Strength in Soccer

Strength forms the basis for power and speed. Soccer players also need strength to hold off challenges from
opponents.
Professional soccer players don't tend to have the same absolute strength as American football players or rugby
players for example. Too much bulk would hinder their agility and speed off the mark. Aerobic and strength
endurance play a more substantial role in soccer than they do in American football.
The most common method for measuring absolute strength is to determine one repetition maximum. Usually the
bench press is used for the upper body and leg press for the lower body.
Perhaps more important in soccer than absolute strength is relative strength...

Relative strength is simply your absolute or maximum strength adjusted according to your body weight. So a
140lb player who can leg press 280lbs is said to have greater relative strength than a player who can also press
280lbs but who weighs say, 165lbs.
If you can bench press your own body weight and leg press twice your body weight you have excellent relative
strength.
Of course, this is a rough measure because 100lbs on one weights machine is often more difficult to lift than
100lbs on another machine.

Soccer players tend to have very well-developed quadriceps. The quads should be approximately twice the
strength of the opposing hamstring muscle group, but in some players this difference can increase.
It's a good idea to spend time strengthening the hamstrings in relation to the quads if this is the case.

Speed & Agility in Soccer

Another significant component of a soccer fitness program is speed and agility training. The speed of play in
today's game is said to be quicker than ever. While elite soccer players are by no means Olympic sprinters, all
other things being equal, faster players have a marked competitive edge.
A very simple speed test is a sprint over 30 yards from a standing start. You can do this easily if you have
someone time you. Take the average time over 3-4 sprints (with plenty of rest between attempts).
Anytime under 5.0 seconds is good. Professional players average 4.0 seconds.

Perhaps more important than all-out speed is speed endurance...

Sprint Fatigue Times for Professional Soccer Players

Time (seconds) Best sprint time Fatigue

Average 6.80 0.64

Range 6.53 - 7.01 0.15 - 0.92
*To calculate fatigue take your fastest sprint and subtract it from your slowest sprint

Flexibility in Soccer
 Last and certainly not least is flexibility.
In most cases increasing your range of motion can be very beneficial - not only in the prevention if injury but to
increase your speed, agility and power too.
Flexibility sessions should feature heavily in your soccer fitness regime.
Measuring flexibility is a simple procedure.

A test like the modified sit and reach, groin flexibility test or truck rotation test are all specific to soccer. You can
also buy a large protractor called a goniometer to quickly measure the range of movement about a joint.

Be sure to read the other soccer fitness articles here at the site. You'll find plenty of programs and drills to
improve your level of conditioning and of course, your game!

Soccer Fitness Training Tips & Sessions

Sport Fitness Advisor has recently developed Total Soccer Fitness - a comprehensive step-by-step guide to peak
soccer performance...

It covers all the important elements of fitness in depth:

 Strength and strength endurance training

 Speed and agility training

 Aerobic and anaerobic endurance training

 Flexibility, warming up and cooling down

 Testing soccer-specific fitness

 Nutrition for soccer

 Off-season, pre-season and in-season program design

Soccer Speed Training

At any level, speed separates the outstanding players from the average...
So, soccer speed training sessions should play a major role in your training.
Speed in soccer can be quite complex. It certainly entails more than just running fast.
When you talk about speed in your game, here are some of the attributes that will make
you a better player...
 Quick speed off the mark
 Quick acceleration over 10-15 yards
 Good speed endurance
 Speed in possession of the ball
 Quickness of feet or agility
 The ability to quickly change direction
 The ability to execute skills quickly
 Last but not least... speed of thought
You can see from the above that good 100m sprinters don't necessarily have the
attributes to be quick soccer players. And by the same token...
Players who are not typically fast runners can excel in soccer if they have sharp feet and
quick speed of thought. Remember that old phrase...
"The first 10 yards are in your head."
Absolute speed or your ability to run fast is determined by a number of factors - the
obvious one being genetics.
But if you've been blessed with less than favourable sprinting genes don't worry too
much...
A good soccer speed training program will improve the efficiency of your muscle fibres (if
not the type or amount of them) and that will make you faster.
So, one goal of your soccer speed training schedule should be to increase your sprinting
power - particularly your acceleration and speed off the mark. Soccer players rarely
sprint more than 50 yards in a straight line.
A second, and equally important, goal is to increase your speed endurance. I mention this in
another article calling it "anaerobic endurance"...
Speed endurance training significantly improves your recovery after a bout of repetitive
sprints. Your body's ability to remove lactic acid increases which can make such a
difference to your game.
Thirdly, a soccer speed training program should improve agility, foot speed and reaction
time. Exercises to improve agility don't tend to be physically taxing. The emphasis is on
short, sharp movements of a high quality.
Finally, incorporating a ball into some of the speed and agility drills is important to make
all those gains in speed transferable to the field of play.
As for speed of thought, I can't help you there. That come with practise... and eating lots
of greens ;-)

