When is the best time to start playing soccer?

When is it time to start getting serious about the game?

Hmmm.

The best time to start is when your parents can afford it.

The best time to start is when you’ve finished your homework.

The best time to start is when you’re a little bit older.

The best time to start is when you’re a little taller, stronger and wiser.

The best time to start is when you grab the latest Nikes.

The best time to start is when your coach tells you to.

The best time to start is when you lose some weight.

The best time to start is when you practice some more.

The best time to start is when your grades improve.

The best time to start is when you start behaving.

The best time to start is when you listen to your parents.

The best time to start is when you select the appropriate club.

The best time to start is when the weather clears up.

The best time to start is when the greenhouse effect subsides.

As you continue to R-E-A-D this, you’ve probably got the message. The best time to start was a year ago, 5 years ago and possibly 10 years ago.

The second BEST TIME to start is RIGHT NOW!

“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars.”

Have you experienced this? Do you know what I’m talking about?

Let me give you some more clues.

The heat hangs in the morning air and the day is ready to begin with the rising sun. You grab your runners and wake up your roommate along with 25 other guys. The smell of pain is in the air while the faces of your teammates paints a picture of misery.

The coach takes a head count and everyone’s here. No one has escaped and you don’t feel fully awake yet. Any ideas?

Does Pre-season Camp ring a bell?

The coach and the assistants are probably no more awake than you, but they will not feel the pain. Pre-season with the addition of heat has the ability to crush you. Chances are you’re already losing your mind and conjuring up excuses why you shouldn’t train. My blisters hurt. My hamstrings are tight or I’m feeling sick.

Sound familiar?

If it does put your hand up and keep it up. For those of you reading this with your hand down, I’m sorry but you’re lying.

Training begins and the pain sets in. You struggle through another brutal session and return back to your hotel room.

The cloak of night closes in and sends you and your fellow teammates to bed. You are sore, the legs are heavy and you wonder how you ever got so unfit during the off-season.  The thought of tomorrow and the increased drills and doggies haunts you as you try and sleep.

The sun rises even stronger and the heat has accumulated from the day before. You look up at the sun and you could swear that it’s smiling down on you, laughing at the pain that awaits you.

The moans and groans increase as the coach announces the training drills and the never ending sets of “doggies”. For those of you that don’t know what a doggy is, it’s a sprinting workout which has 5 cones separated by about 5 feet. You sprint to the first one and return to the starting position. The next group begins. When they finish you begin again, but this time you run to the first cone and back and then continue to the second cone and back. Next group starts again. Before you know it, you’re repeating this drill 5 times with each set becoming longer and longer.

By the 5^th set your lungs are about to burst and your legs no longer listen to your brain. Simple running patterns become difficult and the motion of left foot before right foot becomes brain surgery as you gasp for that oxygen.

Although I paint a picture of pain, pre-season must be challenging and painful. Everyone has heard “no pain, no gain” but how many of you have really felt the pain.

Do you know the pain?

The pain when your hands are on your knees and every breath you take feels like the last breath you’ll ever take. The pain that doesn’t let you drink water because the heart is pounding so hard on your chest that you think you are going to die.

That my friends is the pain you need to embrace and hunger for. A great coach once said to me after an exhausting session that pre-season isn’t designed to hurt you or punish you.

“It’s designed to hurt and punish your opponent”.

After a solid pre-season you have the confidence, strength, fitness and the ability to crush your direct opponent. You will look at him and laugh because the pain you felt 2-3 months ago will become his nightmare.

The pain you felt 2-3 months ago will now be inflicted on your opponent as he tries to keep up with you. After the 90 minutes the only thing your opponent will remember is the number on your back and the colour of your heels.

So next time you’re bent over gasping for air, push yourself even harder and enjoy the pain. This same pain will become your ally and will never let you down.

So before you run out for your next match, look to the sun and smile back as you welcome the visitors to a baptism of fire.

“May the winds of destiny blow you to the stars”.

Purpose: Warm Up Routine

No of Players: 2 Teams of 6-8 players.

