Soccer Toolbox

Creating Agile Athletes

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This article was provided by Coaches Network

Athletes who can stop, start, and change direction quicker than their opponents will almost always have the advantage. That’s why agility training is so important. One of the best ways to develop these skills is to incorporate agility bags into your conditioning regimen.

Doug Heslip, owner of Heslip Elite Sports Performance Training in Negaunee, Mich., and contributor to IYCA.org, says that agility bags are one of his favorite training tools. He believes the bags offer a fun way to teach reactionary skills, which will help keep athletes safe and performing at a high level.

Agility bags essentially represent an obstacle in the athlete’s way, typically an opponent. As athlete’s step over, jump over, or cut past the bags, they will develop coordination, footwork, and body control.  This can also help them develop spatial awareness and the ability to use peripheral vision, giving them the ability to keep their eyes on the play while knowing what is around them.

If you don’t have agility bags at your disposal, many of the same drills can be done with cones or small hurdles. Here’s a list of the drills that Heslip recommends:

Drill 1

Place six bags on the ground. The athlete can start in the middle of the six bags or at either end of the bags. You should stand at the third bag a few feet away with a ball. The ball you have can vary based on the sport. For most sports, you will hold the ball in your hands, but if you’re coaching soccer then keep a ball at your feet.

Point the ball to the left or to the right, and the athlete will follow the ball in the direction pointed. Then, point in the opposite direction and the athlete has to change direction to follow the ball. You can change direction at any time. If you are coaching soccer, you can just use your arms to direct the athletes.

When you want the athlete to transition from two-ins frontal plane to one-ins sagittal plane, yell “Score,” or another word of your choice. When you yell the word, toss/pass them the ball and they will perform one-ins until they reach the end of the six bags. This could be modified for soccer by having them dribble between the bags.

Drill 2

The bags are set up the same way as in Drill 1. The difference is you play catch with the athletes as they travel in the frontal plane performing two-ins. This is where peripheral vision must really be utilized. For soccer players, you can pass the ball back and forth as they go through the drill.

Travel up and down the six bags at first while playing catch/passing with the ball.  As the athlete gets used to this drill and is confident going over the bags while playing catch/passing, you can change direction on them and have them respond. If they are late getting to the ball and it hits the floor, the drill is restarted.

Drill 3 (Mirror Drill)

Take four bags and lay them on the ground. Take another four bags and lay them right across from the original four bags. Have each set of four bags approximately one yard from each other. For this drill, you need two athletes at a time. One of them will be the “lead” while the other will be the “responder” and will mirror the lead’s movement. You can choose how sport-specific you’d like the drill to be by utilizing balls or other implements.

The lead will initiate the movement by moving laterally with two-ins. The responder will follow with two-ins. The lead can go up and down the four bags a maximum of six times. The lead can change direction any time they want to, and before the sixth rep, they have to transition from lateral movement to straight ahead one-ins. Have a coach approximately ten yards away with their hands extended out to their side, shoulder level. The first player to slap the coach’s hand wins. You can use six to eight bags. Heslip says this drill is very fun and competitive.


High Tempo Warm-up : Movement Prep

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Here is a High Tempo & minute warm-up that you can use with your team prior to your workouts.

This warm-up was provided by my friends at ONEighty Athletics

Time and situations are crucial in coaching and for implementing a high quality warm-up.
****KEY POINTS****
1.) EFFORT is contagious! Meaning if you the coach demands effort you better make sure you are giving 110% and bringing the energy!
2.) Set CLEAR and HIGH Standards. If they don’t meet those standards. DO IT AGAIN, & AGAIN & AGAIN until its RIGHT!
3.) Meet with your team leaders before hand. Let them know your expectations and how you’ll be using them to Fuel the fire and inspire greatness from their team.
4.) The reason I’m able to push these kids very hard is the relationship that has been built. They know I care about them and my intent is to make them the best versions of themselves!
YOU CAN NOT FAKE THE WORK!

Here’s the full Warm Up:

A.) Dynamic
1. Burst 5 yards :High Knees:Sprint 15 yards
2. Knee Hug to Lunge + Sprint 10 yards
3 .Walking Hamstring + Sprint 10 yards
4. Hamstring Toe Touch + Sprint 10 yards
5. Lateral Lunge Strength + Sprint 10 yards
6. Shuffle 10 (COD)+ Shuffle 10
B.) Static
*Left Knee on Ground- Right Leg in Lunge Position:
1. Hamstring Stretch x10 secs
2. World’s Greatest x10 secs
3. Hamstring Crawl outs x5 ea
C.)2 Cone Agilities:
4 total reps
1.Sprint- Sprint
2.Sprint- Back Pedal
=on left side of cone=
3.Back Pedal- Sprint
4.Figure 8

Check out the video below to see each warm-up exercise.

