Football (soccer)

Thanks! very useful to know! Can you give some more examples of exercises i can do or routines i can follow?

Hey Jacko,

In my mind, speed and strength are interrelated in your training b/c of the specificity of your sport. It will involve both of them...but soccer is probably the sport that has encompasses the entire spectrum of types of strength. I think, without a doubt, the place to start is an assessment of your current abilities. Wh is it that you feel that your speed is the main limiting factor right now?? It could very well be the amount of force that you are developing/or lack there of. Being that force is applied to the ground to propel you anywhere, this is usually the area that most athletes are lacking in, in my experience. Thus, by improving the amount of force that you can develop, as long as there is a velocity component to it (you are training explosively), y ou will get faster...I assure you. So how do you do that? Well, movements like squats, deadlifts, Olympic movements, and of course plyos. Depending on what your training background is, accomodating resistance is def key in the future...but only for limited spurts of time.

Of course, local muscular endurance is a huge component as well. This is should be done thru specific conditioning exercise and even practice to add to GPP (General Physical Preparation).

Hope that helps...give me a holla with any questions!

Shawn Myszka, CSCS
Explosive Edge Athletics

use ankle weights while doing cardio training, this will help you develope speed+ interval cardio for the explosive speed and stamina bit.
dunno what postition u play at but an overall bodyworkout is helpfull for the power.
would go for upperbody strenght as a defender, that would help in close one to one challenges
and focussing on the legs as a striker, but be carfull that u dont train the wrong muscles. Cause some will actualy
build up your leg muscles making em bigger but decreasing its striking power and moverability.
As for what muscles that would exactly be and what exercise to do; i think its beter to ask some of the workout pro's on the site.

i only focussed on the cardio when i played soccer and believe me if you get used to the ankle weights and you finaly get em off, your legs will feel light as a feather and you'll glide over the field.