Archive for March, 2010

Soccer Conditioning : 3 Sure-fire Tips To Basic Conditioning

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Soccer conditioning

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that a basic soccer conditioning program is at the core of a team’s success. The result of following soccer exercises is strength, agility, and endurance which permit them to be called fit for the game, let alone winning it.

However, there may be situations when you and your team do not get enough days to train before a tournament. This does not suggest you to cut back on your conditioning exercises. You don’t intend to see your players suffering injuries during or prior to the game.

If a soccer fitness training series is devised correctly, even 3 days time would be sufficient to train the players fully. All that is required is sincerity, good plan, and execution. Here are a few tips to work with short but effective conditioning programs.

Warming up: Tell the players to kick off with any of these; a five minute jog, heel flicks, high knees, or jumping. Take adequate rest for a few seconds in between. This should be followed by some stretching of muscles for about 5 minutes to tone them up. Make it a point that these soccer workouts comprise of all the key muscle groups.

Soccer Fitness

Running: Some coaches tend to make their players do continuous running. Though it’s absolutely ok, but in my opinion the players should be made to practice only soccer specific running. This leads to the fact that they do running, jogging, walking, and sprinting in no set order for half an hour.

Running like this at different levels helps the players build stamina and exercise control over their body. Also, they do not get fatigued since a walk after a sprint balances things out.

Leave it to the individual players to decide what they want to do and when. If they enjoy doing sprints more than jogging, that is OK. As the players get fitter and their stamina increases, you can increase the duration of your soccer conditioning program by another 5 to 10 minutes.

Stretching: Instruct the players to do it religiously; both before and after the match or a training session. Focus on the entire body but give special attention to hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back. Keep in mind that the stretching positions should be longer than the warm-up sessions. Usually, 20 to 30 seconds is perfect.

Instruct the players to take adequate rest a day before the match. This will make the muscles build up strength as well as negate the possibility of injuries. It is also a good time to have a discussion with them and boost their confidence.

Crack jokes so that they get relieved of tension.

Understand me! Once you start to apply this to your training practice sessions, you’ll watch your players perform like hard core professionals on field. To know more about soccer conditioning, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community which will leave you richer with resources on youth soccer.

Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Soccer Drills For Kids.

 

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Things You Need To Consider When Shopping for World Cup Shirts and Jerseys

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

The World Cup is definitely one of, if not, the most anticipated sports events worldwide. Now that the world cup is round the corner you may be wanting to stand out in showing your support to your favorite team. There is nothing to beat the idea of wearing your team name's jersey to encourage them to win the match compared to any other way of doing the same. If you wish to spend your holiday money on World cup t-shirts for your family then folow this guide of ours.

World cup shirt retailers are able to make profits thanks to the millions of football fans across the globe. Being an inexperienced shopper of world cup jerseys for their team you are likely to be taken advantage of owing to the huge demand for great looking world cup jerseys. Be it the World Cup fan kits or basic World Cup jerseys you are planning to shop for you and the family ,do a little rethinking.

You must have realized by now that the replicas of world cup t-shirts you settled for are only worth one season. Do remeber they may not be even worth wearing at home to watch a match even though they look good now. Then world cup jerseys that you may be planning to wear daily may not even be good enough for bed. Agreed you saved few dollars by buying the replica however after using for a month you do tend to ask yourself whether it was worth it?â

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Soccer Practice – Tips On Being Flexible

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Soccer practice

I don’t know a thing about you, but I’ll bet that most people see athletic ability of players in soccer practice as a natural, inborn talent. There are many fitness mechanics that the players can be trained in to better their performance on field, although much of the talent is inborn.

To come up with an efficient soccer training plan, first understand what the demands of the game are. There are numerous strength training mechanisms on which the game of soccer is based. Some of them are steadiness, control, flexibility, rapidity, and resilience.

These elements can be ranked in the order of importance to suit your individual requirements and goals. But remember that when all these components are incorporated in your training sessions, the result would be great.

In soccer drills, a little more study of the following fitness mechanisms will help us understand their connection with the game. The game of soccer calls for certain movements that entail a wide range of activity. This is the reason why flexibility training should be incorporated into a daily soccer practice routine.

Soccer Training

It will take some time for the rewards of improved flexibility and mobility to show. What is difficult is to develop flexibility and not maintaining it.

During coaching sessions, teach kids to maintain a full variety of movement which will produce top class performance on the field. Normally, include those flexibility drills that need hitting the ball, running around, and jumping etc in the regular practice. Because the game is reactive to a great extent, better flexibility would give the players the talent to make prompt decisions in field.

Goalkeepers can cover a lot of ground both in both horizontal and vertical positions. So, it is natural that they require a lot of action. Mid-fielders, who have the ball’s possession also, need to jump, kick, reach, lean, and run around the field. The attacking players have the distinct advantage because they can move when moving the ball among the opposition.

Together with providing increased range of activity, keeping the body flexible can prevent injuries. During training, it is important to prevent injuries. Flexibility is vital for minimizing strains and pulls to muscles and ligaments when exhaustion begins to cause a problem in your running and playing posture. Subsequently, cool down routines using mainly stationary stretches help the players recuperate.

