Pre-Season for Soccer Players

Pre- Season training in all sports has been noted as a key transition to allow players to prepare themselves both mentally and physically for the start of their competitive season. This article guides coaches through some basic information to be considered and applied in order to put their team ahead of the game!

Know your athletes! Firstly before doing any work it is important to get an understanding of what level your athletes are at following their season break, often this is a time when muscle mass will have decreased and fat percentage will have increased, along with a reduction in cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength. The tests listed have been selected as they require minimal equipment and can be applied to a number of players.

Component	Testing Technique
Aerobic	12 minute cooper run
Lower body strength	Free standing/ Wall Squat hold
Lower body power	Vertical jump
Trunk strength	Plank
Anthropometric	Height and Weight
Agility	T-Test
Plyometric ability	Standing countermovement jump

 

If you are working with pre-pubescent athletes ensure that you monitor their limb growth as this can result in injury risks if this factor is neglected and not considered when preparing training specifics.

A good coach should monitor these variables throughout the season at regular intervals especially if coaching young development players as growth factors play a major role in both male and female performance.

HIIT me! No don’t actually hit us, this stands for high intensity interval training and is a great method to get back into after off-season. Training should target intervals of high intensity work followed by a rest period varying from 30seconds to 3 minutes depending on the area of work and your training goal. As many players rarely sprint for longer than 40m, use this distance to set your players sprinting at and vary the intensity using different rest periods i.e.

Example	Task	Rest	Repeat
1	40m sprint in straight direction, jog back to start	Active rest in jog back	6 times and rest for 3 minutes.
	Repeat this method 3 times in your first session and increase the number of times you repeat this every week until the beginning of the season
2	Pitch width medium speed run	Passive rest for 1 minute		6 times
	Repeat this method 3 times in your first session and increase the number of times you repeat this every week until the beginning of the season

 

Nutrition guide: Due to the nature of intensity in preseason your body will be run through the mill, so it is important to repair those broken muscles, and we don’t mean injured muscles… when you do exercise essentially you are damaging muscles, protein helps to repair this! Therefore a balanced diet of protein and carbohydrate to repair damaged muscles and refuel energy for the next session is key. Due to the rested state players will be in, it is important to protect their immune system and enhance these by ensuring a good range of fruit and vegetables are consumed. As well as ensuring adequate hydration is adhered to both pre, during and post training, especially if training in hot and humid conditions.

If you would like further information on preseason preparation or would like a tailored package for your team to be tested and monitored check out our website or email us at , and we would be happy to help.