You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that weight training soccer is a major part of sports training these days as it creates stronger and faster muscles. Using this soccer fitness strategy discussed in this article, your players will have an opportunity to play soccer at higher level.

In soccer weight training, the goal is to have muscles that are strong, fast, and have great stamina rather that to add pounds of muscle mass. 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.

I recommend you begin your fitness training with the legs. Start with squats. When you are done with this warm up activity players are supposed to do 20 reps, so bar to be loaded should be according to their capacity. Supposing they are strong enough, so let them go with 220 pounds first. The technique is to get under the bar and standing up with it resting it across the upper back.

Next tell them to stand having their shoulders and feet width apart. After that they must lower their body while holding on to the bar till their hips are a little bit below the top of their knee. Coming up to this point in weight training soccer, they are supposed to stand up fast and exhale. Tell them to continue this practice for at least 20 reps even when they are completely exhausted.

Soccer Fitness

A 5-10 minutes break should be taken before moving on with the leg curl machine to work on hamstrings. Your players will be doing 4 sets of 15 reps each. In between each set of Leg Curls, they’ll also be doing 4 sets of 15 reps on the Stiff-Legged Dead lift. It is important for the hamstrings to be strong as the speed is significantly enhanced by them.

Then conclude your leg workout with 3 sets of 25 reps on the Standing calf-raise machine.

The Incline bench press would be used to start the upper body exercises.
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.

Now we move to the second workout of this session of soccer strength training which are the pull-up exercises. 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.

As a final point weight training soccer is only a minor portion of the comprehensive training program required. You are invited to become a member of our youth soccer coaching society to gain more about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; The society that has 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.

Let me ask you a simple question. A majority of coaches plan training programs for players without taking soccer training tips into account with the idea of making up the numbers and just going through the numbers. Are you guilty of this?

Set some definite goals for your team before you plan your next training session. Establish what you wish to achieve from the training program and take the necessary steps to achieve your target.

Introduce new, fun, and innovative soccer drills in your training sessions to add variety. It will break the boring routine of performing the same drills every single day. Once the kids enjoy participating in the training sessions, their performance will improve drastically.

Make your players learn to respect you and listen to you, irrespective of their age or the level at which they play. Respecting each other feelings promotes a friendly atmosphere for both the kids as well as the coach.

Soccer Training

A high level of flexibility greatly benefits every soccer player. There are 3 types of flexibility.

Dynamic flexibility: Just like twisting from one side to another, it’s the player’s ability to carry out brisk movements within the full range of motion in the joint.

Static active flexibility: It’s the skill to stretch an intricate muscle employing the tension within that muscle. Holding one leg out in front of you as high as possible is an example of this. The hamstrings are stretched while the quadriceps and hip flexors hold your leg up.

Static passive: This kind of flexibility allows a player to make use of his body weight or some external force to hold a stretch. For example; imagine holding your leg out in front of you and resting it on a chair.

Now let’s advance towards the next stage in the line of soccer training tips. This needs your attention with respect to kid’s sports gear and make sure that their attire is well suited to the weather.

Training for soccer should be complemented by a fitness program that is designed to identify and improve upon the weak areas. Keep the following factors in mind whenever you are designing this kind of a training program.

Player’s age: Decrease in the flexibility of soft tissue with aging is directly related to the reduced range of movement as one grows older, irrespective of the gender. But, if we remain active, the flexibility will always remain.

Gender: Girls exhibit a greater range of movement, independent of their age.

Action: Active kids are always better at performing soccer skills and exhibiting a greater range of movement that the inactive kids.

Injury: Injuries also get in the way the range of motion in a joint.

Pain: There is a decrease in flexibility as pain increases that result in muscle spasms. However, strength training does not hamper flexibility unless you don’t do the exercises correctly and not in full range of motion.

Genetics: The amount of flexibility that a player possesses also depends upon his genetics.

So, there should be no reason why you should not include soccer training tips into your training program for better productivity. Subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has tons of articles, newsletters, and related videos to improve your coaching skills.

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 Drills For Kids.

