It’s a known fact that a Soccer conditioning program provides a strong base for a team’s success. It is because of soccer exercises which build strength, agility, and endurance that players manage to stay in shape and thus dream to become match winners for their team.

However, there may be situations when you and your team do not get enough days to train before a tournament. But you don’t need to compromise on the conditioning exercises because of this. You don't want your players to get injured before or during 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 it takes is seriousness, good preparation, and its implementation. Here are a few tips to work with short but effective conditioning programs.

Warming up: The players must be told to begin with either of these; a five minute jog, jumping, high knees, or heel flicks. Take adequate rest for a few seconds in between. Then tone the muscles up by doing some stretching exercises for 5 minutes. Make sure that these soccer workouts consist of all the main muscle groups.

Soccer conditioning

Running: Some coaches have the habit of making their players do continuously rounds of running. Even though its fine but I’d say that it would be better if players do just soccer specific running. It means that for about 30 minutes, they do a combination of running, jogging, walking, and sprinting in no set order.

Running like this at different levels helps the players build stamina and exercise control over their body. And they do not feel drained since a walk after the sprint helps balance things out.

Leave the decision making to the individual players about what to do and when. If they wish to do sprints more than light jogging, there is no harm in it. 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. Concentrate on including the whole body but emphasize on hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back. Keep the stretching positions longer than in the warm-up sessions. Usually, 20 to 30 seconds is perfect.

Ask the kids to rest completely a day before the match. This will make the muscles build up strength as well as negate the possibility of injuries. Also, use this time to discuss your plan with the team and encouraging them.

Share some lighter moments as well so that they get into a great mental shape in addition to the physical one.

Trust me! As soon as you apply these techniques to your training sessions, your players will start benefitting from it. To know more on soccer conditioning, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and benefit from its immense resources on youth soccer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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 training fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Soccer Practice