Soccer Conditioning : 3 Things You Must Know

It's a known fact that a soccer conditioning program provides a strong base for a team's success. It is because of soccer exercises which build strength, agility, and endurance that players manage to stay in shape and thus dream to become match winners for their team.

Still, your team or you may face situations where there is paucity of time to train ahead of a tournament. But you don't need to compromise on the conditioning exercises because of this. You would not want to see your players down with injuries either previous to the match or in the match.

Any well laid down soccer fitness training plan can lead to training players completely in just 3 days time. All that it takes is seriousness, good preparation, and its implementation. Here are a few tips to work with short but effective conditioning programs.

Warming up: Instruct the players to start with any of the following; a five minute jog, high knees, jumping, or heel flicks. Take enough rest for a minute or so in between. Then tone the muscles up by doing some stretching exercises for 5 minutes. Make sure that these soccer workouts consist of all the main muscle groups.

Running: Some coaches have the habit of making their players do continuously rounds of running. Although there's nothing wrong with that, it's advisable that players strictly do some soccer specific running only. It implies that they do running, jogging, walking, and sprinting in no set order for about half an hour.

This form of running at different speeds helps the players get strong and have more control over their bodies. And they do not feel exhausted since a walk after a sprint evens things out.

Just let the individual players decide on what they wish to do and when. If they enjoy doing sprints more than jogging, that is OK. As the kids develop more strength and energy, you can increase the length of the soccer conditioning program by 10 minutes.

Stretching: Instruct the players to do it religiously; both before and after the match or a training session. Concentrate on working out the whole body specially the hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back. Ensure that the stretching positions are of longer durations than the warm-up sessions. Usually, 20 to 30 seconds is perfect.

Ask the kids to rest completely a day before the match. This will allow the muscles to recover and also prevent the possibility of an injury. It is also a good time to have a discussion with them and boost their confidence.

Make them laugh a lot so that they start getting positive.

Believe me! Once these techniques are applied, your players shall start playing dramatically well. To know more about soccer conditioning, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community which will leave you richer with resources on youth soccer.

Andre Botelho is the author of "The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide" and he's an expert in the subject of Soccer conditioning. Tp explode your players' skills and make coaching fun in less than 29 days, download your free Soccer Fitness guide at: Soccer conditioning.