Train like a champion and you will perform like one!
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| Soccer is a game built upon fitness |
Everyone wants to be the most skilled on the field, but if you cant play for a full 90 than its not as important. Using that skill at only partial your ability due to fitness limits in your value as a player. A professional or any high-level player needs to be able to perform and use their skill all throughout the game.
It takes time and effort to train your fitness, but it is simpler than you think. It wont happen over night, but I bet after just a few weeks of incorporating some of these methods you can notice a difference in your fitness.
These are not specific drills or techniques, but rather methods and general actions to help to train your fitness. Eating healthy is a huge factor to this, but lets take a look at the first method to increased fitness, and arguably the most valued yet underused.
#1. One of the largest used muscles in a soccer players body is not the legs, but rather the abs. All power, strength, and force is driven from our abs. Any portion of running starts with the abs, and works it way down the body.
Breathing only gets easier when you have strong abs, so why neglect all the benefits of strong abs? A large chunk of players fail to work their core enough, and rather try and work on just only running or sprinting.
YOU CAN'T RUN YOUR FASTEST OR HARDEST WITHOUT A STRONG CORE.
Track athletes, who are the most fit for running their specific events, have strong cores and it shows in their ability to perform. The abs help in the breathing process of exhaling and inhaling to assist the diaphragm.
All professional soccer players, and higher level players have just as strong core muscles, and it lets them be able to do the sorts of running that is needed in a 90 minute game.
Lets look at all the attributes of having strong abs: they help with supporting the upper and lower body, allowing for running, twisting, and turning, aid in injury prevention, and lastly allow for explosive performance. All needed in the game of soccer, so why neglect training them?
#2. Its true you need to be able to play for 90 minutes, but like discussed in previous post its not all just running. It breaks down to a rough estimate of 68 minutes per game that an average player actually runs. This also includes sprinting and jogging, yet unlike track athletes it is not all at once, its spread out in small amounts.
This means using the method of Interval Training is huge to being able to perform at a high-level of fitness at various points of the game. Its not about making 1 or 2 hard sprints and being gassed, you have to be able to do so numerous times throughout the game.
Interval Training encompasses the basic concept of training your running/sprinting in intervals of on and off between walking/jogging. For example a workout I have done is, instead of running 1 mile straight, break it off into run one lap at 6 minute pace, and walk the next, and repeat until you have finished 1 mile at 6 minute pace.
#3. Lets look at the game as a whole, just like with your core strength and interval training, you have to actually put 100% effort in to training to get results.You can not go through the paces and think you will magically increase your fitness, wrong.
It may seem obvious, but as I have done myself and what countless others do is train solo because of various reasons. Don't get me wrong, working while others are not looking makes you better, but it also very challenging to do so.
It can be tough to mentally push yourself and find the drive to do better without having someone their to support and challenge you. (See our mental toughness article to also help you)
So I suggest training with a partner or group of similar level athletes who can PUSH you to your limits during training. Someone who can push you to go beyond your normal routine, and do that extra rep or set when your tired is what will help you to excel beyond your current level.
Soccer is a tough game, and being fit for a full game can be even more challenging. So try some of these methods, and look over our mental toughness and training tools to help you out. Future posts will have more in depth drills and techniques for you to use!!
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