Taking Control of Your Conditioning as a Soccer Player

Article submitted by Soccer Garage: For the finest soccer shorts, shirts, and jerseys, visit the professionals at Soccer Garage today.

Summary: Spruce up your training sessions by incorporating different tactics and techniques into your routine.

Needless to say, the conditioning aspect of soccer is a crucial component that can pay dividends, especially if you’re planning to take your skills to a bigger stage. With so many different exercises and training, which ones should you focus on more?

The real question is, how can you make your conditioning worth it?

It’s a question that all players need to ask themselves. For years, soccer coaches had a tendency to rely on training sessions that utilized laps to increase endurance. This way of thinking needs to be reconsidered. Sure, running lap after lap can provide a boost in stamina, but how does it affect your true style of play? While the game of soccer primarily revolves around running across the field for an extended period of time, it also requires a combination of skill, agility, and flexibility. You might as well join a cross-country club if you’re planning on running laps for a majority of practice.

Adding a Kick to Your Workout

Instead of focusing your time and efforts on running laps for an extended amount of time, add a variety of other physical exercises as well that work your core, lower back, and leg strength. One way you can make your lap running more efficient is to have a soccer ball on you at all times. By simply adding this object, it’ll add more versatility to your conditioning. Another exercise you can perform is to run with another player and add some dribbling and passing grids in the process. Doing this has the same effect as running laps, but it also works on dribbling, agility, moves, and passing at the same time. You see where this is going now.

Strategic Conditioning can Play a Pivotal Role in Successful Execution

By incorporating different strategies into your conditioning, you’ll not only see improvements in your stamina, but in your overall game as well – which soccer undoubtedly requires. Set up some training sessions where you run full speed with a soccer ball from end to end. You can perform this repeatedly with another person or by yourself. You can even add in a defender to try and steal the ball while you take it from one end of the field to the other. Remember, during a game you’re not going to be jogging without a ball the entire time, you’re going to be incorporating strategic maneuvering, dribbling, passing, and shooting. So, how can you improve all of these aspects? By incorporating every part of the game into a training session. This way, you’ll feel more comfortable with ball at your feet as well as being accustomed to having defenders all up in your face while you have the ball.