Fitness
Soccer is perhaps the most physically demanding high-intensity intermittent sport performed over a prolonged period of time. Few sports are played on as large a playing field, lasting as long and without regular rest periods. The average distance cover by a team is around 70-75 miles during a game. Players cover an average of 6.8 -8.07 miles during a game; consisting of 24% walking, 36% jogging, 20% coursing, 11% sprinting, 7% moving backwards and 2% moving whilst in possession of the ball .
Other considerations to take into account is that during a game a player is jumping for a ball, (header or other challenge), tackling on the floor, air, or a mixture of both, physically holding an opponent or opponents off, whilst running or jogging or controlling the ball. This is repeatedly take place.
The Work rate is affected by a player’s level of fatigue, which is a direct consequence of the individual level of fitness. The biggest advantage of being fit is being able to sustain the same or higher intensities for longer periods of time, without experiencing any drop off in performance. To avoid the negative physical and mental effects of fatigue in the latter stages of a game it is important to design and implement soccer-specific conditioning/fitness programs based on sound scientific knowledge.
The fitness trainer is now becoming accepted as a necessary member of the modern soccer coaching team. This new coaching model has the Head Coach leading a team of specialist coaches, like therapists, sports scientists, physiotherapist, psychologist, fitness trainer and nutritionist, with each performing their specified role. Either you have those specialty coaches or not, but as a head coach you have to have great knowledge and understanding of each of those area to be a successful coach.
The Coach should be able to design workouts that cover all relevant fitness areas - strength, flexibility, agility, aerobic and anaerobic endurance and speed.These workouts must be both specific to soccer and suitable for the level of the each individual player. In addition, the coach should be able to assess fitness levels, understand physiological and biomechanical test data, liaise with physiotherapists regarding injury prevention and rehabilitation and also be able to pass on sound nutritional instruction.
Fitness Testing
Fitness testing should be the basis on which any effective training program is built .One should use proven fitness tests to build a profile of player all-round fitness, then they should compare these results to the demands of the game and develop a specific training program that strengthens player weak areas while maintaining his strengths. Then perform the same tests at regular intervals and use the results as feedback to fine-tune training. No matter what the level at which player perform, fitness tests should be an integral part of your conditioning regime.
Why Fitness Testing
Motivation: Looking back and seeing how far you've come, how much you've developed is one of the most satisfying experiences in sport. As a coach take full advantage of all the encouragement and reinforcement available to you.
What gets measured gets managed: Fitness tests act as feedback. The path to your players’ performance goal won't be a straight line, more like a series of peaks and troughs. How do you know if they are on course if you never measure your progress?
Fitness tests act as a benchmark for program design: You can’t begin to plan a program if you don’t have a starting point. With a series of test results to hand you can determine how close (or far away) you are from where you want to be. From a training perspective it might help you with something as simple as setting the correct starting load in the weight room.
They help you to Prioritize: Having a profile for each player and for the team, enable us to focus on the area most needed, it will bring measurable results on the field. Without the fitness tests we would almost certainly have seen limited results by trying to cram in a bit of everything in a few short sessions.
Setting targets becomes easy: If you want your team to play high level soccer, the best soccer in season. What level of endurance do they need? If the average pro soccer player can run 3500 meters in 12 minutes in your league (a test to determine maximal aerobic power) where do your players compare? Whatever level you play at, how can you set targets for your training if you don't know where you are now? Quite simply you can’t. A battery of fitness tests is simply a group of assessments that closely represents the various physical demands of the game.