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Some people on the Internet sell, or offer
free conditioning programs which just look like cooking recipes. Run 20’
on Monday, 30’ on Tuesday? Who are they fooling? Sometimes, even age
groups design it.
Let’s review an example: two 17 year olds
(boys or girls) a month away from a big game or training session or a
training camp.
One is a “project 40” player, practicing
soccer every day at the national training center; meanwhile the other one
wants to be ready for his first high school game and plays high school
basketball during the winter. Or it could be that one has been injured;
and the other one doesn’t play winter sports but still want to be sharp
for spring’s soccer first game.
Do you really think that they should follow
the same program?
No? Correct answer! Because conditioning
programs have to be designed according to each individual characteristic.
It always makes me think of these people
that pretend to lose weight after following a weight loss “recipe like”
diet. What they don’t see is that the only reason why they actually lost
weight is simply because they switched from being sedentary to having some
kind of activity. It doesn’t even have to be aerobic; this physical
activity creates, in the best case (same caloric amount) a negative
caloric balance, and in consequence results in a weight loss. In
other words, if you eat as much, but you exercise more; obviously you are
going to lose weight.
Applied to us, who are practicing sports, it
would be following a program and thinking that it works because I am
feeling much better. But maybe you feel better only because you haven’t
done anything for the 2 months preceding this program…When it comes to
fitness level, it has to be personalized. A coach has to know where his
athlete stands, to know where he can end up being at.
Three different kinds of fitness:
- Actual fitness (level of
fitness that is yours as of today)
It varies depending on what your activity level has been in the past
months, or years.
- Potential fitness (How
good can I become, how big my improvement margin is?)
In this case, genetics plays a big role, but never use it as an
excuse…until you have actually reached this potential ! Moreover, it is
a very abstract notion. Because the body has almost unlimited potential,
you can always get better. Only a few athletes, if so, have reached
their ultimate level.
- Expected fitness (Most
of the time people would say I’m in shape or I’m not, but how do they
know what shape they are in?)
Ideally, your expected fitness would have to match 100% of your
potential fitness. In order of this to happen, you need two key
components: the necessary time that it takes to develop these qualities,
and the every day strong will to stick to your program!
 "The
training we did in January with Pierre in preparation for the Gold Cup
was outstanding. It was intense but very effective. The workouts were
specific to soccer players addressing all important areas: speed,
recovery, agility and endurance. The results speak for themselves,
2002 Gold Cup Champions! Thanks, Pierre, it was all worth it!"
--Chris Armas, Midfielder
(USA National Team,
Chicago Fire)
Back to
top
Depending on the sport’s demands, you would have to work on the following in order to achieve
top fitness in soccer:
Aerobic Base | Interval Training
| Vo2 Max
Speed Endurance |
Lactate Threshold (LT) Training
Speed |
Speed/Agility/Quickness ("S.A.Q.") |
Power
-
Aerobic Base
More often called Endurance, which is incorrect, because
Endurance covers different notions.
Endurance is the aptitude of the body to furnish a prolonged effort.
Whether this effort is moderate or intense, the endurance will depend
on the aerobic capacity of the individual, and in a more or less big
proportion, on his anaerobic capacity.
There are four different types of endurance:
- General endurance: Endurance that is applicable to a group
of sports with the same nature. Endurance applied
to a
work that includes the entire or at least two thirds of
the
body’s musculature. General endurance occurs, for
example,
in average or long distance runs whatever the form of
locomotion is: walking, jogging, swimming, skiing,
skating
etc…
- Specific endurance: Endurance specific to a determined
sport, or a specialty practice. It can also be the
endurance
applied to a targeted effort, produced by a determined
muscles group.
- Aerobic endurance: Endurance applied to an aerobic physical
workout. The aerobic endurance depends on the subject’s
aerobic capacity.
- Anaerobic endurance: Endurance applied to an anaerobic
workout. The anaerobic endurance depends on the
individual’s aptitude to contract the highest oxygen
debt
possible.
The combination of a good aerobic base and a
good aerobic power will allow you to play longer, without experiencing
drops in performance and at a higher work rate.
Working on the aerobic base will increase the muscular vascularisation.
The cardiac output (amount of blood pumped by the heart) will also
increases because of important variations in the systolic ejection
volume. There’s a better blood flow in general, and for the muscles in
particular. The blood oxygen is more easily redistributed to the
muscles. Also plasma volume and total hemoglobin tend to increase
favoring the blood oxygen carry ability.
The goal of improving the aerobic base is finally to increase the
blood capacity to carry oxygen, to have more energy available for the
muscles. Ideally, it usually takes 6 weeks to develop a good aerobic
base.
-
Interval Training
I was recently having a discussion about conditioning for soccer with
two Europeans strength and conditioning coaches, one works for an
Italian Serie A team, the other works for a Division 1 French league.
We all agreed to the conclusion that even if the game of soccer has
changed over the recent years, conditioning training methods have not.
We meant by that that as the needs of the game increase, the human
body is still using the same energy sources; and consequently the best
method to improve these sources remains interval training.
Interval training simply consists in measured periods of work followed
by measured periods of rest.
