Fitness & Conditioning for young soccer players

In modern sport, fitness and conditioning are hugely important. Professional athletes are stronger, faster, and better conditioned than ever before. Furthermore, developments in sports science and technology mean we have access to more tools to aid our development.

While fitness is important for adults, it is also vital for the long-term development and well-being of young athletes. Even if you don’t want to become a professional soccer player, improving your fitness and conditioning has many benefits. You will feel better and have more energy. You will also improve your quality of life.

Why is fitness & conditioning important for young athletes?

First off, let’s briefly look at why these two things are so important for young athletes. As children go through puberty their bodies develop. It is important to take advantage of these changes and maximize their effectiveness.

Training is also a vital component of young soccer players reaching their full potential. You may have a talented young player who is skillful and has brilliant ball control but lacks physical strength and speed. In a situation like this, improving the child’s fitness and conditioning would allow them to utilize their natural soccer talent and reach their full potential.

In addition to this, fitness training offers the following benefits:

• Improved speed
• Improved stamina
• Increased resistance to injury
• Improved core strength
• Healthier lifestyle

Not only can you improve your player’s soccer development, but you can also instill in them the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. The skills a child learns in soccer can be applied throughout their lives and help them develop into well-rounded adults.

 

How can young soccer players improve their fitness and conditioning?

So, how can you improve the fitness and conditioning of young soccer players? First, let’s look at a brief definition of fitness and conditioning. We can then discuss specific training exercises and tips to help improve the fitness and conditioning of young soccer players:

Fitness – Fitness is defined as “the condition of being physically fit and healthy”. It is a broad term that we apply to many scenarios.  With regard to soccer, fitness involves endurance, speed, agility, strength, and power. Young soccer players must be physically fit so they can utilize their skills and endure full-length matches.

Conditioning –Conditioning is more specific. It is the process of conditioning a young player’s body for optimum performance in their sport. This will ultimately help their development as a soccer player. It also helps to improve their recovery times and resistance to injury.

Tips and routines to improve fitness and conditioning for young soccer players

 

1. Build stamina through interval training

Stamina is an important physical aspect of soccer. Stamina and endurance determine if a player can remain effective over the course of an entire match. Remember that soccer matches last for 90 minutes – if a young player has poor stamina, they may become tired and perform poorly even before half time.

Interval training is a relatively simple way to improve stamina. This type of training is also known as the stop and go training. The basic premise is to perform continual running drills at two different paces. For example, players would sprint at 100% effort to the halfway line, and then jog slowly using 50% effort to the other end of the pitch. This change in pace improves endurance, but also simulates the type of exertion young players are required to make in matches.

 

2. Improve sprint speed through resistance training

As well as stamina, soccer players also need speed and acceleration. This allows them to out-pace other players, and quickly reach the ball. A great way to improve speed is through resistance training exercises.
Resistance training is simple and involves the use of resistance bands or other tough materials that provide resistance to muscle movements. Simple exercises involve lunges, pushups, and running on the spot (all with the aid of resistance bands).

 

3. Build strength through squats and lunges

Although soccer is a non-contact sport, young players must be physically strong. This is especially important when jockeying for position in set-pieces and challenging for the ball in tackles. Weightlifting is a great activity for building strength – though it is not advisable for young children and teenagers. To that end, simple physical exercises like squats, lunges, and push-ups can help develop core strength.

 

4. Improve general fitness through simple stamina training

To build on point 1, there are a host of other exercises and routines young soccer players can perform to help build stamina including:

• Running up and downstairs
• jumping up and downstairs
• Chest jumps
• Shuttle runs

Many of these exercises can be completed without equipment, which make them fantastic for young players to complete in their own time too.

 

5. Improve flexibility through extensive Warm Ups routines and Stretching

Soccer players must be flexible and agile. They must be able to change direction quickly, accelerate and decelerate, and be supple in their movements. A great way to improve this aspect of conditioning is to ensure rigorous pre-training and pre-game warm ups.

Pre-training warm ups are essential. Firstly, warm ups help to minimize the potential of injury and common problems like cramp. Jumping straight into exercise can be detrimental as your muscles and limbs aren’t ready for action. Secondly, warm ups are great for performing simple exercises that can improve a young player’s flexibility and movement.

Examples of warm up exercises that improve flexibility include:

• High knees
• Butt kicks
• Pull knee to chest
• Pull foot to the rear
• Quick shuffles

 

6. Allow sufficient recovery time between training sessions

Teenagers and young children have not developed fully – their bodies are still growing. It is therefore important to allow sufficient recovery time between individual activities and training sessions. Although young children recover quickly, we don’t want to expose them to potential injuries or put their bodies under too much pressure.

Ensure training sessions are no longer than two hours. Also, mix training sessions and practices to include both intense and slow-paced activities. Finally, ensure soccer practices are evenly-spaced throughout the week, so that young players can have time to recover.

 

7. Monitor your progress and set achievable goals

A key to improving fitness and conditioning in young players is to set goals and monitor their progress. At the beginning of the soccer season, create a set of statistics and timings for each player. For example, you could record their 100m sprint time, and record times for different routines and training activities.

This gives both the coach and player a benchmark to work from. As the season progresses, you can monitor progress and set realistic goals for improvement. This provides players with focus and something to strive toward. It also provides coaches with benchmark figures to monitor the development of their team.

 

8. Try and maintain a balanced, nutritional diet

We cannot stress the importance of diet and nutrition enough! This applies to all children and teenagers – not just soccer players. What you eat and drink can greatly help or hinder your development as an athlete. Furthermore, it can affect your quality of life and future. If you fill your body with the wrong types of food and drink, you can limit your athletic potential. You can also negatively impact your performance due to feeling lethargic or lacking in energy.

