It’s not necessary that you agree, but you should listen to this. 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. Even players for whom strength and power is not a main attribute tend to benefit from strong abdominal and lower back muscles.
This article will teach you the basic theories of weight training for soccer using simple methods for presenting those theories.
One of the key principles of soccer strength training is, Specificity. The theory is to design your training sessions to match the player’s activity on the field. Take for example running and swimming, a great exercise for runners and swimmers respectively.
With a view to develop power, the speed of the training or exercise is vital. The role of players in team sports, their age, physical and mental capacity to take stress and their player’s level must be considered when coaching them in weight training programs.
When this kind of information is available to a coach while planning a fitness training program, it ensures a good start.
For over all physical conditioning you should arrange those exercises which develop specific training. For example: swimmers also run and lift weights to improve 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. The effects of injury prevention are not evident directly but they are essential in player’s performance and confirm that the player is fit to play at the most important occasions of the 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.
So for creating these muscles core lifts, like squats and deadlifts are important exercises. The general soccer fitness program may be used commonly but these two core lifts are very essential for leg, hip, back and abdominal strength.
You may also include a swimming program to focus added attention on the shoulders, arms and back muscles.
Usually strength enhancing programs include heavy weight lifting with few repetitions. You should be knowing by now that unlike other sports requiring bulk and weight soccer is a sport that requires strength with mobility, speed and stamina.
Even if primary strength, power or endurance gains are absent, developing particular muscle groups would also help to increase performance. 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 are welcomed to 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.
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