If you like this warm up you’ll love Their 8-Week Elite Training  Program.

If you’re looking for a Step-By-Step Program To Drastically Improve Your Team’s Athletic Potential, Competitiveness, And Mental Toughness, click the link to learn more

 8 Week Elite Training Program

 


The Total Soccer Player

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This article was provided by Training and Conditioning

Soccer players may use their legs more than anything else, but they still need a strong core and upper body in order to excel in every part of the game. Here is a guide to designing a total body exercise regimen that any soccer player can benefit from.

Rogue Parrish of livestrong.com describes why soccer players need to develop strength throughout their body, and lists some of the best exercises for making that happen.

Core

The core muscles are the foundation of many athletic movements. In soccer, a strong core will help players have balance and stability when shooting, dribbling, and passing the ball. The core includes the big and small muscles in the abdomen and back that connect the center of the body, which initiate and decelerate motion and affect all your motions as a soccer player. Parrish suggests doing back extensions, the seated medicine ball twist, and the hanging knee raise in order to strengthen this important area of the body.

Upper Body

When soccer players are jostling for possession or going shoulder to shoulder with an opponent, usually the one with the stronger upper body wins out. Having strong arms and shoulders will also help players during throw-ins. Parrish recommends using pushing exercises to develop strength in the front upper torso, and pulling exercises to develop the upper back. Some effective pushing exercises include the bench chest press, pushups, and upper-body step-ups, where your hands walk up to and over a box from the pushup position. You can also make pushups a little more challenging by having players push up on a soccer ball. Pulling exercises should include rows, pull-downs, side raises, and dumbbell curls.

Legs

This is the most obvious part of the body that soccer players need to strengthen, not only for the sake of performance but also for the sake of injury prevention. On top of a full load of running, cutting, and jumping, soccer players are also constantly kicking the ball and clashing with other people’s legs, which can quickly add to the wear and tear. Squats and lunges with barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, or just bodyweight, are a good way to start strengthening the legs. You can also add single-leg exercises to improve both strength and balance at the same time. Some effective single-leg exercises include single-leg squats, with your rear leg supported by a box, as well as single-leg deadlifts, while holding either dumbbells or kettlebells.

Program Design

Being organized with your total-body training is key. Parrish recommends that players keep a training card with their name and a list of the exercises, as well as columns for dates, repetitions, sets, and amount of weight lifted or machine weight settings. This will help them track their progress and prevent them from overusing certain muscle groups. Coaches should also keep in mind that total-body workouts can be very demanding and should not be paired with high-intensity conditioning or weight lifting.


7 Agility Cone Drills

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This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

Have you found that while your athletes are consistently getting stronger, they are not gaining agility? If so, you might want to consider adding footwork and running drills to their workouts.

Doing this will not only make your athletes faster, but also give them more power and endurance. When implementing agility drills, one of the best instruments to use is a cone.

Affordable and easy to transport, cones can add variety to any workout. Unfortunately, some coaches associate cone drills with football, and many of the exercises actually have football in their name. However, Matt Rhodes, Head of Strength and Conditioning at Morehead State, found that none of them are truly sport-specific. After four weeks of applying these drills to the workouts of the softball team at Morehead, both players and coaches noticed great improvement in how the athletes looked and moved.

“My advice: no matter what sport you work with find some football cone drills and teach your athletes how to do them,” Rhodes wrote in an article for elitefts. “In my opinion, no drills like this are sport-specific (I said football because football has thousands of cone drills to choose from).  They are simply drills that get the athletes moving and changing direction in a variety of different ways.”

In an article for Livestrong, personal trainer Joe King echoes the sentiment that these drills can help athletes adapt to the fast-paced environment of any sport. According to King, having athletes run to cones in different patterns can increase their speed, as they are training the skeletal muscles to contract quickly. While building speed, cone drills can also help athletes increase their balance and coordination.

“By setting up a series of cones in patterns that require a lot of forward, backward and lateral body movements, you can increase agility,” writes King. “In sports competitions, this means that you may be able to move more efficiently across the playing field.”