Firstly, whether you’re practicing or competing, stay hydrated! Water is essential to staying hydrated during practices and matches. Coaches should encourage their players to drink fluids and keep themselves hydrated – this can improve energy levels and recovery.

A balanced diet is also important – protein, vitamins, and high fiber food can aid development and fitness levels. Try to avoid sugary foods and junk food – we know that McDonald’s looks inviting, but will it help your development as a soccer player?

Don’t underestimate the importance of fitness and conditioning! Soccer players from age 12 onwards can improve their ability and performance greatly through consistent, disciplined fitness training.

The mental soccer training

Soccer is just as much a mental game as it is a physical game. Even if players have the best grasp of fundamentals and the best soccer training, it's worth nothing if they crack under pressure, or if they have mental, emotional and lifestyle issues outside of soccer that mess with their head in-game.

Bouncing back from a poor performance or handling negative emotions is something that comes from having your head on right, not just practicing drills up and down the field. If you want to get ahead of the game, you should spend as much time training your mind as you do your body.

By learning to manage stress, anxiety and other psychological aspects of the game, you can excel faster than your peers who just focus on the mechanics of soccer. Here are a few soccer training tips to help you do just that.

Visualize the Ball

Sure, you kick the ball around every day. But do you imagine yourself doing it? Even when you're not on the field, use mental imagery to practice your soccer training.

There are two ways you can do it: external visualization, where you imagine watching a movie of yourself playing soccer, or internal visualization, where you imagine playing as though you are actually doing it. This concept will help familiarize you with your task until you could do it half-asleep, with both hands tied behind your back.

We've seen players with inconsistent technique utilize visualization to become more dependable players. They simply needed to discipline their mind to perform at the level their body was capable of. It's a great way to get in more practice time for your brain.

Relax, Chill out, Calm Down

Everybody gets nervous before a game or a performance. Unfortunately, anxiety can also muddle your thinking, which can cause you to make bad judgments on the field. If you're alert, but relaxed, you can make decisions better and faster when you're under pressure.

Controlling your anxiety will go a long way to making you feel more confident in your game, because you'll know that it won't affect your performance. Take some time to relax before each game and you'll find yourself a lot less stressed.

We've seen several players come to us with great technical skill but an overdose of adrenaline. Their technique was great in practice, but they would get worked up and make mistakes when the pressure was on. Indecision and hesitation led to missed shots and botched plays.

Over the course of their training, they learned to relax and focus before the game and during their breaks to help offset their usual tension level. They were still able to harness that energy, but they also reacted coolly under pressure, putting that great technique to use on the field.

Focus on Your Goals

Having both short-term and long-term goals for your soccer training will motivate you and give you something to strive for. If things don't seem to be improving and you don't have any goals, it's easy to get discouraged and consider quitting.

The goals shouldn't be impossible, but they should definitely challenge you and force you to step up your game. Challenging yourself is the only way to consistently improve.

We're constantly pushing our players to advance their skills and become better players. The students with high internal drive and motivation respond well to this kind of pressure and set high goals for themselves. We've see this pay off time and time again as they advance more quickly than their peers.

Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate

Yes, it's easy to get distracted during a game. However, part of being a good player is overcoming that. Concentration drills can help you to improve your focus during a game. But not every drill works the same for every player. Some people are visual learners, while others are audial learners. Find a drill or a pre-game ritual that works best for you.

By mastering your mental game, you can reduce your anxiety, overcome negative emotions, bounce back from a bad mistake and make playing soccer a more enjoyable experience all around. The mental soccer training is just as important as the physical, so don't neglect it. You may be surprised at how much you improve.

      

                                

Nutrition overview by Sergio Taborda

The next soccer season is just starting and activity will increase substantially to the athletes. For that matter, nutrition is an important part of the young athlete development and I would like to share some information that can improve their performance. 

It is imperative that basic nutrition guidelines for young athletes be followed. This will help children to progress to their desirable potentials. Along with their improvement in performance, a healthy diet may reduce injury, reduce recovery time between competitions, make them feel better both physically and mentally, and create healthy eating habits for life. 

The guidelines to youth sport nutrition focus on getting the athlete enough energy and the right kinds of energy for the rigorous demands on their active bodies. A child should always receive a good meal at least an hour or two before practice or competition. In addition, you must encourage your youth athlete to eat a lot of food frequently. They need more fuel than the normal adult population due to their growth alone, but when physical activity comes into play, an increased amount of energy is called for. 

An effective way to ensure that your athlete does not go hungry is to place nonperishable items such as pretzels or sports bars in their bags or practice gear bags. Even extra calories, such as those found in fruits or sports drinks during practice are highly recommended. 

The food pyramid is an excellent guide for parents to follow when deciding on what to feed their young athletes. Youngsters should be ingesting plenty of carbohydrates with unsaturated fat. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and easily digestible foods are recommended. Junk foods, which are high in simple sugars and saturated fats, should be avoided, especially before activity. The sugars may create a quick burst of energy followed by a dive in energy levels. The fatty foods are hard to digest. 

For the adolescent athlete, it is important to watch calcium and iron levels. In periods of rapid growth, athletes are especially susceptible to deficiencies in these areas. Most importantly, proper hydration must be stressed. Dehydration greatly hampers performance and may even lead to heat stress or even heat stroke in extreme cases. Water (or sports drinks or diluted fruit juice) should always be on hand and readily available for young athletes at practices and competitions. Lastly, refueling your athlete after activity is equally important but it is often overlooked. 

Nutritious meals help speed up the recovery process and replace nutrients that have been lost. If the athletes are rewarded for their performances in the way of sweets or fast food, it must be stressed that they should only receive these treats after their game and not as a replacement for regular meals. Following these guidelines will result in a youth athlete who can perform at optimal levels.

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