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

Speed Kills on the Soccer Field

Coaches that have fast teams are usually quite successful. Because speed can cure many ills, coaches tend to gravitate towards wanting faster kids to play for them. If you have speed as a defender, it allows you to do so many things from making a run on the outside to support an offensive push or tracking down an attacking player who has the ball in front of them with space to go to goal.

If players can gain speed through learning proper running mechanics, coaches should be working like crazy to help their players to get faster by encouraging speed training in practices. While some coaches may not know how to teach speed to their players, there are other sources out there that can help you with that. interested coaches and players could check out this resource and learn more about soccer speed training. www.soccerandspeedcoach.com

Since speed is a skill that can be taught and ultimately learned by a player, it makes alot of sense to get a soccer player into a speed and agility program.

When you think about a soccer game, it really consists of many 5-15 yard bursts. These bursts require a soccer player to accelerate either to a ball to win it or to an opposing player. Acceleration speed for soccer players will be addressed in the next post.

Have a great day!

Gary

How old should you start to speed train?

Now that is an interesting question! As an athletic performance coach, I have the opportunity to talk to many parents about this subject. Just yesterday I had a parent say to me that he heard that speed training for a 10 year old is a waste of time.

That couldn't be further from the truth! As a matter of fact, I would say it is very important for a young child to start to work on their speed and here is why:

• at a younger age, they haven't developed as many bad habits as they possibly will when they are 14 or even 17/18 years of age
• at that age, they are like sponges and readily absorb this information
• it is easier for them to learn at that age

Teaching them linear and lateral movement skills early on, will not only help them learn those movement skills easier, but in the long run it will help them in other ways too. They will get faster by learning proper mechanics, they will lessen the likelihood of an injury down the road and most importantly at that age is they will gain confidence in themselves and feel good about themselves as well.

Those benefits are so important for their development. Speed is a skill, so is change of direction. Helping them learn these skills early on is a good thing for them not a bad thing. With regards to many sports, I believe that learning these movement skills at an early age is more important to the development of a player as they get older then it is to learn sport specific skills at a young age.

Thanks and have a great day!

Gary