I don’t know a thing about you, but I’ll bet that you must acquaint yourself with the essential soccer training tips, especially when you are participating in the game as a coach. You can then easily incorporate these ideas into your soccer drills training session with a view to practice during your sessions depending on your game’s standard.

By teaching your players some important tips and techniques, you can help them better their performance. They are in the following paragraphs;

Teach players to keep the ball moving with one or two touches: This is also known as inter-passing in a team setting. They should play the ball with speed and make crisp solid passes, whether it is a 3-meter or 20 meter pass.

Play the ball and keep progressing: Playing and moving controls the basic idea behind making runs. But you must ensure that these runs lead to effective goal scoring opportunities and open up spaces for the other team mates.

Soccer Training

All soccer skills are generally based on the capability to make accurate passes with a view to create opportunities. You can work well by setting up the defender here. Instruct your players to draw near towards the defender, assuming that he or she is going to be able to get the ball, then give it and go, speed up into the open space to receive or return the pass.

Once your kids make a move to beat the opponent, tell them to change their pace. They should attack fast and make sure they keep moving the ball as fast as possible. The moment they get a chance to break, they must even the score with a few accurate passes.

Train players to keep the ball close to their feet when controlling the ball: One of the soccer training tips is to keep the head up and watch the field as everybody is moving. While dribbling, they should try and touch the ball with every step. This results in maintaining a close control over the ball then enhancing hie/her ability to take it away from the defenders.

Get the cross in: Take shots on the goal and examine the goalkeeper time and again during the first part of the game. The player should ensure that the other team members are informed about his/ her intentions to make runs into open spaces. It type of communication is necessary of the young players in the course of their development.

When it comes to training for soccer, guide the players to seek into the area amid the 6 and 18 yard boxes. As a result of it, the goalkeeper will come forward in an effort to catch hold of the ball. This will make the goal open and defenseless.

Keep an eye on the ball: Keep an eye on every player’s movement on the field at all times. Train players in a way that they stick to the team’s strategy and tactics for the day.

You must now include these soccer training tips in your training regimen to allow players to become experts in dealing with situations when on field. You can get more such tips and tactics by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community that has several relevant articles, videos, and periodic newsletters.

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: Soccer training tips.

What if I told you that stretching as a part of soccer training tips is highly recommended by professional soccer coaches and is widely practiced by players in almost every sport? Soccer is one of such sports that is always growing and developing in its complexity.

There are two types of stretching that can be incorporated in kid’s training for soccer; static and dynamic stretching.

In static stretching, players stretch their muscles to a certain point of resistance and then hold for some period of time. Dynamic stretching involves rhythmic bouncing, rebounding and recurring motions. It is generally considered as more dangerous and less effective than static stretching.

There are some advantages of practicing stretching discussed in this article that improve a player’s ability to become an exceptional player.

Soccer Training

Stretching reduces injuries: Stretching helps bring down the risks of injury when performed over a period of time by stretching the muscles daily, thus promoting their growth. Stretching provides a way of growing the muscle mass and strength as well.

Stretching influences flexibility: Stretching puts off the loss of flexibility. Still, the effects of stretching are way better when it is done for a long period of time than for a shorter duration.

Performing stretching for a few minutes before starting any playing activity is likely to enhance flexibility. But, of all the soccer training tips, the best is where stretching program is extended over a longer period of time that constantly improves the player’s range of motion.

Stretching betters’ performance: When the stretching program is planned after considering the player’s soccer specific needs, their performance improves.

Stretching can be a lot of fun: For this, you need to add variety in your soccer drills and focus a lot on performing them. Keep varying the warm-up activities you do before stretching. Try to include games such as the tag game, ball tag, and keep away.

Focus mentally on the stretching and feel and understand each stretch, checking for stiffness or soreness.

For a majority of kids, one stretch of15-30 minutes is sufficient for each muscle group but some kids may take longer stretches or more repetitions.

The reason for this is that when the temperature of muscles is higher than normal, stiffness decreases and extensibility increases. Those players who wish to sustain or increase their flexibility can partially attain this goal by stretching. Doing stretching when the body temperature is higher as against normal makes it more productive, safe, and sound.

