Soccer demands a special kind of training, based on game movements typically involving runs of no more than 20 yards in a straight line, with frequent changes of direction. You run and also stride, sprint, jog and stroll. In addition, you need good cardiovascular endurance to be able to muster an all-out sprint even at the end of a 90-minute game that has pushed you to cover a total distance of five miles or more.
Focus
With exceptions by a few coaches who buck the trend, distance running is not part of a training program for soccer, especially during the season. Individual soccer players who personally enjoy distance running or cross-country do condition themselves for soccer by pursuing these activities. Former L.A. Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid writes in "Complete Conditioning for Soccer" that in the off-season, runs of up to 30 minutes can be undertaken. Swimming, basketball and recreational soccer can alternatively promote aerobic conditioning. During the season, very little running is advisable. Stationary bikes, steppers or rowing machines can be used instead to improve aerobic conditioning.
Warmups
Jogging and running are recommended before practice to get the blood circulating and the muscles warm so as to avoid injury. FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, advises in its "11+" recommended warmups eight minutes of specialized running drills performed along a 60-yard course. These include two sets of jogging the course, followed by runs that involve pausing at cones along the course to lift the knees out, circling and jumping to create shoulder contact with a partner and running forward and backward along the cones using small, quick steps.
Ball Drills
Top European coaches, such as Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho, tend to avoid having players run without the ball to get in shape for soccer. They consider drills, done with the ball if at all possible, and small-team games to be the best means of getting into shape for soccer. Leading soccer trainer Greg Gatz of the University of North Carolina agrees. In his book also titled "Complete Conditioning for Soccer," he recommends playing small-sided games on a confined area such as a basketball or racquetball court to attain conditioning and game skills at the same time.
Conditioning Drills
Trainers at the college, professional and international levels tailor their conditioning programs to the specific demands of soccer and its emphasis on accelerating, decelerating and changing direction. You can combine singles sprints, repeated sprints called shuttles and fartleks, which provide interval training of varied intensities, to prepare you for the demands of late-game sprints, Gatz states. He also recommends position pattern runs to combine conditioning and field awareness, whereby the forward runs a crossing pattern to the goal, the midfielder runs a sideline route to the corner, and the defender backpedals to the corner.
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