In today’s game of soccer the pace is often very quick and fast. Players need to have both good technical skills and speed to be effective on the soccer field.
The simplest way to train for soccer speed and soccer fitness is to have drills that imitate or mimic the actions on the field.
If you take a close look at any soccer game it has three active fitness parts to it. They are sprint, jog and walk. So the best way to train for this is to include it in training in either an off season strength and conditioning program or during practice.
Developing soccer speed and fitness takes time as you need to build a solid strength base. You must also be aware of wild claims of achieving “amazing” speed results at the end of a seven day training program.
Building total body strength starts with a solid strength and conditioning program in the off season. This will significantly improve your soccer fitness and soccer speed.
Your off season soccer conditioning should include days of interval training and days of speed training. This is the best way to develop both soccer cardio for aerobic fitness and acceleration for speed development.
An example of a soccer fitness interval at the beginning of the off season would be an all out sprint for 30 seconds followed by 60 to 90 seconds of walking for recovery for twenty minutes. This work to rest ratio is 1 to 2 or 1 to 3. This eventually will progress to 30 seconds sprint and 30 seconds rest for twenty minutes.
Next you could focus on sprinting on another day with 10, 20 or 30 metre sprints. The recovery “rule ‘ is one minute for every 10 metre sprint. So if you sprint for 20 metres your rest period would be 2 minutes. This is excellent for off season training; however there are some simple drills you can do during the soccer season to work on soccer fitness and soccer speed.
Putting teams together in 3v3, 4v4 or 5v5 for small sided games is a great way to maintain current levels of fitness. If you struggle for fitness this is an excellent way to help motivate and challenge you to improve upon your soccer fitness. The small sided games allow for soccer fitness conditioning with a ball. Players love this because they feel that they are not working, just having fun.
Overlapping runs with a soccer ball is a great way to improve speed. This occurs because the drill very closely mimics the game.
In conclusion it is important to focus on both intervals and sprints in the off season to be soccer fit and fast for your next soccer season. Read more about soccer conditioning