How to Improve Your Speed & Sprinting Power

Before we move on to agility and fast feet, let's look at how training can significantly
improve absolute speed and acceleration. There are 4 important elements that will make
you a faster athlete...

1. Strength and Power Training

Power relates directly to absolute speed. 100m sprinters are very powerful. So are
footballers. Weight lifters are very strong - but not necessarily as powerful.
Power is a combination of both strength and speed of contraction. Increase either one
and you increase power. Ideally, you want to increase both.
Weight training increases strength and plyometric training "converts" that strength into
speed and power.
Both strength and plyometric training for soccer are covered in the following 2 articles...

2. Sprint Training
To improve speed off the mark, running mechanics and acceleration training should
feature in your soccer speed training routine. It doesn't have to be much - just one short
session a week before practice is enough during the in-season.
Drills should be completed over short distances with plenty of rest between sprints. The
idea is not to tire you. Concentrate on form and speed of leg movement over the first few
yards.
Over the course of a season, start sprint drills in mid to late pre-season and continue
right through the in-season. Because they aren't fatiguing you can perform they the day
before a game. A lot of pros teams feel that they help to increase mental sharpness in
preparation for an upcoming game.
As a side note, sprint drills should be performed at the start of a training session when
you are fresh.

3. Speed Endurance Training

Be prepared - this type of training can be a killer. A few athletes I know have nicknames
for some of these drills. None of them are repeatable here!
But from a personal perspective, the rewards are worth the temporary "discomfort" you
feel after (and during) a short session.
As you can probably gather these drills are intense. They are designed to generate large
amounts of lactic acid quickly. That way your body adapts by increasing its removal and
dramatically speeding up your recovery.
What does this have to do with speed?
Soccer is a multi-sprint sport and there are many occasions over 90 minutes when you
are forced to make repeated sprints in quick succession. Your ability to maintain high
percentage of your speed and power relies, in part, on your body's ability to remove
lactic acid. Besides...
There's nothing worse than receiving the ball after several sprints chasing opponents - as
they triangles around you! Try doing a Cruyff turn then!
From personal experience, as taxing as these speed endurance drills are they make a
game feel easy. It's a real confidence booster and well worth the effort.
During mid to late pre-season you can perform 2 speed endurance sessions a week
(separated by 24-48 hours).
During the in-season this can be reduced to one or even omitted if you have 2 games in
a week.

4. Flexibility training
It's always an uphill struggle trying to get athletes to stretch for the purpose of
increasing their range of motion. They'll do it to warm-up but there are so many benefits
to moderately increasing range of motion.
One of them is increasing power and speed of motion.
A muscle can only contract as fast as its opposing muscle can relax. Flexibility training
can release tightness and promote this speed of relaxation.
Increasing range of motion also helps to lengthen leg stride and is important for quick
and agile changes in direction.
Try to do some stretching exercises three times a week - following a training session
when muscles are warm.

How to Improve Your Quickness & Agility

A soccer speed training program should also cater for agility...

Agility defines your ability to accelerate, decelerate and change direction quickly, whilst
maintaining speed, body control and poise. Often times you have to do this while in
possession of the ball.
Whereas strength, power and all-out sprint training are designed to improve your
maximum speed, agility and quickness drills help to increase the speed of finer
movements. They improve co-ordination, balance and foot speed.