There are 5 areas worth talking about and I’ll relate each of them back to the Football Fitness terminology and back to the 4 qualities that an ideal performance (X-X-X-X-X) requires.
Football Quickness/Agility is the ability to move freely and quickly in different planes of movement. You might be going in one direction, and suddenly move into a different one without losing speed, strength or balance. This requires a lot of coordination and multi-plane movement training. In a game, Agility helps you move and react to the flow of the game. Training this also improves your footwork speed. As I mentioned in the intro, throughout a game, the ideal performance from a(n aspiring) professional footballer is to be able to do these 4 things: 1. Have High Quality Actions (Big X’s) 2. Maintain High Quality Actions (Keeping big X’s throughout the whole game, 90 minutes) 3. Having More Actions (per minute) 4. Maintaining More Actions (per minute) So the goal is —> X - X - X - X - X - X - X Agility training will be more directly related to having High Quality Actions. You're sharper, and more able to perform your soccer actions like dribbling at pace, making runs in between players, and tackling an opponent for the ball. Non-soccer specific drills that isolate this area of fitness include: Ladders, Hurdles, and Cone drills, including a ball when possible makes it more similar to a game and therefore more accepted as a football fitness exercise. Check out this 9 year old stud go through some amazingly effective Speed, agility, and quickness (SAQ) drills for inspiration in your own training.
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Fitness is a huge part of the professional game. If you want to play at a higher level, you’ll need to work on becoming the most “fit” player on your team, and perhaps the fittest your league. Throughout time and modern technology, we’ve gotten better and better at breaking down fitness into different categories to focus on with laser like focus. We have highly specialized trainers coming in and creating programs for players, and coaches are leaning towards the education of such trainers to decide what will help their team perform at a high level. This has it’s pros and cons because although it’s great for making improvements in different aspects of your physical self, i’d argue that it actually takes you away from what is truly important in the realm of football, which is playing the game. The more time you spend outside of the pitch working on these aspects, means the less time you’ll have to train them on the pitch, focussing on developing everything that comes along with game-like situations. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve to get you focussing on football first (<—super important) and secondly improve in the most important areas of your physical fitness. This will give you plenty of time to train effectively and efficiently on the field, and spend your time off the field making marginal gains towards your success. We’re going to have to set the stage so you’ve got 100% clarity on how we’re going to achieve this. Football Fitness
“People often define fitness in non-football language. If you use non-football words when you talk about fitness, automatically you get non-football exercises to train fitness” - Raymond Verheijen Raymond Verheijen is a Dutch conditioning expert who specializes in keeping fitness in the realm of football. That means that he doesn’t use fitness jargon (words like: aerobic, plyometric, VO2 max et cetera). Instead, he uses football specific actions to define football fitness. It’s a really practical way of looking at things, and though it might take a little while to get used to, it’s really beneficial for any dedicated player to understand. To simplify, most people consider fitness as something outside of soccer, and when this happens, the training for fitness ends up being exercises outside of the sport. If a coach separates soccer training from fitness, they easily risk overloading the players and injury or burnout could occur (and if that doesn’t happen, the players risk wasting valuable time!) Verheijen likes to combine football + fitness training so that they are one in the same. My biggest take away from Verheijens theories of football fitness and periodization is this: X - X - X - X - X - X - X vs. X -- X --- x ---- x ------- x There are 4 qualities to this diagram. The X’s represent the highest-quality actions — Playing at 100% making proper runs, passes, shots, tackles et cetera — and the smaller x’s are less high-quality actions (playing at 80%, 70% …). The -’s represent time between actions: each dash could represent a 5 or 10 second moment) so the more dashes, the more time between actions. Throughout a game, the ideal performance from a(n aspiring) professional footballer is to be able to do these 4 things: 1. Have High Quality Actions (Big X’s) 2. Maintain High Quality Actions (Keeping big X’s throughout the whole game, 90 minutes) 3. Having More Actions (per minute) 4. Maintaining More Actions (per minute) So the goal is —> X - X - X - X - X - X - X These fundamentals govern everything you do in football fitness. If you’re not working to approach this ideal state of being, you’re not dialing in your training in the areas that you need to. Over the few weeks, I'll be rolling out the top tips I have on training Football Fitness. There are 5 areas worth talking about and I’ll relate each of them back to the Football Fitness terminology and back to the 4 qualities that an ideal performance (X-X-X-X-X) requires.
