Soccer Fitness Training

There are dissimilarities among the types of fitness. These differences can be described
as speed, strength; stamina, suppleness and ability. In addition, there are two other
differences that may be associated with describing fitness. They are specificity (why and
what you want to be fit) and mind (the psychological aspect)

A key component is specifity, (why and what you want to be fit), influences what type of
fitness is the most weighted or most important. For instance, a golfer who does not
need to be very fast, but he requires a lot of skill (ability). The 100m sprinter needs
speed and power, but not much endurance, a gymnast requirements strength, ability,
endurance and flexibility. However, this energy is different from the kind of resistance
that an endurance runner needs.

For team sports such as soccer, it is even more difficult to determine what the needed
areas of fitness are. The types of fitness needed will depend on the positions and roles
that you play. But one key area is skill and specifity. Soccer players are Soccer players
first and athletes second. This does not mean that their areas of athletic ability, speed,
strength, endurance are not important, because they are, but skill and spirit specifity
are perhaps the most important.

That said, a very skillful player who can not last the whole game, because of lack of
energy, or can not reach the ball, due to the lack of speed, is not as useful to the team
as the player who has a little less skill, but more speed and endurance.

Two specific types of resistance that are interesting are the aerobic and anaerobic.

Aerobic
Gymnastics aerobics determines the level at which you can be in use and oxygen to
perform an activity. An activity such as walking does not put much stress on your body
and more people can cope with this aerobic activity. Activities of aerobic are activities
such as jogging, that you can do without getting too tired. You work with at tempo,
which means you do not get fatigued or completely out of the air. Aearobic training will
increase the level to which this fatigue occurs, and make your heart and lungs more
efficient for the exercise. You will be able to go further and faster before arriving tired.

Anaerobia
Anaerobic fitness sets the level at which you can work at a high intensity. This usually
means short bursts of activity, where you will often be out of the air. You are working at
a level where your body can not provide enough oxygen in the muscles and need to get
energy from glycogen. You can only work for a short period of time, at this level before
they too become fatigued and go into something called "oxygen debt". Anaerobic
training will cause your body to be more efficient in using fuel stored as glycogen and
also help deal with the oxygen debt. One result of oxygen debt is the accumulation of
lactic acid, which is felt when your legs, feel a burning sensation at the end of an
intense long sprint. This lactic acid from muscles need to be removed as soon as
possible and anaerobic training helps make more efficient use of muscles in coping with
lactic acid and better in the removal of waste products from muscles.

Soccer fitness
Soccer players need a blend of aerobic and anaerobic fitness due to the nature of the
game, and the fact that there is continuous movement with lots of short gusts of more
intense activity. Some positions require higher levels of anaerobic ability than others,
some require more aerobic fitness. A midfield player is required to cover a lot of ground
during a game and needs a good mechanism for aerobics. One striker, on the other
hand, requires short bursts of repeated activity and requires more speed and anaerobic
fitness.

A fundamental aspect of fitness is that each player is different and has different
requirements for training according their natural physical abilities, their desire to train,
age and position played. Soccer is a team sport and, as such, the players practice
collectively as a team. This is important for many reasons, but also means that not every
type of conditioning sessions or activities has equal gains to all players.

When the time is available for testing and analysis of results, it is much better if the
programs can be adapted to each player or group of players with the same
requirements. I feel this is important around the age of 13 and even when the effects of
the training have much impact. Conditioning and speed training in 10-13 years has less
impact. It has been reported that the benefit of 10-12 years old players in training
prepares them physically and mentally for training when they are older. They develop
their skills and motor skills as they learn how to run fast, as well as develop obvious ball
skills during normal soccer training.

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Once past puberty, speed endurance and strength, have more impact speed sessions.
Before this phase, sessions should not be very intense, involve shorter sessions with
little emphasis on stamina. Plyometrics and strength building activities should be
attempted with great care if pre-puberty. Use low strength and plyometric exercises
with young players, just to get the techniques right, and prepare the body for more
severe training when older.

In all cases, however, the speed and conditioning sessions are secondary to the work
done with the ball. Skills individual and team play are the key components for success,
but being fitness can only make a good player better.

Darrell Stuart . com
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Soccer Fitness Training
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