That’s why some experienced coaches recommend stretching after a workout also. If your kids stretch for 5-10 minutes after performing soccer skills, their muscles will not tighten too fast.

Generally, players who exercise an active warm-up prior to stretching get a better range of motion than those who only stretch. So if injury prevention is your aim, stop stretching before exercise and increase the warm up time.

When feeling stiff or inflexible, the most important soccer training tips is to allow kids to warm up sufficiently, as doing stretches would not help them become flexible, and will become boring and futile. You can get more such tips and tactics by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community that has several relevant articles, videos, and periodic 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: Youth Soccer Drills.

If you’re like me you probably know that soccer training tips for goalkeeper are of immense value since a goalie is the only player on the field who is allowed to touch the ball by both hands and arms.

That’s why a goalie’s soccer skills put him/ her in an advantageous position from rest of the ream members. But this also makes training goalkeepers for soccer not only unique but challenging.

Goalkeepers in soccer are more often than not, the first line of offence and the last line of defense, based on the playing skill. They will not hesitate in putting their bodies in harms way to stop or block a shot into the goal. They are ready to dive in any direction to catch hold of the ball.

Goalkeeper’s training for soccer on different skills and techniques can be one tough job depending upon their role requirements and level of play. You must also keep in mind, his mental state when you are training him/ her on all important skills and techniques.

Soccer Training

The only player in the team who can match the vigor of a goalkeeper is the striker. Almost all goalies have essentially played as goal hungry strikers at one point or the other in their soccer careers. You’ll be able to encounter frequent one on one battle between the goalie and the forwards at different levels of competition.

One of the most important soccer training tips for a goalkeeper is to stay balanced and know the center of gravity of the body. In a game setting, this will benefit by improving the goalkeeper’s activity and the inclination of the other player.

Though most goalkeepers in soccer are tall with long arms and big hands, but even if otherwise they easily compensate for the need of physical built with good vertical and lateral mobility.

It is important for a coach to realize that goalies have a great sense of worth but still need to be motivated on a regular basis. Soccer Goalkeepers need to do their regular warm ups with the team, but then separate from the team and perform the specific soccer drills that will prepare them for the game.

Goalkeepers act as the leaders of the team as they have a personality that is both dominating and controlling. So they must be supported by the rest of the team to successfully execute their role by being placed in a vocal and demonstrative capacity.

The goalie is allowed to handle the ball only in the 18 yard box. If the ball is touched by any player’s arm other than the goalkeeper, the opposing party gets a free kick. If it is a goalie’s teammate, it’s a penalty shoot from “the spot”.

So you should now concentrate on using these soccer training tips by encouraging the goalkeeper who leads the team inside the 18 yard box, and needs appreciation of remaining teammates. Join our youth soccer coaching community that has loads of relevant articles, videos, and newsletters to update your knowledge on the subject.

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 Drills.

Here’s a really simple way to control the ball to pass or shoot and this skill can be mastered through performing various free soccer training drills. In this article, you will know about 2 of the well-known soccer drills, Shoulder To Shoulder and Shark in the Middle.

Shoulder To Shoulder is a drill that is intended for defensive as well as offensive players. The objective of this drill is to teach the offensive player to master fast shooting under pressure and the defensive players to clean the ball.

This drill uses three players per drill group. The distance between A and B is about 10-15 yards.

B and the defensive player line up joining shoulder to shoulder. B and the defensive player, who stand adjacent to each other, face away from the goal on the left side of the field. When the coach whistles, A throws the ball at the back of 2 players. B and the defensive player begin to make efforts to take control of the ball. B’s goal is to take shot on the goal while the defensive player’s objective is to turn with the ball and dribble it above the center line.

Soccer Drills

By involving players in coaching drills like Shoulder to Shoulder, players learn to win the ball despite being under immense pressure from the opposition.

Shark in the Middle is an interesting game that can be played any time during the practice and its duration can be worked out as per the need. It is one of many free soccer training drills that helps players achieve attentiveness and self-control in high-pressure situations.

Players stand in a large circle on the field. One player is selected to be the “shark” and stands in the center of the circle. There is only one ball in it and given to a person who stands in the circle.

