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.

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.”

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.

Here is a stretching sequence and a hip mobility series that would be great addition to your soccer conditioning program.

In the video clip below Michael Cano, of ONEighty Athletics, takes a group of athletes through a warm up stretching series and follows that with a series of exercises designed to increase hip mobility. Both of these sets of exercises would be beneficial for soccer athletes.

These can easily be worked into your off season conditioning program or part of your pre-practice warm-up.

Stretching Routine

Left Knee on Ground- Right Leg in Lunge Position:

1. Hamstring Stretch x10 secs

2. World’s Greatest x10 secs

3. Over Shoulder Twist x10 secs Switch Legs

Hip Mobility Series

1. Push up to Worlds Greatest W/i Pause X2 ea Leg

2. Single Exchange x2 ea

3. Double Exchange x2

4.Squat Position hands on ankles

For more great tips on increasing the speed of your players check out The Ultimate Speed Training Blueprint

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that you speakers are on and that you have access to the site. Note that some schools block access to YouTube

You can increase the speed of your players with proper training. Here are three drills that will make your players faster.

In the video below Michael Cano, of ONEighty Athletics, demonstrates three simple drill to increase the speed of your players.

The three drill are as follows:

1. Seated Arm Action: 2 sets x 15 Secs

2. Fast Claw Drill: 2 sets x 5 Each Leg 10 total

3. Wall Drills:

a.Single Exchange 2 sets x 5 Each Leg 10 total

b.Triple Exchange 2 sets x 4 Reps

These are just three of the many speed development drills in Coach Can0’s toolbox. To get  more great FREE ideas on speed development click the link: The Ultimate Speed Training Blueprint