The coach ability to mix the exact work volume (Number of sets, number
of practice/week etc…), with the exact Intensity and with the adequate
amount of rest (during practice and in between practices) will make
the training more or less demanding and will also make the difference
between a good, targeted program and so called “recipe programs”.
Example of Interval training with active rest is the Fartlek:
Fartlek comes from the Swedish for 'Speed of Play' and has
been used by athletes for years. It basically consists in a continuous
jogging with sprinting bouts included.
After all, playing a game, a soccer player runs for the whole 90
minutes of a match, at a varied pace, so let’s train like the game is.
-
Vo2 Max
The Maximal Oxygen Consumption, better known as VO2 max, is one of
the most popular indexes for endurance athletes. As some soccer
players compare their moves to Zidane, professional strength and
conditioning coaches working for soccer clubs compare VO2 max
readings.
VO2 Max refers to the amount of oxygen your body can consume during a
maximal effort. This is measured in liters per minute per kilogram of
body weight. The air we breathe has a set amount of oxygen. Obviously
the bigger Vo2, the more air available, and potentially the more
endurance and work rate your player will have.
During a lab test, by analyzing the expired air for the remaining
percentage of oxygen one can calculate the amount being used by the
athlete.
Field tests can also give the coach a good idea of what the player Vo2
max is. Theses tests reflect how efficient your energy system is
at supplying oxygen to working muscles. While VO2 Max is primarily a
genetic factor, through training this can be increased, perhaps by as
much as 30 percent.
The interval training aerobic power workout or Vo2 max training leads
to an increase of oxygen consumption efficiency at the cell level.
Some structural and enzymatic reorganization facilitate the energy
amount produced by the aerobic system. For a same effort, less
acidosis is produced and its removal is accelerated.
Studies show that the average intensity for a professional game is
around 75% of the Vo2 max. One of the things I will have you
work on is to improve your Vo2 max.
-
Speed Endurance
If soccer is a sport composed
of repeated sprints, training to be consistently fast should be one of
a complete soccer conditioning program goal. Speed endurance is the
ability to perform maximal sprints with sport specific rest intervals.
Determining the sport main energy source and following an interval
training (See definition ) can have tremendous results on an
individual speed endurance.
-
Lactate Threshold (LT) Training
Or “anaerobic threshold”
training. The anaerobic threshold is the intensity during exercise
when the body can no longer meet its demand for oxygen and anaerobic
metabolism predominates. Your heart and muscles don’t get the oxygen
they need to function at this speed, and you have to slow down. If you
have ever ran the 400 meters, you know what this feels like. It is
described sometimes as the “bear feeling” (feeling like a bear is
suddenly jumping on your back) or a sudden 25-miles/hour-wind gust in
your face that keeps blowing faster and faster…
The lactate threshold varies from person to person. Untrained
individuals have a low AT (approximately 55% of their Vo2 max), and
Elite endurance athletes and top masters athletes typically have
lactate thresholds at or above 80% of VO2 max. Values approaching 90%
have been reported.
As it is expressed in % of Vo2 max, we understand, once again, how
crucial it is to improve the Vo2 max first.
Running at intensities higher than Vo2 max results in an important
acidosis production.
This acidosis has a big disadvantage for the body: it progressively
blocks neuromuscular liaisons ending up in a more and more complicated
and difficult muscular contraction.
For this reason, it is crucial to have efficient ways to remove the
acidity surplus. If the anaerobic work comes after the aerobic work,
it means that the oxygen brought by the aerobic system is a powerful
way to remove this acidity. Meanwhile, it takes a longer time to
develop aerobic qualities than to develop anaerobic qualities.
-
Speed
Speed is essentially a genetic factor, but there is room for
improvement!
Learn how to run properly, correctly, is the first way to improve
running speed.Slow speed technique drills that emphasize corrects
running movements are required. This type of workout, called
“Form running”, often necessitates one on one coaching.
Then physiological and morphological factors take place.
According to the formula: Speed= stride length x stride frequency.
While stride frequency is, once again, mostly genetically determined,
stride length is easily increasable. An increase in leg strength
will produce a better and stronger push resulting in a longer stride.
Lower body strength training, coupled with resistive running (Pulling
a sled or a parachute) are adapted work methods in this case.
-
Speed-Agility-Quickness ("S.A.Q.")
The so-called S.A .Q workout is specially designed to focus on
improving tight space, short duration and high intensity sport
movements. This will include different types of drills:
- Reaction speed drills: motor reaction to a visual or auditory
signal. (Sprint when your coach blinks, yells etc…)
- Footwork drills: Speed ladder, jump rope. The major expected
improvement will be neural; we work on the Central Nervous
System, trying to have it fire at a higher rate.
- Plyometrics drills: Drills designed to enable a muscle to reach
maximal strength in as short a time as possible. Plyometrics
drills combine gravity with muscles elasticity and modes of
contraction (In a reaction called the stretch reflex), in order
to produce force.
In this case, we could even use the word power for force,
since there is a time factor. Therefore, plyometrics are
primarily used for power development and explosive sports
skills. In-depth jumps in particular, but any kind of jumps in
general can be classified as plyometrics.
-
Power = Force/Time
Questions or Comments? Send me an email!
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