On your whistle the player with the ball passes the ball to any other player alongside the circle. Then the second player passes it to another that he likes and this goes on like this.

Then you blow the whistle again and it means that the game should start. The aim of the game is that the shark should not be allowed to touch the ball. The player may select to pass the ball to anyone along the circle, be it a teammate right next to him or a teammate far away. Players try to make as many passes as possible.

This goes on till the time the shark gets the ball.

When the ball is captured, the player that caused the ball to be intercepted becomes the new shark and the first shark finds a place along the circle.

Shark in the Middle finds a place among those football drills that require a sharp thinking and an idea of the experience of the shark.

To end the discussion, these free soccer training drills help players to build self-confidence to handle the ball while under pressure from an approaching opposition. If this material was useful please subscribe to our soccer coaching for young adults to enhance and develop your knowledge on coaching soccer available through various mediums like articles, newsletters and videos.

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: Free soccer training drills.

Let’s face it. If you train your team with weights there’s no reason why should not fine-tune their weight training soccer routine as the year progresses. One might be missing out great benefits of soccer-specific fitness if he/she overlooks it.

Very few coaches get the soccer strength training right. A young soccer player of today should be a “complete athlete”.

They have to be quick off the mark and have to have the upper body strength to defy challenges. They need outstanding levels of both aerobic and anaerobic stamina to last the duration. A coach should know that he is hamming himself, his team and the game if he just insists his players to do weight lifting as the body builders do.

When we talk about such sports like body building and players whose sports involve strength, we would say that they should try to increase in size, bulk and extreme strength. It does not matter much to them if it harms their aerobic endurance levels or even their speediness and flexibility.

Soccer Fitness

If you are also thinking of implementing 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions the whole year, you should know that you’ll be missing out a lot from your fitness training sessions.

Let’s look upon the reasons.

Lower body strength is vital in soccer as it is necessary in for kicking, jumping, tackling, twisting, and turning and also useful in improving speed. Whereas the upper body strength is required for stopping the ball and keeping the opponents away.

“Strength” can be divided into three categories, when we talk about weight training soccer.

Absolute or Maximum Strength: It is the greatest force that a muscle group can exert in a quick, single contraction. For example, a who can leg press 250 lbs has greater strength than another player who can leg press only 200 lbs.

This absolute strength helps to defend the ball and to keep off the opponents. More importantly, it forms the foundation of muscular pace and power.

Muscular Power: It is the product of both maximum strength and the quickness in 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. While those traditional soccer fitness programs can also be altered increasing the speed of contraction.

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. However if you don’t alter your training programs and continue with 3 sets of 8-12 reps each, your training programs will not reap much of productive results.

Your game is about to improve 10 folds if you just put a little time in planning your weight training soccer program correctly. You are invited to become a member of our youth soccer coaching society to gain more from the reserve of soccer resources like articles, periodic newsletters, and videos at our youth soccer coaching community.

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.

What if I told you that weight training soccer is aimed at enhancing strength rather than the building of muscle mass, especially the growth 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.

Concentrating on these areas will facilitate greater mobility and flexibility leading to an increase in speed and power.

Core: The area that is first to be targeted are the abdominals, which is usually called the core. The area of the body below the breast bone up till the groin or the base of the pelvic region is considered as the “core”. This area is the source of power, the center of gravity, and the balancing center of the body.

Thus the core is the center point from where all the physical action originates. Great abdominal cores also results in a well-balanced back, most essentially the Lumbar area. As a result a better posture is developed.

Soccer Fitness

Legs: The quadriceps are leg muscles which are essential in increasing blood flow to the heart. Therefore they are the largest muscle groups of the human body and supply vast amount of blood to the heart. So, in weight training soccer walking can be useful as it helps to increase blood circulation inside the body with each step.

Strong and balanced leg muscles are required for the hips, knees and the ankles to stand all the power and energy produced in hitting the ground.

Back, Chest and Neck: This portion of the body provides relationship between the core and the ends (legs, arms and the head). In soccer strength training, these areas should not be neglected or thought of as irrelevant, as they will develop as the rest of the body grows.

