You might disagree, but hear me out on this. Weight training soccer is very essential while coaching the player on sports that needs a lot of strength, and, or explosive power. For player who do not require strength and power that much can also take advantage of strong abdominal and lower back muscles.
Here are the basic principles of weight training for soccer displaying simple activities to describe those principles.
One of the key principles of soccer strength training is, Specificity. The concept of this is to coach the players to put more time in working out in a way resembling their play on the field. Like running is a good drill for runners and swimming for swimmers.
In order to enhance strength an essential thing to be stressed upon while exercising is speed. A number of thing which are important while planning weight training programs are the players role in team sports, their age, physical and mental capacity to take stress, and the level at which they are to play.
All this information is useful for a trainer in designing a fitness training program, to make a good start.
For over all physical conditioning you should arrange those exercises which develop specific training. You see workouts like running and weight exercises are also performed by swimmers to enhance their aerobic and strength and power fitness.
Injury prevention is also something which is commonly overlooked although it is an important part of weight training soccer. Although it does not contribute directly to an increase in a player’s performance, injury prevention can positively support a player’s performance by ensuring that he or she is fit to play at crucial times in the event calendar.
The movements executed in soccer are running, sprinting, turning and twisting, side-stepping, preparing for a goal. It is therefore necessary that the chains of muscles used in these activities, called the “anterior and posterior chain,” are worked upon for strength, stability and power.
Hence the core lifts, like squats and deadlifts are essential working out for building 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.
Strength programs normally consist of heavy loads and a small number of repetitions. Some sports require bulk and strength while some others have to ensure they combine adequate strength with mobility, speed and stamina like a mid-fielder in soccer.
Establishing strong muscle groups can also improve to the performance even if the primary strength, power or endurance gains are absent. Thus the lower back and hamstrings, and the quadriceps muscles that aids the knee joint function are such muscle groups.
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.
Tags: fitness training, soccer fitness, soccer strength training, Weight training soccer