No more running wasteful laps around a field, or doing biceps curls, we'll get into what will really be effective training for your football career. Let's get this party started! -z You can be great. And a great way to do this is by having a belief in yourself, and in your own word. Developing this mentality now, will put you ahead of those who just focus on skill or fitness alone. Nowadays, I see a lot of people saying one thing and doing another. These people usually get wrapped up in themselves, or spun up in their own lies and it comes back to bite them in the form of missed opportunities or losing trust or credibility in the soccer scene. There's not much room for lying to yourself or others in your growth as a soccer player. Honesty is a huge game-changer. Once you're honest, you'll have a sense of integrity with everything you do. People see that, and admire it. When it comes to training, if you say you're going to do something, you're more likely going to do it. Your integrity goes a long way and can even influence a coaches decision about whether or not he wants you on his team. If you don't have the attitude and focus in a professional way, you might be out of luck when it comes down to picking between two players. Commit to Integrity, it's huge in the long run. Here are the 5 commitments: 1. I'm in control of my success.Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is in charge of how good of a player you become, besides you. You are the be all end all of your improvement. You determine your future. You’re the one who chooses each and every decision that you make. Not your parents, not your friends, teammates, or coaches. You do. If you want to improve, the person to start with is in the mirror looking back at you. You are responsible for yourself. As you stand in front of a door that is locked, you have to realize that you are the key. You have to shape yourself accordingly in order to fit the lock and access your dreams. At the end of the day, if you can commit to being in control of what you want, how much you want it, and how you’re going to get there. You'll be in control, and your development will soar. 2. I am the hardest working person on my team.Be ruthless. You're not just supposed to go through the motions. You've got to make yourself known in this game, and that involves being the hardest worker on the pitch. Whether it's on in training or in games. Playing in games is the #1 best way to improve your football actions. Yet there is a lot more to developing than being thrown into an 11v11 game and expected to improve. Work your ass off to train your decision making and execution.You have to train as efficiently (and as close to game situation) as possibly. In this e-book, you’ll be given a run down of exactly which areas you’ll need to be developing individually. If you can commit to spending time on the pitch in an efficient, effective way, your improvements will translate directly to your gameplay ability and help you to reach your potential. This is where you’ll start seeing changes. 3. I train more consistently than anyone I know.As long as you're putting in more effort than others, you know you're going to be growing at a quicker rate than the rest. Consistency is vital to long term success. Setting schedules and planning your development throughout the months, seasons, or year is a great way to stay on track. Lots of low-level achievers in life, tend to miss out on this. They think that it gets boring when you stick to a schedule, or work on the same thing over and over. I promise you that there is bliss in repetition. When you commit to start having a sense of invariability in your training schedule, then you almost switch on to autopilot, and it doesn't take any willpower to roll out of bed and train. You'll grow MUCH faster than other players if you do this. 4. I have a growth mindset.A fixed mindset is where you think your talents, intelligence, or abilities are fixed traits, whereas a growth mindset is when you believe that you can adapt and improve yourself through diligent effort. Growth minded people embrace challenges, and don't let failure stop them from trying again next time. Set the bar, and if you fail, pick yourself up, time and time again, and learn new ways to master yourself, until you achieve it. The key is in learning here. By committing to having this mindset, you are letting go of any beliefs about "I can't" by adding the word "...yet" and you'll be free from the dreaded fear of not being good enough and be able to develop in new, creative ways. 5. I improve at least 1% every day.When you're developing as a player, you're going to want to be able to improve as soon as you can, but you can't really rush the process too much. Like cramming for a test, it might help out temporarily, but not in the long run. You're better off putting little efforts in each and every day. It adds up (check out the post on the 1% Compound Effect for more) If you can commit to being 1% better every time you wake up, whether that means choosing to eat a little better, run an extra sprint, take an extra few shots on goal, it ALL adds up. If you can say these 5 things, and truly believe them, then you'll be in integrity with yourself, and you'll be on the road to achievement.
*If you can't say them and believe it. Ask yourself, what would you need to do in order to believe in your word. Are you ready to put the work in? Need help sorting it out? Let me know, I'm here to help! -z Here is Factor #4 of Tactical Intelligence Do you really want to put yourself in the spotlight as a player? Do you want to show that you're a great player? Then, listen up. A SUPER secret to taking your game to the next level is advancing your proficiency in your ability to make optimal decisions. Woah, what's that really mean? Simply put ---> Get *really* good at making the best choice. It's easier said than done, but I'll break down some ideas you can obtain this soccer holy grail. For growth in this area, here are some of the best tips: Study professional football I've said it before and I'll say it again, learn from the pro's! Study the players who are top class. Learn how they tick. When you're watching a game, ask yourself (and try to answer) why do the players make certain passes and other actions on the ball? Why did they make that decision? In answering this, you'll be putting yourself into the role of the player, and in a sort of empathetic way, you're developing your brain to understand the critical thinking it takes to make the best choices. Mistake your way to success Trial and error is a great way to learn, since you're training more than you play in games, that would be a awesome time to work on your decision making. If you make a poor decision, like playing a high risk pass, try to figure out which alternatives could have been better. Did you have support behind you to retain possession? Did you forget to scan the other side of the field where a player was open/making a run? Learn from your mistakes, and and you'll quickly become more successful in choosing the best option. Add restrictions ---> +/- If you reduce the number of touches you're allowed to have on the ball, it forces you to make decisions quicker (if you don't, you're screwed! hehe). Start thinking about what to do before you have the ball. Being able to anticipate the play (see Sight vs. Vision) will help you destroy your opponents. As a bonus, playing quicker will improve your touch too! As a visual cue, you can write +/- on your wrist during training, and if you see it, you'll know to "add less" touches. These tips aren't going to just help you automatically become better at making decisions. It's not an overnight thing. In the long run, over time, your training to make optimal decisions will add up and improve your tactical awareness and ability as an individual.
What can you commit to today? Will you watch more football + study it? Will you check in with yourself after making mistakes? Can you force yourself to become quicker in your decision making? If you want to take your game from an amateur level, to top class, decision making is a key factor. Work on it, and you'll get better! -z P.S. When in doubt, here's a handy-dandy flow chart to help you make your decisions. |
Zak DrakeI love helping players optimize their soccer careers + lives through actualizing their potential. Categories
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