Playing Area: Penalty box extended sideways to touchlines.

Duration: Up to 20 minutes.

Outline: One team tries to score points by hitting an opponent with the ball without losing possession. The other team tries to gain possession. One point is scored for every opponent hit.

Both teams are on the pitch together. Direct passing only. Dribbling is not permitted. The opposing team gets the ball after every shot missed,

• if the ball goes out of play
• if an opposing player gets the ball first from a throw in
• if player goes over the boundary line.

A player that has been hit can only rejoin the game only if one of his team mates regains the ball.

Possible Variations: Players that have been hit drop out and cannot rejoin. The game ends when all players have been eliminated.

Remarks: This exercise is particularly suitable for indoors and for warming up your team before training.

The generic formula used for soccer is simple, it involves

• The introduction and the warm up. The coach should spend a little time with his team and outline the goals of the training session. What are you looking to gain out of the session? What aspects of the game will you be working on? What technical areas of your team need improving and so on?
• Core aspects, training drills, working on the fundamentals of the game through heavy loads and high intensity training.
• Warming down and assessment.

It’s been established and proven that warm ups are a crucial part of any training. Many consider the purpose of the warm up is to prepare the body for physical exertion. I strongly agree with this but many tend to over look that warm ups are also a period of psychological preparation. Players need time to focus and prepare themselves mentally for the physical battle that stands before them. The warm up session also allows the players to familiarize themselves with the facilities and the playing surface and if needed, enough time to make the required adjustments or changes.

Warming up allows each player to take all psychological and physiological processes from a level of rest, gradually increasing to the level of performance. The warm up process also helps reduce the risk of injury by preparing the body with a general increase in working loads.

The level of intensity of the training session determines the extent to which all physiological systems have to be activated during the warm up. Therefore the extent and intensity of a warm up is also dependent on the training session itself, player’s age group, fitness and climate (temperature). Let’s use an example; during Winter, the cold weather needs to be overcome and more time should be allocated to warming up to allow each individual player to reach the required levels of intensity. Also more time should be allocated to stretching because the body tends to stiffen up during those cold nights. Time, patience and common sense play a big part in a good warm up session. Try and use all 3.

So let’s quickly recap, the intensity of a warming up session depends on the intensity with which the players will ultimately have to work. Warming up for a game is therefore usually more intensive than for a training session. We’ve also established that the extent and intensity of a warm up also depends on a number of other factors including weather.

So what makes a good warm up session? How do you know when all players are warmed up?

A good warming up session can be modified into 3 different phases.

Phase 1

Spend the first 5-10 minutes warming up simply by jogging. Sudden acceleration or changes of pace should be avoided within the first 10 minutes. Scientific research has proven that muscles perform better as they become warmer. Jogging slowly is the simplest method known to warm up the muscles, so spend the first 10 minutes jogging. Remember what we spoke about, time, patience and common sense. Ease into your training sessions through the correct warming up procedures.

By jogging first, the temperature of the working muscles rises. This higher temperature has a positive influence on the elasticity and viscosity of the muscle fibers which will allow your muscles to stretch and withstand the heavier work loads later on in the session.

The benefits of Phase 1 are

• a rise in muscle temperature reduces the resistance of muscles which allows for greater motion and co-ordination.
• the heat produced by the body also improves the conductivity of the nerves therefore signals from the brain are carried faster to the required muscles.
• distribution of blood to the areas where the body requires them the most.
• and the uptake of oxygen by the muscles from the blood.

Phase 2

This phase is designed to loosen up the muscles. The range of movements should not be too big. Short static stretches should dominate this phase. The aim of this phase is to increase the freedom of movement of the joints and the muscles. Players should be given enough time to stretch and increase their flexibility before the next phase. Remember, it’s essential that the players don’t cool down before phase 3. Phase 2 if done correctly shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes.

