Soccer Training Tips: Instant Strategies Anyone Can Use

Posted by pfauthor on September 17th, 2010 under Premier Soccer Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

There’s something I’d like to know from you. Not following the Soccer training tips, most soccer coaches blindly design training programs for their players just to make up the numbers and simply go through the motions. Do you find yourself doing the same thing?

Set some distinct goals for the team next time when you decide to plan a training program. Ascertain what you specifically wish to achieve from the training session and do everything required to get that done.

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. You’ll notice a positive change in your kid’s performance once they begin to enjoy their training sessions.

Notwithstanding their age and the level at which they play, your players must learn to respect you and listen to you. Mutual appreciation creates a friendly environment for both players and the coach.

Soccer training tips

Soccer players get an edge over others when they are highly flexible. There are 3 types of flexibility.

Dynamic flexibility: It refers to a player’s capability to perform fast movements within the full range of motion in the joint, like twisting from side to side.

Static active flexibility: This is the aptitude of a player to stretch a hard muscle by using the tension from within that muscle. Holding one leg out in front of you as high as possible is an example of this. When you do this, your hamstrings are stretched whilst the quadriceps and hip flexors hold your leg up.

Static passive: It’s the skill of using the body weight or some external force to hold a stretch. For example; picture yourself holding your leg out in front of you and relaxing it on a chair.

Now let’s advance towards the next stage in the line of soccer training tips. Here, you need to check if the kids are clad in appropriate clothes that suit the weather conditions.

Training for soccer needs to be supported with a fitness program that will help the areas where your team needs most help. Following are the factors that must be kept in mind when designing a training program like this.

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. Still, the chances of flexibility getting decreased are very less if we remain active.

Gender: Girls display more range and movement irrespective 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: Flexibility decreases as pain increases, resulting 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.

Heredity: How flexible is a player’s body depends upon a player’s genetics also.

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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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 Training

Soccer Training Tips: 5 Sure-fire Tips To Coach Goalkeepers

Posted by pfauthor on September 17th, 2010 under Premier Soccer Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

If you also share similar thoughts as I do, you’d know that Soccer training tips for goalkeepers have a great importance as he/she is the only player that has the freedom to touch the ball with hands and arms both.

For this reason, the soccer skills of a goalie give him an advantage over all the other players on the field. But this also makes training goalkeepers for soccer not only unique but challenging.

Soccer Goalkeepers are often the first line of the offense and the last line of defense, depending upon the technique of play. They will not hesitate in putting their bodies in harms way to stop or block a shot into the goal. They are all so set to proceed in any direction when it comes to getting the possession of the ball.

A goalie’s training for soccer can be very challenging, keeping in view their specific role requirements and their level of play. It simultaneously calls for you to consider his mental state while training him on different skills and techniques.

Soccer Coaching Drills

The only player in the team who can match the vigor of a goalkeeper is the striker. Actually some of the best goalies have already been great strikers at some point in their career. You’ll observe that very often, it’s the goalies and forwards that get into a direct battle on the field, no matter what the level 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. This will have a positive effect on the game setting by way of improving a goalkeeper’s activity and the speediness of other players.

Even though most of the goalkeepers are tall, have long arms, and big hands, but even if it isn’t so, they can compensate for it with good vertical and lateral mobility.

Goalkeepers need unvarying motivation even though they have a good sense of self-worth and the coaches should never forget this. After the goalkeepers have done their routine warm up rounds with the team, they should then focus on performing soccer drills meant for their specific role in the team.

Goalkeepers are the leaders of the team as both their role and their personality is quite dominating. Therefore, they need to be constantly supported by all their teammates in successfully doing their job by being in a representative capacity.

The ball can be handled by the goalie only in the 18 yard box. When the ball gets touched by the arm of any player other than the goalie, the opponent team gets a free kick. In the case of the goalie’s team mate, it is a penalty shoot from “the spot”.

Your next step? To take what you’ve just learned and apply the above soccer training tips as goalkeepers are definitely leaders in the 18 yard box, and should get due respect from their team. Subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has tons of articles, newsletters, and related videos to improve your coaching skills.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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 training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Drills

A Guide To Weight Training Soccer

Posted by pfauthor on September 7th, 2010 under Premier Soccer Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

You would be surprised to find out that the objective of Weight training soccer is to develop the muscles that support the joints instead of just focusing on growing muscle mass. It calls for special fitness training sessions off the field and off the ball with a view to segregate and concentrate on certain muscle groups.

This will result in improved mobility and flexibility for enhanced swiftness and power.

Core: Technically the first area to focus on is the abdominals, commonly known as the core. “Core” is the portion of the body which starts from the breast bone till the lowermost part of the pelvis area. This area is the source of power, the center of gravity, and the balancing center of the body.

In other words, the core is where all physical actions of the body are initiated from. A strong and a well developed abdominal core also ensures a well-balanced back, especially the Lumbar region. As a result a better posture is developed.

Weight training soccer

Legs: The quadriceps are helpful in pumping the heart. Thus being the biggest muscle groups of the body pump great volumes of blood. So, even walking is good exercise in weight training soccer as each leg helps the heart push a lot of blood through the entire body.

