To be successful in soccer over the course of a season, it is not enough to have talent. You must also be in excellent physical shape. Indeed, being both an endurance and contact sport, soccer always requires preparation before the start of each season. If you are a soccer fan, find out in this article the essentials about physical preparation for good performance.
Physical preparation: what is it about?
Physical preparation is a set of specific exercises and training sessions, with or without a ball, carried out to allow players to have the physical resources necessary to last the whole season or at least the time of a match. In reality, a well done physical preparation has multiple advantages on the players. This allows them to, among other things:
- Reduce the risk of injuries during the season (especially muscular ones);
- Performing very well during the one and a half hours of the game and even over the season in general;
- Benefit from special instructions to improve the intensity level of their game;
- Feel good physically throughout the season.
How to succeed in the physical preparation of the players?
To guarantee good results, physical preparation for soccer must be made up of a variety of exercises, each designed to work a specific part of the body. In practice, you should mainly plan exercises with the ball in order to improve the technical level of the players, as well as their playing tactics. It is also essential to perform some purely physical exercises, in order to prepare them well from a muscular point of view. In this regard, it should be noted that each coach or team has a wide range of choices in terms of the exercises to be performed. Nevertheless, the internet offers some practical guides to physical preparation that can be useful.
What do you really need to work on in a physical preparation?
Physical preparation is not only done at the beginning of the season, but also during the season, to allow the players to work on some important aspects. These are mainly muscle strengthening, alertness, aggressiveness, endurance, top speed and many other essential qualities. Each of the exercises to work on these various aspects can be done with or without a ball. It all depends on the exercises chosen by the physical trainer. In this procedure, the various stretching and warm-up exercises should not be neglected.
How to program a physical preparation properly?
For a physical trainer, it is not at all permitted to schedule work sessions any old way. These must necessarily follow a certain logic and a well defined order to be effective. The dangers associated with poor preparation are not negligible. Sometimes we see injuries due to over-preparation or insufficient results due to irregular work sessions. This is the reason why most physical trainers use specific programs developed in advance. This prevents them from making mistakes in scheduling sessions.
The necessary equipment for a successful physical preparation
Above all, it is important to specify that the equipment used does not necessarily condition the quality of the physical preparation. You have the possibility to fully succeed in yours, without using any special equipment. To easily perform exercises that are designed to increase speed or explosiveness of the players, investing in studs or a few rhythm scales would be a great idea. For muscle strengthening exercises, the traditional staircase is still very useful. They allow you to easily do some common exercises such as push-ups or sit-ups.
Is specific work required for each player?
Depending on the case, it is sometimes necessary for the physical trainer to work individually with certain players. This is mainly the case for those returning from injury or those with particular physical weaknesses. He can also do some specific muscle strengthening exercises with some players occupying the same position on the field.