Phase 3

This is the final phase of the warm up. This phase is used to apply the finishing touches on your players. This phase relies heavily on player feedback. Ask your players how they feel before commencing the training session. Is everybody warmed up? Does anyone need more time? Does anyone feel tight or sore? The intensity of this phase is greater than both 1&2 and the movements are identical to the core training session you have mapped out for your players. Phase 3 shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes. Once this phase has been completed, let your players get a quick drink in readiness for training. By now your players should be sweating and fully stretched for battle.

Core Training/ Learning-Practice

This stage of training relies heavily on the coach. The coach decides which basic techniques, skills and tactics need to be trained. This phase of training usually involves repetition and is structured around specific soccer drills. Drills like passing, crossing and shooting just to name a few. The purpose of this stage is to learn and practice some of the fundamentals of the game. Since learning is involved, the intensity level is not that high, but it’s greater than the warm up phase.

Core Training/ The Battle

This is the heart and soul of the session. This is where the players can practice the techniques, skills and tactics learnt in the previous phase. The only difference here is that the drills or small games are conducted at full intensity. These drills/games must be carried out with constant changes of pace to try and replicate match conditions. It’s also important that this phase has a competitive element to it to ensure high levels of intensity and various amounts of pressure just like on match day.

Warming Down

Warming down is not a familiar concept and one that is often overlooked. How many teams do you witness warming down after a match or training? The advantages of warming down is that the body can gradually return to it’s “at rest state”. The waste substances such as your lactic acid build up can be disposed of by carrying out gentle running exercises for 10-15 minutes. If the players don’t cool down and suddenly stop, the disposal of these wastes proceeds much slower. Therefore the time needed for recovery becomes significantly longer.

Now that you know the basic principles of training, (warm up, core loading and warm downs), make sure you as the coach provide as much variation as possible within this framework. The framework of soccer training is flexible and allows the coach to add his ideas and tactics.

By following this training framework 2 things will happen,

1. You’ll spend the off season polishing all your trophies.
2. Or, you’ll be picked up to coach a bigger club.

Nice problem to have as a coach, don’t you think?

I’ve seen many training sessions over the years and even been a part of some terrible ones myself that teach bad habits. When practicing shooting, it is common for a coach to set up the station just outside the penalty box. A player will receive a ball at the edge of the penalty box while taking a leisurely 5 or 6 touches and then shoot towards goal. Can anyone see the problem with this? This does nothing to prepare the player for match conditions. In a real game the player will not be allowed so much time and space on the ball especially near the goals.

Coaches must be cognizant of the principle of specificity and plan the practices to reproduce as much of the match conditions as possible. Coaches have control over the training session and choice of activities. There is no excuse. Coaches must take care and put the players through game related activities that incorporate the components of soccer. If they do not or lack the ability to do so, should they be coaching soccer at any level?

Lets demonstrate this with an example. Most shooting exercises, as mentioned above are stationed just outside the penalty box. Players are allowed to leisurely dribble in and shoot. Does this replicate match day? What happens when we place players 1v1 or 2v2 within a grid outside the penalty box and ask the 2 strikers to find ways at shooting at the goals. All of a sudden we have replicated a match situation. We know have added some tactical elements to the training drill. The strikers have to earn the right to shoot at goals.

Lets take the above scenario a step further. What will happen if we add another goal for the defenders? We’ve just added the important tactical element of transition. Once the defenders dispossess the strikers of the ball, they have possession of the ball and are now looking to score a goal. As a coach, if you keep scores you have also added competition to the drill and a psychological element to the drill. Does this look like soccer now? Does this prepare the players for a game of soccer? I’ll let you decide.

The main objective of training depends on which part of the season your in. Off-season, pre-season or in-season plays a significant role in the types of training you’ll be orchestrating. During pre-season, the main training goals will be fitness, strength and technique while during the season the training sessions will be based around tactics and fitness maintenance.

When planning a training session every activity or drill should involve the ball. The players have not enrolled in athletics, they need the ball to play soccer. You cannot replicate soccer without the soccer ball. Sounds pretty straight forward doesn’t it? But how many training sessions have you had when you didn’t touch the balls? From personal experience I can honestly answer too many.