Beyond speed and agility, cone drills can also make your athletes more explosive. This can be done by making sure athletes are pushing off of each turn as hard as possible or even having them jump over cones at progressively higher platforms. And while it may seem like these drills are aimed only towards short bursts of energy, they can also help athletes build endurance.

“Having muscular and cardiovascular endurance can help you maintain a high level of intensity over a long duration, such as during a sporting event,” writes King. “You can increase both your muscular endurance and cardiovascular endurance by interval training with cones. Interval training involves setting up cones progressively further apart from one another and running back and forth between them with little to no rest in between.”

Along with interval training, there are a plethora of cone drills that can be used to improve athlete performance. Here are two explained by Jay Dawes, PhD, CSCS*D, NSCA-CPT*D, FNSCA, in an article for the National Strength and Conditioning Association:

Quickness Box

This drill is good for improving quickness in confined spaces. It should be done for approximately 10 seconds per set, and athletes should do two or three sets.

  1. Set up four cones in a square with sides approximately 6-10 feet long.
  2. Number the cones one through four.
  3. The athlete assumes an athletic position in the center of the box.
  4. Specify whether the athlete will touch each cone with a specific hand or just using the closest one.
  5. With either a hand signal or out loud, the coach will give the athlete a number.
  6. The athlete will run, backpedal, or shuffle to the specified cone and touch it.
  7. The athlete sprints back to the starting position.
  8. Repeat.

Y-Drill

This drill will help athletes learn how to rapidly adjust stride and foot placement to change into other movement patterns.

  1. Set up four cones in a the shape of a Y. The two cones at the top of the Y and the base cone should be placed about 10 yards from the middle cone.
  2. The cones should be numbered as follows: base cone—1, middle cone—2, top cones—3 & 4.
  3. The coach stands in front of cone 2, inside the V at the top of the Y.
  4. The athlete assumes a sport-specific position at cone 1.
  5. At the coach’s designated signal, the athlete sprints to cone 2.
  6. The coach then directs the athlete to which of the three other cones he or she should sprint to next.
  7. Coaches can modify this drill by having athletes backpedal or side shuffle to the designated cone.

To see five other cone drills in action, check out this video from Profect Sports

The YouTube video below has sound, so please make sure your volume is turned up and that you have access to the site. Note some schools block access to YouTube

 


Ankle Strength: Reducing Injuries

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This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

Strong ankles are essential for athletic performance. Unfortunately, this area of the body can be very susceptible to injury, which means that strengthening the ligaments and muscles around the ankles is all the more important. Here are some exercises to help make that happen.

Stana Landon of Active.com explains that ankles are put under a lot of stress any time an athlete performs a movement like running, cutting, or jumping. Strong ankles will be better able to handle this stress, and athletes will be less likely to experience chronic injuries, such as shin splints and Achilles tendonitis. That’s why she suggests incorporating a number of ankle-strengthening exercises into your training.

Balance Training

Better balance increases proprioception, which is the body’s ability to realize its place in space.

Single-Leg Squats

While standing on one leg, do a half squat. Do 10 reps with the opposite leg out in front, 10 with it to the side, and 10 with it behind. Repeat this three times on each leg.

Leg Stand

Start by standing on one leg for 30 seconds and then switch. Gradually work your way up to holding each stand for a minute.

Balance and Catch 

Stand on one leg directly across from a partner. Then, throw a ball back and forth with the partner, and have them throw it to the left and right, as well as low and high. Aim to perform three sets of 30 throws.

Building Strength

For ankle-strengthening exercises, Landon suggests using a TheraBand. This is a great tool for providing resisted range of motion in every direction, such as inversion, eversion, dorsiflexion, and plantar flexion. During these exercises, place the band around the top of the foot and curl the toes at the end of each movement. This will help work the foot’s internal muscles. Each exercise should be done in three sets of 20.

Along with using the TheraBand, Landon also suggests doing calf raises to build ankle strength. These are simple and don’t require any equipment. They should be done both seated and standing in order to target both the calf muscles and the Achilles tendon. Aim for three sets of 20.

Lastly, Landon recommends doing plyometric exercises to toughen up the ankles. These jumping movements will help make the muscles around the ankles stronger and more explosive. Two exercises she mentions are scissor hops and standing squat jumps.

Scissor Hops

Start in the lunge position. Then, jump and switch feet in mid-air, landing with the opposite foot forward. Repeat 10 to 15 times.

Squat Jumps

Start by getting into a quarter-squat position. Then, explode up from there into a jump and land back down softly. Repeat 10 to 15 times.