Soccer Conditioning Drills

It’s important to note that some of these drills must be done as a team and other drills can be done as an individual.

Soccer Conditioning Drills with the Ball

The advantages of conditioning with the ball at your feet include reduced boredom, increased technical work, improved teamwork and more. Working with youth soccer players you need to encourage hard work. Throughout the workout push them so they give their all and get the full benefit from each conditioning drill. Using small and large sided games is an effective strategy.

Small Sided (SSG) vs. Long Sided Games (LSG)

When comparing small sided games and large sided games one study showed SSG produced: significantly higher HR, spent significantly longer time in the >75% Max HR zone, more ball contacts per individual. (1) “Technical analysis revealed a large practical difference (effect size ranged from 1.5 to 21.2) between small- and large-sided games: less number of blocks, headers, interceptions, passes, and receives but more dribbles, shots, and tackles in SSG.”(1)

As a general rule the fewer the players the higher the intensity, the more players like in 11 v 11 the lower the intensity. But a lot depends on how hard the players work.

Anaerobic Capacity

To improve the anaerobic capacity the smallest of SSGs can be used. Use 1v1 or 2v2s to improve anaerobic capacity.

To perform the 2 v 2 Small Sided Game follow these instructions. (This drill is from "Fitness Training in Soccer", Page 204 and 205, Author Jens Bangsbo)

Set up: ¼ of the soccer field with one full size goal.

Teams: Each team has 2 x 2 players.

How to play: Ordinary soccer play with both teams trying to score in the same goal. Play starts by having the (s) server play the ball into the playing area. If a team loses possession of the ball by the GK catching it or if it is kicked out of play, the next ball is served into the opposite team. After scoring the same team gets the ball from the server.

Time: Use fixed time intervals. for example 1-2 minutes of work with 1-2 minutes rest.

Coach cues: The coach should encourage players during the 2v2 drill to exercise at a high rate.

Aerobic Capacity

Aerobic capacity and power can also be developed using small sided and long sided games. Using 1 v 1 games can prove very difficult so increasing the quantity of players is useful. One study review forty junior players. These players performed generic or soccer specific drills for conditioning.  The small sided games and generic training were both 4 bouts of 4 minutes at 90-95% of maximum HR with 3 minutes rest. There were significant improvements in aerobic fitness and match performance in both groups. The results I want to emphasize is that the study showed that small sided games are an effective tool for improving fitness in junior soccer players. (3)

Soccer Conditioning Drills without the ball

Keep it simple when training by yourself. Don’t worry about coming up with some elaborate conditioning routine. Tempo runs and shuttle runs can both be used to train without the ball as a team or individual. I understand these are not very glamorous but why get fancy.

If you are a beginner coach and don’t have a very good understanding of how to use small sided games, KISS. Keep it simple stupid. It is the end result you are striving for, which is a well conditioned team. Later on you can add SSG or LSG but for now KISS. Same goes for individual players looking to condition themselves-Stop going on long runs in the offseason. Don’t join cross country to stay in shape for soccer if your most important sport is soccer.

Tempo Runs are a tool used to develop aerobic fitness without compromising speed. Usually you will pick a speed that is about 75% of your max speed and run 100-200 yards or meters. Run the sidelines walk the end line for your entire routine till the final number of repetitions is complete. Before thinking about running 5 miles, why not use tempo runs instead. You will develop aerobic power without loses in speed, running smaller distances and more.

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Shuttle runs also known as ladders are brutal and not fun. But if you are looking for high intensity training look no further. If you’ve done them in the past you know what I am talking about. First, I don’t suggest doing ladders year around a few times a week. They are just too intense for the body to maintain high levels like that all the time.

For my money you do shuttle runs as fast as you can and then rest for the designated period. A shuttle run is about 110 yards long with cuts at various markers on the field. The cutting is important to prepare for the season. Before you question these training methods, just recently a young soccer team completed a modified version of this type of training and many of them vastly improved from the first test to the second. They used a modified version of the Elite Soccer Fitness Training Program. Some players even improved around 50%.

Coaches Rountable Feedback

Soccer Coaches respond to the topic of Soccer Conditioning Drills

Calvin Toussaint

I'm of the opinion that conditioning with the ball can be incorporated into all aspects of any training regime especially when it pertains to the young player. However, with the older player who is by then aware that position to the ball is the important thing, self mental conditioning becomes as an important fact as conditioning with the ball. Football in its simplest form is with the ball or attempting to win back the ball. What often determines success at the highest levels is self conditioning. The mental that comes with being where you must be to get the ball/use the ball /support the ball/apply the correct technique/give it to the correct person at the correct time in the correct way or win the ball by being in the correct place to win the ball back or delay a play.

In conditioning players with the ball I often ask that they play the ball faster, either a one touch or a two touch game. Forward movement must be incorporated. The concept of using walled goals allow the ball to never stop moving even when goals score -- akin to squash. Such games keep technique at a premium whilst ensuring that the athlete burns calories. If the coaching facility does not have walled dorms, have balls at the side to be put back in until the exercise ends. 5 mins norm, 8 minutes maximum.

