The Mayo News

Training for sports – Soccer players


Personal trainer
Paul O'Brien

Training for soccer, or indeed other team sports, makes particular demands on the joints and muscles of your body. In years past, soccer training too often consisted of endless laps around a field with a little bit of ballwork and a practice game thrown in. Unfortunately, this regimen still prevails in many cases.
However, training should be based on the movement patterns and cardiovascular demands made upon players in a match. Do they need to run at a steady pace for long intervals? Clearly not. Then why incorporate this into training by way of long laps around the pitch? It does not mirror what happens in a match situation. So restrict the laps to two or three as a basic warm-up before moving onto more dynamic warm-ups exercises.

Movement patterns
During a match, the following movement patterns can be observed: stop-start bursts of speed of varying lengths during the course of the game; dynamic movements requiring agility, co-ordination, speed and quickness, all from a platform of excellent core strength; ‘power moves’ such as bursts of speed or leaping vertically into the air; high levels of lower-body muscular endurance to cope with demands placed on the legs; and upper-body strength to avoid being easily knocked off the ball.

Win the final quarter
Statistics and experience show that close games are won or lost in the last quarter of a game. The difference between winning and losing is, in my opinion, directly related to training principles and techniques – and these should take the importance of the final quarter into account.
If you and your team want to blow opponents away in an explosive final quarter and tip those results in your favour, your training needs to include speedwork – forward, backward, diagonal and lateral speed drills; interval work – developing power and speed over varying distances; agility – developing your ability to change direction while stopping, starting, accelerating and decelerating; quickness – developing your ability to respond reflexively to game situations; gym work – to develop muscular endurance and strength where they are needed, as well as power, using weighted and plyometric exercise.
Now you’ve answered the question of what’s needed, the next step is to have a trainer develop the program, do the work and reap the rewards. Winning is worth it!

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