we are in essence getting better. So keep that in mind the next time you choose your post workout meal, and deciding what time to go to bed. You should ask your self this question “How good do I want to be?” Then make some of those tough decisions that come up in life.

Program

I hope this article helps you get started on your own fitness program. I know if you use it you will improve not only your performance but also your enjoyment of the game.

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