Arms: Arms facilitate in the balancing of the body through weight distribution, especially when jumping to head a ball or changing directions. A good tip for power jump is to throw your arms in the air while you jump.

Plyometric: For best results, weight training should go together with a well-planned plyometric program. This will create individual or teams who will show growth during 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 thorough improvement of an individual consist of aiming specific parts of the body first with the core and then heading for every 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.

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that weight training soccer is a major part of sports training these days as it creates stronger and faster muscles. Using this soccer fitness strategy discussed in this article, your players will have an opportunity to play soccer at higher level.

In soccer weight training, the goal is to have muscles that are strong, fast, and have great stamina rather that to add pounds of muscle mass. 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.

I recommend you begin your fitness training with the legs. Start with squats. When you are done with this warm up activity players are supposed to do 20 reps, so bar to be loaded should be according to their capacity. Supposing they are strong enough, so let them go with 220 pounds first. The technique is to get under the bar and standing up with it resting it across the upper back.

Next tell them to stand having their shoulders and feet width apart. After that they must lower their body while holding on to the bar till their hips are a little bit below the top of their knee. Coming up to this point in weight training soccer, they are supposed to stand up fast and exhale. Tell them to continue this practice for at least 20 reps even when they are completely exhausted.

Soccer Fitness

A 5-10 minutes break should be taken before moving on with the leg curl machine to work on hamstrings. Your players will be doing 4 sets of 15 reps each. In between each set of Leg Curls, they’ll also be doing 4 sets of 15 reps on the Stiff-Legged Dead lift. It is important for the hamstrings to be strong as the speed is significantly enhanced by them.

Then conclude your leg workout with 3 sets of 25 reps on the Standing calf-raise machine.

The Incline bench press would be used to start the upper body exercises.
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.

Now we move to the second workout of this session of soccer strength training which are the pull-up exercises. 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.

As a final point weight training soccer is only a minor portion of the comprehensive training program required. You are invited to become a member of our youth soccer coaching society to gain more about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; The society that has 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.

If you are like me, you probably understand the importance of incorporating free soccer training drills that teach every player in your team to throw the ball in. During the youth soccer drills, around 70 percent of throw-ins are foul throws which makes the ball go in other team’s control.

It is therefore imperative that every player in your team must be prepared to carry out a proper throw-in and get the ball into play almost instantly. Thus the player may easily go behind the defense and make a hit for the ball.

All that is required to teach the players to get the ball back into play quickly is some simple actions and moves, performed correctly at the U-10 level and below.

During free soccer training drills, few soccer coaches have a habit of relying only one or a couple players in order to perform all the throw-ins. These players are tagged as designated throwers. Obviously the designated thrower is the most exhausted player in the game. He is expected to race up and down the sidelines as well as through the field, have a simple throw in.

Soccer Drills

Now one more time I would restate the fact that all the players out there playing need to be encouraged to throw the ball in. Most commonly the ball goes off the boundary and a quick move forward makes it come back in control, the coaches however stop this activity. Then when that player complains, he/she is told that he/she is not a mid-fielder and the mid fielders are the only ones who are allowed to make the throws.

In coaching drills make sure that all the players are encouraged to reach the ball whenever possible. While a quick throw-in may result in an opportunity to score, the impact of this soccer approach goes far beyond the win-lose theory. With young players, games may last only 50 or 60 minutes. I would not suggest that not much of the time be spent on bringing the ball back in the play.

Soccer coaches who stress upon quick throws also play a key role in teaching strategic awareness to their opponents. During football dills the defendant team has about 20 to 30 seconds to get back behind the ball as the usual defending against the unexpected restarts cannot be applied for teams who defend against designated throwers.

Coaches who sincerely want to develop their players for higher level of play must give adequate time to teach their players. After every beginner has learnt the way to perform correct throw-ins, the ball could be moved back to the field so that the kids can play.

During free soccer training skills, you should avoid asking impossible goals to the young players; keep noted that skills, knowledge of game and stamina vary from age to age. You can subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community for more such resources and articles, periodic newsletters, and videos to help coach young players.

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 Coaching.