Ultimate Soccer Training

The best soccer players need ultimate training to reach the pinnacle of the sport. Stars capable of winning FIFA's Golden Ball award as best World Cup player, such as Uruguay's Diego Forlán, France's Zinedine Zidane and Brazil's Ronaldo, arrive on the global stage trained in the essential physical, mental and emotional tools needed for success on the pitch.

Identification

Ultimate soccer training differs from regular soccer training in two respects, according to Ohio-based soccer coach and trainer John Zajaros. Ultimate training goes on year-round without a break, and includes cross-training activities such as working with weights. The extra months of work and varied routine enable you to compete at the highest levels against players who are bigger, faster and stronger every year. Ultimate soccer drills work on soccer-related muscle groups and aerobic fitness for better performance on the pitch and injury prevention.

Features

Work with a trainer who can conduct a physical assessment of your baseline fitness. The trainer will create a list of aerobic drills, such as jogging, anaerobic drills such as sprinting and interval training, and strength-training routines involving weights, machines or body weight drills like squats. Follow the trainer's plan, and jointly revise it to increase training intensity or repetition as your fitness increases.

Time Frame

Your soccer training plan may call on you to weight train each part of your body three days a week in the preseason. The upper body workout may be Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, and a lower body workout may be Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Soccer-specific exercises, especially for girls and women, may work on the quadriceps and hamstrings to avoid ACL tears and other knee injuries that disproportionately affect female soccer players. Aerobic and anaerobic fitness training may be done most afternoons, except on game days and the day before.

Expert Opinion

John Davies, founder of Renegade Training and author of "The Beautiful Game," describes a crucial aspect of ultimate soccer training: going beyond fitness and resistance work and enhancing artistic skills. Davies bemoans a tendency at the higher levels of training to stress athletic ability over creativity. He notes that the training programs of Brazil, Spain and Argentina emphasize skill development, efficiency of movement, drive, determination and the artistic elements of soccer moves. These training programs create the world's top players and teams.

Considerations

To move into the realm of ultimate soccer, enjoyed by players who make it to a national team that qualifies for the World Cup, find a high-level trainer. Such a trainer will be passionate about skills, conditioning and real-game experience that helps hone your decision making and calmness under pressure. Detlev Brueggemann, FIFA master coach and author of "Soccer Alive: The Game Is the Best Teacher," notes that ultimate success as a soccer player depends on the quality, timing and speed of decision-making in a realistic environment. A creative trainer develops drills that extract aspects of real games to create goal-oriented training sessions that pose an increasing challenge to players.