Football Fitness and Training

Fitness is crucial to the game of football, and proper fitness cant be achieved in
the short period of training time in pre-season. You will help yourself and the
team and your coaches if you come in almost fit. It is then easier to maintain your
fitness level during the season. Being fit isnt something you should do for a few
weeks just to play football it should be a regular part of your lifestyle.
You should train fitness in a way that is appropriate for the game of football.
Football is primarily an anaerobic sport, not an aerobic one. What we need for
football is to improve anaerobic (muscular) endurance and recovery time by
incorporating sprints, agility and interval training; no distance running over about
2 kms needs to be done. Intersperse straight conditioning with ball work . 1v1 is
excellent for both football conditioning and working on touch and moves, and
only requires one other player.
It is important to listen to your body and not overtrain, so you can put maximum
effort in when you are training. Allow rest days where you dont work out at all. If
you are up to it progress from 3 days in week 1, to 4 days in week 2 etc, If you
are struggling with what you have planned for a session, change the exercises,
shorten the workout or reduce the intensity. If you feel good, up the intensity, add
a few extra sets or reduce your recovery time. A shorter workout at high intensity
is preferable to a longer workout done. half-heartedly.
REMEMBER 13-15YR OLDS WATER THIS DOWN A TOUCH SO YOU CAN
GAIN MAXIMUM BENEFIT PLEASE!!!
Off-season soccer training has two important objectives...
1. Physical recuperation and mental respite from a strenuous season.
2. Minimize any losses in strength and conditioning built up over the year.
The worst thing you can do during this time is nothing - especially if you have
worked hard to build up your strength and fitness levels over the season.
Remember, maintaining 50-60% of your peak fitness level takes less effort than
starting from scratch.
If you do nothing for just 4-5 weeks you will be starting from scratch.
Just as detrimental as doing nothing is maintaining your routine through the
closed season. You MUST give your body (and mind) a rest. Even if you feel
fresh enough to continue through the off-season months, do so and mid-way into
the following season you could feel completely burnt out.

An off-season football training program should also focus on rebalancing the

body...
Chances are you have a predominant kicking foot. You've placed some muscles,
tendons and joints under the same stresses time and time again. Now it's time to
focus on stabilizing neglected muscle groups.
The off-season football training phase should last between 4 and 5 weeks. Less
is not enough time for adequate rest. More and you begin to lose significant
amounts of the soccer-specific fitness gained from the previous year.
The focus should be on light aerobic endurance exercise and, in some
circumstances, some resistance training.
Aerobic Endurance Training: Try to avoid too much running - especially on
tarmac. This is a good time to try your hand at different sports or activities.
Swimming, cycling or equipment like rowing machines and cross trainers are all
good choices.
Off Season Football Training Program

MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN

Sample Training Schedule

Interval Running, important to stretch after.
Functional strength, core training, stability exercises. Swimming
20 mins
Rest
6x30mtr sprints, 8x20mtr, and 10x20mtr increase week 3 by 2
reps
Ply metrics preferably using hurdles or similar height
object. swimming 20 mins
Rest
Rest

Pre -Season Conditioning

Running Program
Duration: 45 Minutes
Frequency: 3 x per week
Option 1. Speed Endurance (2 Kms)
Warm Up
A. Interval Training
50m jog 30m sprint x 3
50m jog 50m sprint x 3
50m jog 70m sprint x 3
4 mins rest
B. Long Accelerations
80m run through
Accelerate over first 40m to 100%
Hold speed for the remaining 40m
Walk back and repeat x3
4 mins rest
C. Short Sprint Pyramid
5m sprint jog return
10m sprint jog return
20m sprint jog return
30m sprint jog return
20m sprint jog return
10m sprint jog return
5m sprint jog return
Cool down
Option 2. High Intensity (1.5 Km)
Warm Up
A. Scaling Run
200m @ 30 seconds (U16/U18), @ 36 seconds (U15/U14/U13)
1 min rest
100m @ 15 seconds (U16/U18), @ 18 seconds (U15/U14/U13)
1 min rest

50m @ 7 seconds (U16/U18), @ 15seconds (U15/U14/U13)

1 min rest
20m shuttle run x 6 @ 25 seconds (U16/U18), @ 30 seconds (U15/U14/U13)
4 mins rest
B. Shuttle Runs
20m sprint
Backwards run return x 6
1 min rest
50m sprint
sprint return x 6
4 mins rest
C. Pinball box run
Stand on one edge of the box.
Sprint to opposing line and return
Run clockwise to adjacent line and repeat.
Continue around the box until you get back to where you started.
Run between adjacent lines until you have touched each line x 2.
Repeat x 2
4 mins rest
D. Sprint Pyramid
10m sprint
10 high knee jumps
20m sprint
10 high knee jumps
30m sprint
10 high knee jumps
40m sprint
10 high knee jumps
50m sprint
10 high knee jumps
4 mins rest
Descend through the sprints this time with no knee jumps but
kneel then stand and sprint again
Cool down