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You might disagree, but hear me out on 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. Strong abdominal and lower back muscles are also essential for players for whom strength and power is not the main issue.
This article explains the basic principles of weight training for soccer using common activities for demonstrating those principles.
Specificity is a common principle in soccer strength training. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. It is necessary to prevent injury although it is not the direct factor to contribute towards to the play however it enables the players to maintain their fitness in order to perform their best at the special times of the season.
Soccer is a sport which involves running, sprinting, turning and twisting, side-stepping, and setting for an attempt. 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.
So for creating these muscles core lifts, like squats and deadlifts are important exercises. The normal soccer fitness program should useful if special importance is given to these two core lifts that are crucial for leg, hip, back and abdominal strength.
Swimming can also help to add strength to shoulders, arms and back muscles.
Strength programs normally consist of heavy loads and a small number of 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.
Working on very special muscle groups can also enhance the performance even if primary strength, power or endurance gains are lacking. These muscle groups are the lower back and hamstrings, and the quadriceps muscles that direct knee joint function.
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 are invited to become a member of 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.