A lot of energy is exerted in hitting the ground, thus it is very important to have powerful and well-balanced leg muscles required by the hips, knees and the ankles.

Back, Chest and Neck: This portion of the body provides relationship between the core and the ends (legs, arms and the head). Thus these portions should never be ignored in soccer strength training, since they will strengthen with the development of the rest of the body.

Arms: For balancing the body arms are very helpful; example while jumping to head a ball or shifting directions. Keeping your arms in the air makes a forceful jump.

Plyometric: For excellent result you should use both weight training with carefully planned plyometric program. With this method you will see progress within the first half of the season.

Always remember to give importance to the core as only a well-developed soccer fitness program to develop the core will positively aim these areas.

Programs: Generally, a program that is quantifiable and specific to an individual needs to be applied at the beginning of the season. The complete development of the player involves targeting specific areas of the body starting with the core and then toward each section of the body.

Finally it should be said that weight training soccer can be useful by first preparing the players; as it requires the players and the team to own the program. You are invited to become a member of 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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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 training fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: www.SoccerDrillsTips.com

Weight Training Soccer: How To Develop Strategies

Posted by pfauthor on September 6th, 2010 under Premier Soccer Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

You may not agree, but check this out. You can greatly benefit from Weight training soccer when coaching your players in a sport that requires 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.

During soccer strength training, Specificity is a very important concept. The idea is that to train your players to practice in a manner which is similar to that when they play on the fields. For Example: Runners practice through running and swimmers through swimming.

In order to enhance strength an essential thing to be stressed upon while exercising is speed. Weight training programs should be designed in a manner that takes in to account the individuals role in team sports, their age, physical and mental ability to take pressure, and the level at which they are to play.

While developing a fitness training program, all this information is helpful for a coach to ensure a good start.

Weight training soccer

Physical conditioning usually requires activities that improve specific training. Like for developing aerobic and strength and power fitness exercises, running and weight lifting are also performed by swimmers.

Injury prevention is another aspect of weight training soccer that is often overlooked. 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.

Soccer is a sport which involves running, sprinting, turning and twisting, side-stepping, and setting for an attempt. To develop strength, stability and power the chain of muscles titled as the “anterior and posterior chain,” involved in these activities should be given attention.

Hence the core lifts, like squats and deadlifts are essential working out for building these muscles. A comprehensive soccer fitness program giving due stress upon these two core lifts should work miracles for leg, hip, back and abdominal strength.

The program can also consist of swimming to highlight the areas of shoulders, arms and back muscles.

Ordinary strength program comprises of doing pretty heavy weights but only a few times. As we have talked earlier some sports require mass and power but some others like soccer requires a good combination of strength with flexibility, speed and resistance; especially the midfielder.

Working on very special muscle groups can also enhance the performance even if primary strength, power or endurance gains are lacking. These include the lower back and hamstrings, and the quadriceps muscles that direct knee joint function.

Now having equipped with knowledge always keep in mind that in weight training soccer doing weights might not give much benefit. You can also join our youth soccer coaching community that has a plethora of informative articles, weekly newsletters, and videos to help you better understand the concepts of youth coaching.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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: Weight training soccer

Weight Training Soccer: Discover Soccer Conditioning

Posted by pfauthor on September 3rd, 2010 under Premier Soccer Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

In soccer training Weight training soccer plays an important role in creating tougher and quicker muscles, this you might have heard a lot of times. Your players will have a chance to play at a higher level if they develop themselves using this soccer fitness plan discussed as follows.

The new theory of soccer weight training is to have strong and fast muscles with higher stamina rather that to keep on adding pounds of muscle bulk. Upper body weight training for soccer is not as important as is for the legs, but we still do it for overall conditioning and strength.

I think fitness training should start with the legs. It should be started with the crouching exercises first. 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. Considering that they have good strength, hence give them 220 pounds to start with. The exercise involves getting under the bar then placing it on the upper back and finally standing up with it.

They should then get out of the stands and stand with their feet and shoulder 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.

Youth Soccer Drills

They should be given a break of 5-10 minutes before switching to the leg curl machine to work on hamstrings. Your players will be doing 4 sets of 15 reps each. The Stiff-Legged Dead lift with 4 sets of 15 reps should be completed between each set of Leg Curls. As player’s speed is greatly improves by strong hamstrings, so they should be very tough.

Finish the leg workouts on Standing calf-raise machine and doing 3 sets of 25 reps

Begin with using the Incline bench press, for the upper body workout.
Now when the they are warmed up they must go on by including enough weights so that the next set of 10 reps is harder to do. They are supposed keep on doing weights for a total of 5 sets of 10 reps, while stretching their chest and shoulders, however taking a break of 2 minutes between 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. Conclude with 5 sets of 50 or more crunching exercises.

In short weight training soccer is only a small portion of the complete training program required to make great soccer players. You are welcomed to our youth soccer coaching community coming up more information about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; it also has videos, articles, pod casts, and newsletters available for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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 training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Coaching