These 5 Exercises will make any Soccer Player Faster, Stronger and Explosive

Calling all soccer coaches: Being able to drive a ball farther on a goal kick is a matter of incorporating two things! The first has everything to do with technique. Refining proper ball striking skills for a player is key, but that is not what I want to focus on today.

The 2nd component to drive the ball farther has to do with strength....actually lower body strength. This is the topic for today! If you can get your players stronger, this will not only help them in other facets of their game, it will help them drive the ball farther too and maybe even add 10 yards to their goal kick. When I talk about strength, whether it is lower or upper body strength, I am referring to developing functional strength. You want to develop strength that allows your players to be stronger for the sport of soccer.

Below are some great lower body functional strength exercises that do not require any equipment and are appropriate for players 10 years and up.

Prisoner squats: have the player place their feet about shoulder width apart. Place their hands behind their head and squat down (like you are sitting down into a chair). Try and keep your heels on the ground and keep your head and chest up. Also, make certain when you bend your knees, that your knees don't go past your toes. 10-15 in succession equals one set. Build up to 2 sets.

Lunge walks: have your player take a long stride (like they are walking) and ask the player to drop their hips (back knee is an inch from touching the ground). Keep repeating this walking movement for 10-15 yards. Build up to 2 sets. Very important as well is to again make sure the front knee when it bends does not go past the toes of this front leg.

Lateral Lunge walks: Same concept as the lunge walk except now your steps are sideways, not forward. Again make certain that the player performs the movement with good form. Knee not flying past toes, hips are down.

Pogo Jumps for height: Imagine you are on a pogo stick. Start with legs open to shoulder width apart. Arms are placed in front of you at a 90 degree angle. Drive the elbows back (like you are reaching back for your back pockets with your hands) and then quickly drive them forward and up, propelling you upward. Land softly on the front part of both feet, bends the knees to absorb the jump and then repeat the process again very quickly. One set equals 10-15 pogo jumps for height. Work on building this up to 2 sets.

Prisoner Squat Hold: Have the player squat down and hold the prisoner squat for 30 - 45 seconds all the while maintaining proper form. Work up to 45 seconds or so and do that 2-3 times.

I hope you enjoy these functional lower body strength exercise for your players to work on.

For more information on soccer skills and speed tips, you can go over to my website http://www.soccerandspeedcoach.com and register to get soccer and speed tips delivered to your inbox every week.

Have a great day!

Gary
www.soccerandspeedcoach.com

Are Small Sided Games the Best for Soccer Practice

My answer to that question is YES! Before I get into the reasons for my answer, let me qualify that answer. What I mean by small sided soccer games are 3v3 and 5v5 games.

Here is my rationale:

• Touches on the ball: In a 5v5 game, there are plenty of touches to go around. The more quality touches a player can accumulate, the better they will become. I hope you caught the word "quality" in that previous sentence. Quality means just that, don't allow your players to have a bad first touch repeatedly, work with them to get a quality first touch in these games.
• Composure with the ball: In a 3v3 game where you put some size restrictions into place, players now must learn to keep possession of the ball while maintaining their composure. Pressure in a small sided, tight space will be plentiful....so they will definitely learn to deal with that pressure in games like this.
• Speed of play: Because of constant pressure, players will also learn how to play quicker with the ball. Enhancing a high quality, quicker pace game can help players and teams alike.
• Athletic performance: If the tempo is high and the play is quick, this will force players to move quickly as well. A players speed and agility is definitely enhanced by small sided games.
• Movement off the ball: players now need to move quickly off the ball and get into supportive positions to a teammate that has the ball.
• Communication is also critical now because of the speed of play, and tighter field constraints. Having teammates working on giving verbal help and cues to their teammates will help make for better play on the big field.

One thing I like to also do before I get into a small sided 5v5 game is have the players work on some technical skill (ie. stepover move). During the small sided games then, I will award a point for any players that execute a proper "stepover" in the game.

In summary, my belief is training your players in a small sided manner (3v3 or 5v5) offers the players many quality touches on the ball, enhancing their speed of play and their overall speed and agility. Composure with the ball and Communication skills are also greatly developed.

If you haven't jumped on my website yet, please go over to http://www.soccerandspeedcoach.com/ and register to get more soccer tips sent to you every week.

Have a great day!

Gary

http://www.soccerandspeedcoach.com/

The Most Over Looked and Under Appreciated Secret in Soccer

As a soccer coach for over 20 years, you get a chance to see many games and many exceptional players over that time. Often times I will see coaches work with their team on developing soccer skills with the ball. They will work on developing an unbeatable system of play, where they believe their game tactics will win games for them. They will work on creating grids and small sided games to help their players with passing and dribbling and they will work on fitness, of yes fitness!

But I want to talk about what happens in a game where all of these skills don't mean a whole lot if you aren't addressing this one crucial skill. This skill is what separates good from great, it is key whether you are a defender or a striker and it is rarely worked on at all by coaches. I don't know if coaches don't see it, they don't believe it, or they don't know how to teach it. But with all of that said, if a player lacks BALANCE, they will not be as successful and the team won't either.

Let me explain what I mean when I say balance. I am not referring to a team's shape on the field. While that balance is important, that is not what I want to discuss. A players balance centers around their movements. These movements could be linear or lateral or backwards...any time you are off balance when you move, you leave yourself open to be beaten as a defender or you lose a scoring chance as an attacker or you lose possession as a midfielder.

Most times when you see a defender get beat 1 v 1, the attacking player has unbalanced that defender. He may have made the defender go back on his heels or his first step was either too short or too long, depending on the situation. In order to achieve and maintain proper balance, a soccer player must work at it. Proper balancing will help with a players soccer speed, their change of direction and their over speed and agility on the soccer field.

In order for a soccer player to achieve proper balance, several things need to be addressed and worked on. Let's start with their core. A soccer players core needs to be functionally strong and flexible. In order to address a players core strength, a coach or player needs to realize that there are three components to their core. The players abdominals, their back (upper and lower) and their hips. Focusing on building a stronger core will dramatically help a player with their balance as well as other athletic needs on the soccer field.

Another critical component to achieve proper balance on the field is a player needs to focus on where their foot is striking the ground. If you need to go backwards and you are landing on your heels, then you are totally off balance and will be out of the play very quickly. Conversely, if you are back pedaling and you are landing on the front part of your foot, you will be in a better position of balance allowing you to change direction quickly and show good speed and agility on the field too.

Also important is a soccer players forward lean. If a player is leaning too far forward he is susceptible to a change of speed move that again will unbalance this defensive player.

A drill that I like to do often to help my players develop this balancing skill, is to create a grid of approximately 20 yards long by 10 yards wide with a line of cones down the middle of this grid separating this grid into two 10 X 10 yard grids. I have two players go to the middle of their respective grid (the middle line separates the one large grid into 2 grids now) and face each other. One player is the leader, the other player is the follower. The leader can move in any direction he wishes and the follower must mimic or mirror their movements. Have the follower focus on his footwork (don't cross his feet) and his foot contact (weight is distributed more on the front part of his foot) and creating proper balance. Once they get better at this, then increase the speed and change movements more frequently.

By doing this skill drill, you will dramatically help your players gain more speed and agility on the soccer field and will be able to maintain proper balance too. By working on this, I believe you will see more goals being scored by your team and less goals allowed....obviously a great formula to success!

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Have a great day!

Gary Christopher
www.soccerandspeedcoach.com