You might disagree, but hear me out on this. Weight training soccer is very essential while coaching the player on sports that needs a lot of strength, and, or explosive power. Even players for whom strength and power is not a main attribute tend to benefit from strong abdominal and lower back muscles.
This article explains the basic principles of weight training for soccer using common activities for demonstrating those principles.
A vital principle in soccer strength training is, Specificity. The concept of this is to coach the players to put more time in working out in a way resembling their play on the field. For Example: Runners practice through running and swimmers through swimming.
To improve power, speed is an important aspect in training. The role of players in team sports, their age, physical and mental capacity to take stress and their player’s level must be considered when coaching them in weight training programs.
When this kind of information is available to a coach while planning a fitness training program, it ensures a good start.
Such exercises should be planned for physical conditioning which improves specific training. You see workouts like running and weight exercises are also performed by swimmers to enhance their aerobic and strength and power fitness.
Injury prevention is another aspect of weight training soccer that is often overlooked. Injury prevention even though not directly contributing to the play, is important as it ensures that the players are fit to play at the most critical times of the year.
Soccer is a sport which involves running, sprinting, turning and twisting, side-stepping, and setting for an attempt. The muscle chain that is required in these movements named as the “anterior and posterior chain,” should be exercised to build strength, stability and power.
The best exercises for developing these muscles are the core lifts, like squats and deadlifts. The general soccer fitness program may be used commonly but these two core lifts are very essential for leg, hip, back and abdominal strength.
The program can also consist of swimming to highlight the areas of shoulders, arms and back muscles.
Ordinary strength program comprises of doing pretty heavy weights but only a few times. You know by now that soccer is a sport which requires sufficient strength with mobility, speed and stamina not just building bulk and mass like other sports.
Even if primary strength, power or endurance gains are absent, developing particular muscle groups would also help to increase performance. They are the lower back and hamstrings, and the quadriceps muscles that help knee joint function.
Now having equipped with knowledge always keep in mind that in weight training soccer doing weights might not give much benefit. You can also join our youth soccer coaching community that has a plethora of informative articles, weekly newsletters, and videos to help you better understand the concepts of youth coaching.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Weight training soccer