Soccer
What are multiple sprints? Well, in team games players are required to sprint intermittently throughout the match and thus multiple times.
My advice is that if you compete in an intermittent sport then you should always have an aerobic base, and training like the players in the study above will help you achieve an excellent base for the season.
Sometimes stepping backward to move forward isn’t totally bad. As a young soccer player, probably about 8 years a go, our coach brought in a “speed expert”.
He asked one of the players to perform a sprint and asked the rest of us “what did you notice about that sprint?” We came up with all sorts of answers except the one he was looking for.
The answer he gave us was that when the player reacted to the call to sprint, he took a small step back, and according to the coach this cost him time.
This lost time could be critical to the outcome of a contest when two players are reacting and challenging for the ball. The small step back he was referring to is known as the “plyo-step” (Lee Taft) or “False Step”.
The speed coach then tried to teach us some drills to eliminate the plyo-step which were centred around body position.
Unfortunately, he had little success with our particular group. Furthermore, as soccer is a random multi-directional game, it is hard to position your body to eliminate the plyo-step when you don’t know what direction you will be moving in!
Interestingly, a piece of research by Brown and Vescovi (2004) found that the plyo-step allows for the greater force development with the shortest impulse time compared to the “drop and go” and “staggered step” techniques. This doesn’t mean to say that the plyo-step your performing correct. Lee Taft offers some technical advice in the International Youth Conditioning Association Developmental Essentials.
Your push off leg should be aligned directly behind the body. Your upper body and shoulders should assume a forward lean to line up the angle of push-off. The aim is then to generate lots of power into the ground by aggressive arm and knee actions so to transfer force into the push off leg.
If your looking at improving acceleration, it’s worth analysing your starting technique.
Alan Ruddock CSCS, YCS
Kick-Off!
As pre-season for many soccer teams in Europe draws to a close and the 2007-2008 season kicks-off, coaches will be looking for players to “sharpen up” by emphasising speed and agility training. But what will the top teams such as Manchester Utd., Real Madrid and AC Milan be doing to prepare for the start of the season?
Soccer Sprints
The key lies in the activity profile of professional soccer. Research has indicated that although high intensity/sprinting represents less than 10% of a match (Helgerud et al., 2001) it is considered critical to the outcome of a game. High-intensity running accounts for about 7 minutes of the whole game, composed of about 8.1% high-intensity running, 2.1% high-speed running, and 0.7% sprint running (Bangsbo et al., 1991). The top coaches know this and so plan training to represent these aspects of professional soccer. As you might expect the training programmes of top soccer teams are closely guarded secrets, however, the good news is they are not magic training programmes, and with a little application of knowledge, specificity and creativity you too can train like the pro’s.
Designing Speed Drills
There are an innumerable number of speed and agility drills you can create and these should reflect the movement patterns of soccer (e.g. forwards, sideways, backwards, jumping etc..). However, of more importance is the duration and rest periods of the drills. Helgerud et al. (2001) reported that elite junior players sprinted (duration > 2 sec) on average 12.4 ± 4.3 times during a match corresponding to around 300- 400m. Knowing this sprinting at 100% should last no longer than 5-seconds with a work:rest ratio of around 1:12-20, depending on the condition of the players.
The idea is to develop whole body neuromuscular quickness, so players should be fully rested and aim to give maximum effort on each rep. The best time to train speed is immediately post warm-up, when muscles are warm and players are relatively free from fatigue. Making drills competitive increases the effort players gives, although be careful players maintain correct technique.
Simple example: using a multi-directional speed drill - 15, 20, 25, 30, 25, 20, 15-m @ 100% effort (2-3-mins rest).
Final Thoughts
So in developing speed during pre-season identify specific soccer drills, and tailor the exercise intensity, duration and rest period to the aspect of speed you want to develop. My preference is for athletes to train at speed no matter what they are doing, warm-ups, game specific conditioning, speed training, even thinking!
All comments welcome.
References: Helgerud, J., Engen, L.C., Wisloff, U. and Hoff, J. (2001). Aerobic endurance training improves soccer performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 33, 1925 – 1931.
Bangsbo, J., Norregaard, L. and Thorso, F. (1991). Activity profile of competition soccer. Canadian Journal of Sports Science, 16, 110 – 116.
