Soccer requires anaerobic fitness, which enables you to perform high-intensity work, such as sprints and leaping to control a ball, for a few seconds or up to two minutes. The game also requires aerobic fitness, that is, an ability to jog and stroll steadily for most of the 90-minute match. Greg Gatz, soccer conditioning coach at the University of North Carolina, notes in "Complete Conditioning for Soccer" that the best aerobic fitness drills are those that transfer well to the game of soccer.
Six-Minute Run
Gatz stresses the importance of measuring improvements in conditioning. He recommends the six-minute run to establish a baseline. Measure the total length and width of your soccer field. Set cones along the perimeter of the soccer field spaced 20 yards apart. After a jog to warm up, instruct your players one at a time to begin a run at one corner of the field, staying outside of the cones. Monitor each player's time with a stopwatch. The goal is to cover as much distance as possible in six minutes. Take the distance covered and divide it by 360 seconds to come up with each player's yards per second. Repeat the run every six weeks to check improvements in players' aerobic conditioning.
2v2+1
Small-team games provide some of the best aerobic conditioning, leading coaches agree. Coach Debra LaPrath, in "Coaching Girls' Soccer Successfully," suggests the 2v2+1 aerobic drill. Arrange your team into groups of five and assign each to a marked grid measuring 12 by 15 yards. Two players wear one color shirt, and two on the other team wear a different color. The fifth player wears a yellow practice vest or pinny and is always on the team with possession. Attackers try to maintain possession, while defenders try to steal the ball and retain possession. Run the drill for two minutes and rotate the floating player to prevent exhaustion.
1v1
Gatz agrees with LaPrath on the value of small-sided games as the key to aerobic soccer drills. He suggests playing them on a racquetball court or indoor basketball court to minimize out-of-bounds balls. Gatz recommends 1v1 drills on a grid measuring 10 yards square with paired cones at the end serving as goals, four sets of five minutes each, for a total of 20 minutes with 90-second rest intervals. Have players stay with the same partner or switch off, as long as each gets 20 minutes of work.
1v1 Keepaway
Advanced players can try pro coach Michael J. Matkovich's tweaked version of Gatz's drill -- 1v1 keepaway drill -- for an added challenge. Mark a grid 30 yards square. Pair up all members of the team with one ball for each pair. Players attempt to steal the ball from their partners and retain possession. Players conduct the drill for one minute, rest briefly and switch partners. Repeat five to 10 times.
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