If there is no flexibility in soccer coaching, fitness gets severely impacted. Whereas, if the players are flexible, they can do a lot of movements freely. An additional performance benefit that can get better through increased flexibility is speed. Having agility in your hip, knee, and ankle joints will enhance your stride frequency in addition to the ability to stretch your stride during top speed running.

To wrap up, know that flexibility can be achieved only by a progressive and regular routine in soccer practice sessions. This is possible only if you include games and drills in your routine that encourage flexible movements.

Enroll for our youth soccer coaching community that has tons of articles, videos, newsletters and other resources on soccer coaching.

 

Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Soccer Coaching.

 

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Soccer Practice – A Guide To Great Practice Sessions

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Soccer practice

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that practice makes a man perfect. And it’s true when it comes to soccer practice sessions. The kids enter the ground everyday with a hope to try something exciting and new. Yet, it is extremely important in soccer training that they keep practicing old techniques that you teach them regularly.

So the challenge before you is to ensure that monotony does not set in despite the kids practicing a few identical drills everyday. The following tips should help you carry out practice sessions in a disciplined, exciting, and regular manner.

1. Does this need more emphasis? Kids emulate you so you need to behave in a way that’s expected of them. Be punctual on the field, show them your expertise with the ball, involve everyone in drills, and organize the sessions well. This has the effect of winning over the player’s confidence and respect.

2. The kids should be instructed to get to the field everyday with their own ball. Every kid is necessarily required to have a soccer ball. You should be having some extra balls in case some kids forget theirs.

Soccer Training

3. There are certain soccer moves that need to be practiced on a daily basis. Kicking, passing, dribbling, and throw-ins account for some basic elements in soccer practice. The kids are required to practice these repeatedly. Make sure each one of the kids participate in this even if some of them shy away in the beginning.

4. Introduce more games than soccer drills in practice sessions. This is mainly because comparatively more resilience and skill is required in games than drills. Plus, it becomes easier to try out new things as well as concentrate on soccer with games.

5. Regulation is of paramount importance for a team in order to be victorious. Young players tend to make errors. Ensure that you nip all issues in the bud to whether big or small. However, do it carefully since it is kids you are dealing with and they are susceptible.

6. While the session is on, you will note that some players do not run with the ball while others do. You must ensure that this is never the case. Every kid should participate in one way or the other in the session. Tell each player his position on the field and then make them accountable for it.

7. Do not allow a lot of scrimmage. Just about 20 minutes after the session is more than enough. And do not work with a goalie while scrimmaging. This will make the team good at defense.

8. Keep looking for new methodologies and games. This is a great way to keep the students engaged and motivated in trainings.

Now, implement these tips in your soccer practice sessions. These will raise the ability and skills of your players within a short span of few weeks. There is a mass of such youth soccer resources in our youth soccer coaching community. Join it today and you will see your team rise high soon enough.

 

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Youth Soccer Drills.

 

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Soccer Practice – A Guide To Effective Coaching

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Soccer practice

The simplest method in soccer practice to explain the game is that no rules apply. You have the option to create drills based on your imagination and experience. Also, get the advantage of shaping the existing practices that can be altered to suit your needs. There are tips that can be real helpful in carrying out a plentiful soccer training timetable.

Formulate flexible plans. It’s very much expected that a few plans may not turn out to be successful. The reason could be your bad health, kids not in a mood to show up, or ill-times rains. Therefore, equip yourself with requisite tools to save your day’s plan as they may serve as barriers.

It is a good idea to have several soccer practice games ready. There would be few that prove to be useless and therefore get rid of them to go to next. Just go with the flow and you’ll be able to identify what’s best for the players.

Tell the kids to warm up ahead of every session. Make soccer ball an added feature in the usual warm up drills that kids practice on a daily basis. Add exciting games like Fetch along with other nice practice exercises. This game requires the coach to throw the ball to the player which he has to return with either or both his feet.

Soccer Training

Also, guide the players to roll the ball with the feet, kick the ball from side to side amid the feet and like that. There are loads of soccer drills like this that players use to warm up.

It is important that every player has a soccer ball to himself. And then, it calls for you to devise a number of individual activities that call for using the ball. They should practice, shooting, dribbling, hitting the ball to the wall etc. Your movement should be free as much as possible and don’t include any lines.

Soccer coaching requires including group activities once the individual activities are over. There are two amazing drills for practicing; passing and receiving the ball. The kids conduct in the group activities should reflect team spirit. Generally, while transitioning into group from individual, the players take time to get familiar with idea of team play. You must play a guiding role here. Emphasize the need to support each other in order to win matches.

At the same time, lead the weak players to develop the feeling of team spirit. Such activities encourage brotherhood and team spirit.

Let the kids play soccer in teams and without a goalie. Tell them to shoot at the goals without any inhibitions. In addition, tell them to first attack and then defend. This lets them experiment on their own and play their natural style.

This is the easiest way to conduct a soccer practice. Let your imagination go wild and design methodologies that keep the kids engaged. There is no right or wrong drill. The only thing to remember is to be flexible. Our youth soccer coaching community has wealth of resources on youth soccer that will help you make the most of training sessions.

 

Andre Botelho is a recognized expert in youth soccer coaching. He influences well over 35,000 youth coaches each year with his unique coaching philosophy, and makes it really easy to explode your players’ skills and make training more fun in record time. To download your free youth soccer coaching guide visit: Soccer practice.

 

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