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. You will be losing numerous advantages of soccer-specific fitness if you ignore it.
Soccer strength training is only understood correctly by selected coaches. Players of youth soccer teams are supposed to be “complete athletes” now days.
They are required to have swift movements plus the strength of upper body to resist challenges. Both aerobic and anaerobic stamina are needed at an extra ordinary level to keep going till the end. If you get your players to simply lift weights just like the bodybuilders, you are doing yourself, your team and your game a great harm.
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.
One would miss out a great deal from your fitness training sessions if he/she also uses the typical 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions the entire year.
We will now see the reasons
Kicking, jumping, tackling, twisting and turning as well as good speed during soccer comes from lower body strength. Upper body strength, on the other hand, is needed for shielding the ball, and keeping the opponents off.
“Strength” can be divided into three categories, when we talk about weight training soccer.
Absolute or Maximum Strength: It is the maximum energy that your muscle group can exert in a quick, single movement. A player for example doing 250lbs leg press has mightier strength than another doing 200lbs only.
In soccer, good maximal strength is advantageous in holding off the opponents and defending the ball. Most essentially, it is the basis for muscular pace and potential.
Muscular Power: It is the outcome of both absolute strength and the speed of movement. If you increase either of these, without lowering the other, the explosive power of players will increase.
By just following the traditional weight training program that many popular fitness magazines promote; only power will be increased. But even those generalized soccer fitness programs can be improved if you deliberately enhance the speed of contraction.
Strength Endurance: It is the capacity of a muscle group to make repetitive and high-intensity movements. Strength endurance and power both are essential for soccer.
A great significant should be given to include strength endurance in your program. If you follow the simple 3 sets of 8-12 reps each, traditional weight programs are not very useful for developing soccer-specific strength endurance.
Your game is about to improve 10 folds if you just put a little time in planning your weight training soccer program correctly. You can gain more from the reserve of soccer resources like articles, periodic newsletters, and videos at our youth soccer coaching community. So subscribe today.
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.
