Athletic Training
The term athletic training in soccer (or physical training) indicates a training method used to improve an athlete’s or team’s performance from a coordinative and conditioning point of view.
In soccer, athletic conditioning training is used to train general coordination skills (motor learning, motor control, motor transformation) and special coordination skills (motor combination, differentiation of muscular strength, balance, orientation, rhythm, response, adaptation). Athletic conditioning training is used to strengthen endurance, strength, quickness and speed. There is a further objective: soccer athletic training can prevent injuries linked to training load mismanagement (muscle-tendon injuries in particular).
In order to schedule the drills it is possible to follow a general and/or a specific sport programme. For example, soccer athletic training is important both for a player’s general endurance and a specific role endurance training. The same goes for other coordinative and conditioning abilities. Indeed, performance characteristics vary from sport to sport: soccer players’ endurance is different from runners’, as well as their strength differs from basketball players’ and their speed is different from tennis players’.
For this reason, before planning soccer athletic training, it is necessary to know the player’s performance model, including the peculiarities of the role. In this way athletic training will be targeted, specific and suitable for the team and the player.
Here you can find some soccer conditioning drills.
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Athletic Training
Functional training: ball possession, quickness and shooting
Shooting - 4 v 2 simplified situations to improve quickness and shooting technique -
Athletic Training
Cognitive physical circuit - Changing Targets
Cognitive - Exercise with several variants for cognitive activation in soccer -
Athletic Training
Physical course- Chelsea FC
Aerobic power - Useful exercise with the ball to train both agility and speed -
Athletic Training
4 vs 4 - Technical tactical warm-up
Warm up - Warm-up to train several tactical, technical and physical elements -
Athletic Training
Regaining the ball - Development of aerobic power using the ball
Ball possession - How to train aerobic capabilities of players during the game by using the ball -
Athletic Training
Speed, resistance and finishing - Bayern Munich FC
Speed endurance - Speed and resistance with the successive finishing of the game -
Athletic Training
Resistance - Physical preparation
Aerobic power - Exercise to train aerobic endurance, which is key for modern soccer -
Athletic Training
Speed and Cognitive Processing – 4 cones
Speed - Physical and cognitive speed applied to improve main skills of players -
Athletic Training
Speed and cognitive activation – 8 cones
Speed - How to train sprinting at speed with cognitive activation -
Athletic Training
Small-sided Game 3 vs 3 for aerobic resistance
Small sided game - How to combine physical conditioning with playing in a competitive context