Soccer Specific Endurance

Soccer Stamina, Soccer Endurance.
Gotta play, Boy !;-)

Perhaps the most important point is that Soccer is not an aerobic sport, rather it’s what you might call an “Interval-Sport”, like most team-sports are.

That doesn’t mean the aerobic energy-systems are not involved –of course they are!

But the emphasis is on the non-aerobic energy systems, meaning we’re looking here at a non-aerobic(emphasis)athletic activity.

What does that mean?

It means don’t waste your time, energy, AND muscle mass(it’s catabolic)with aerobic training!

That’s a big one, because after all: a soccer player only has so much time and energy for training and recovery available!!

Louis Van Gaal, in his Ajax-Era, seems to have been the first premier-league coach to have realized this. Consequently he changed all endurance work into an interval set-up and turned Ajax from an already very good team into probably the very best one of the time.

It has been shown that speed, agility and explosiveness decrease as aerobic fitness increases. The two are not compatible.

Also, with too much jogging(which is a relatively slow movement) you can actually teach your body to be slow!!

Any so-called "Aerobic-Base" work for a non aerobic sport -as is often done post-season/early off-season- is not only unnecessary, it is also counter-productive and can even be damaging.

EST (Energy System Training)

For a beginner usually the soccer sports-training, practice games and the competitive games themselves are more than enough in terms of endurance training.

You want to set your priorities right:

As mentioned, there is only that much time in the day, and only that much energy available for training and recovery...

Here we will look at the simplest possible form of periodizing EST, aka Soccer Specific Endurance Training :

We start with the Atp/Pc Power and progressively move into Atp/Pc Capacity, just immediately Pre-Season. This type of work also automatically improves the aerobic power system somewhat, as a beneficial side-effect, you might say.

Duration: 12 weeks

Linear Progression in this example

Six Phases of 2 weeks each = 12 weeks total program.

Weeks 1-2: 10x10m-starts, rest 120 seconds
(after appropriate warm-up, do 10 sets of 10 meter-starts with 2 minutes rest in-between)

Weeks 3-4: 6x10/10m-starts, 90 seconds rest
(10 meter-start, turn, 10 meter-start back. Aka Cutting-Drills/Suicides-Style. 1.5 minutes rest)

Weeks 5-6: 5x10/15/10m., 60s.
(same, Suicides-Style Cutting drill, 10, turn, 15 back, turn for another 10. One minute rest here)

Weeks 7-8: 6x10/15/15, 30s.

Weeks 9-10: 7x10/15/20/10, 20s.

Weeks 11-12: 8x10/15/20/15/10, 10s.

As you can see, the TUT(Time Under Tension)per set increases while the rest interval decreases progressively.

For further clarification: so the last two weeks you do a Tabata-Style Cutting Drill consisting of(after proper warm-up) 8 sets of 10 meters, turn, 15, turn, 20, turn, 15, turn, 10 meters. Then, after only 10 seconds rest, you repeat for a total of 8 sets. A very short and very hard EST.

You should do the first three phases early: in the day or in the training session, when the players are still fresh.The finishing three phases are best done as a “Finisher”, so after a session and at the end of the training day. Doing them first would compromise the quality of all other work.

Here's a post on HIIT Training: High Intensity Training with Soccer Drills as an example.

Soccer Training Main

Soccer Specific Endurance is Power and Speed Endurance

Training Programs

Plyometrics help improve Power

Periodizaton of Soccer Training

Exercise Library

The Different Soccer Age Groups

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