What also works is a strict man marking game where players are penalized for being more than 3 yards from an assigned opponent by having to sprint half the field of play before returning whilst the game continues. 60 * 40 Field. 5v5 with keepers.

Liam

Your right in that the ball can (and in my opinion should) be included during pre-season and still get great fitness gains as long as the quality and tempo of the ball work of a good quality!

Todd Corabi

Keeping

 the ball at a player's feet or pair of players is crucial. I agree that doing cardio conditioning with the ball is far more beneficial than traditional laps. Along with this however, is the style of running is important. Soccer, in my opinion is a very interval running style sport rather than continuous. if we are running laps, whether timed laps or # of laps, the players are pretty much running at a common pace. Where as, interval running (jog, sprint, brisk walking) combinations are more "game like".

That said, the examples given already of 3v3 tournament with balanced teams, 8 minute games, 2 minutes in between, keep standings and have prizes for top teams. Huge conditioning value in 60-90 minutes; simple 3-way overlaps to finish on goal, jog back to half-line (approx.), keep them moving, do this for 8 minutes and, guess what, they just ran a mile ... are all fabolous. Below are just a couple additional simple ideas.

These simple skills are ones that can be used as individual drills for training ages 12-14 however, I LOVe using them as a warm up combined with dynamic sport specific stretching/movements for ages 15-19 to review fundamentals. The drills below are listed without objectives although you can get the point.

1) Stationary Ball touches: Can be done alone or with partners. Hop on one foot while touching the ball with the sole of your other foot X # of times (dependings on amount of cardio work you want to do...20-50 per foot). Emphasize soft touchm still balls, and bent soft knees.. continue with each of the following:

A) Sole of left foot B) Sole of right foot C) Sole's/balls of each foot alternating D) inside of each foot E) outside of each foot

2) From here: dribble 10 yards straight then "cut back" do 10 times per part of foot below with a small group, create a circle and all dribble into the circle and cut back or opposite a partner continue by doing 45 degree and 90 degree "cuts" as well using any part of foot.

A) sole B) inside C)outside D) top/instep

3) passing/receiving/trapping: with a partner..quickly, and the key is quickly, partners pass the ball back and forth up to 100 times (obviously a lot less for younger kids) receiving with 1 foot and passing back with opposite (if capable)have them toss you the ball 20 times (10 times per foot) and trap the ball followed by a quick pass back. Following the passing, partner A tosses the ball to partner B who traps the ball with his foot then quickly makes a solid pass back. repeat at least 20 times (10 times per foot) then repeat with thighs and chests.

4) Following #3, one of my absolute favorite skills...run through cross overs.

Players stand 20-30 yards apart and practice throwins and moving to ball. Partner A throws ball, partner B runs to ball and "through it" so gain control with any part of body possible and they switch places. Partner B may need to make a little cut with the ball to get around A.

5) Tri-angle passing:

groups of 3 stand in a 4 cone square. Square is set up so there are people at cones 1, 2 and 3. person 1 has a ball. Person 1 passes the ball to person 3. Person 2 then runs to cone 4 so that person 3 has two options to pass to. Continue for 10 minutes. Add a 4th or 5th person to play defense and continue to switch places as defender retrieves ball. If you add a shooting drill, you have touched upon most of the fundamental skills while doing interval style cardio work the entire time.

Danny Van Mol

I think conditioning is a bug part of soccer. My thoughts an also my clubs I work for about this is the following:

At 11-12 the trainings should be all based on technical skills with a ball. Keeping the players moving all training with small breaks in between activities should work great for this age group.

At 13-14, there are many different ways to built conditioning, one of them is using windows. Here you use a small square in the middle(2 by 2) and a bigger square around that. Depending on # of players it could be anywhere from 30 by 30 and up. Work in 60 or 90 second intervals. Now you can train many different skills. Passing and receiving, control with many different body parts. This is also a great activity for all high school ages.

At the high school ages, you should be implementing some conditioning without a ball. Especially in your pre season. Ask previous club players who are now in college playing soccer what their coach makes them do in pre season and use some of that in your pre-season trainings. All of this is depending on the level of level your team is playing.

Andres Benjamin

I too started out thinking conditioning should be an exercise without the ball. Just standing and giving instructions. I changed a lot of how I coach through reading articles from Taylor, Coach George, the guys from IYCA are great as well. Then by attending training sessions with professional coaches and managers, feeding off from what they were doing in pre season and so forth.

Now all my sessions include ball and no-ball training, kids, both boys and girls need training like this to also instill game like situations in the routine. It's no use making them run constantly and telling them "In a game situation you need to get your areobic and endurance correct in order to keep up with the tempo of the game". It is more a visual experience when they do exercises with the ball and can see how it affects a game situation.

Thanks for your thoughts, it's always best to be a coach who can adjust and incorporate new skills and techniques into a training.

Summary

To become an effective soccer player you must condition for soccer.  These few soccer conditioning drills can develop aerobic and anaerobic capacity.