In the world of youth soccer development, understanding the distinction between 'working out' and 'training' is crucial for fostering athletic growth and achieving long-term success. This post will explore these differences, emphasizing why a strategic approach to training is essential for young soccer players.
What is Working Out?
Working out involves physical activities that improve overall fitness and health. It is generally non-specific and focuses on broad goals such as improving strength, endurance, or losing weight. For youth, workouts might include generic exercises like running, swimming, or playing different sports. While beneficial for general health, working out lacks the specificity needed for advancing in soccer.
What is Training?
Training, on the other hand, is a systematic and planned process aimed at improving performance in specific areas of a sport. For youth soccer players, training is tailored to develop skills and attributes directly applicable to soccer, such as agility, speed, ball control, and tactical understanding. It incorporates periodization, which phases different types of training throughout the season to optimize performance and development.
Long-Term Athletic Development Model (LTAD)
The LTAD model provides a framework that emphasizes age-appropriate training regimens to develop physical, technical, tactical, and psychological skills over time. It encourages a progression from simple to complex skills, ensuring that training intensity and volume are aligned with the developmental stage of the youth player.
Key Differences and Their Impact on Soccer Development
1. Specificity
- Working Out: Engages various fitness components but is not tailored to soccer-specific movements or skills.
- Training: Focuses on soccer-specific skills, movements, and scenarios that translate directly onto the field.
2. Progression
- Working Out: May lack a structured progression that aligns with a player’s developmental needs.
- Training: Follows a planned progression that carefully considers the player's growth, maturation, and soccer skills development.
3. Goal Orientation
- Working Out: Often aimed at short-term health and fitness goals.
- Training: Targets long-term development and performance goals in soccer, setting the foundation for future success.
4. Coaching
- Working Out: Can be self-directed or led by general fitness coaches.
- Training: Requires coaching from qualified soccer coaches who understand the demands and intricacies of the sport and can tailor programs to the needs of young athletes.
The distinction between working out and training is not just in terminology but in approach and purpose. For aspiring young soccer players, engaging in a training program designed with the LTAD model in mind is key to unlocking potential and achieving soccer excellence. As coaches and trainers, it is our responsibility to guide them through this journey with a clear, structured, and purpose-driven plan.
For example a focused strength training regimen enhances core stability, leg strength, and overall power, which are crucial for soccer performance would include:
Core Stability: Core muscles act as the center of power in the body. Strong core stability allows players to execute sharp turns, maintain balance during challenges, and power through when striking the ball. Exercises like planks, twists with adductor activation and medicine ball throws are vital.
Leg Strength and Power: Soccer requires frequent, explosive bursts of speed and power during a match. Tailored exercises such as split squats and Bulgarian splits build the muscle strength necessary for these movements. Split Squats, for example, enhance the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes—key muscles for powerful kicking and sprinting.
Plyometrics for Explosiveness: Plyometric training is essential for developing explosiveness in soccer players. Drills like box jumps and lunge jumps increase fast-twitch muscle fibers, which contribute to quicker and more powerful movements. These exercises mirror the dynamic actions in soccer, such as jumping for headers and accelerating from a standstill.
Endurance and Conditioning: Mimicking Match Demands
Soccer matches involve periods of intense activity interspersed with moments of lower intensity. A soccer-specific conditioning plan addresses these unique demands.
Aerobic Endurance: Soccer players often cover large distances during a game, which requires high levels of aerobic endurance. Continuous running at a moderate pace can improve this stamina, but it should be supplemented with sport-specific drills that mimic match conditions, such as moving through different zones of the field at varying speeds.
Anaerobic Workouts: Soccer also demands anaerobic capacity for sudden, intense periods of activity. Interval training, where players alternate between sprinting and jogging or walking, effectively enhances this capacity. Drills might include sprinting the length of the pitch with jogging recoveries, reflecting the real stop-start nature of the game.
Recovery and Rotation: Effective endurance training also incorporates proper recovery protocols to prevent overtraining and injuries. This might mean alternating high-intensity training days with lighter, recovery-focused sessions.
Conditioning through random running is literally a waste of time and efforts if you don't know the numbers to achieve; for example a low end loading day may only require 50% of the total game day volume ran in meters.
On average, a soccer player may run anywhere from 8 to 12 kilometers (approximately 5 to 7.5 miles) during a 90-minute match. The exact distance can vary based on several factors including the player’s position, playing style, and the nature of the match.
For instance:
Midfielders typically run the most, as they play both offensive and defensive roles and cover most of the field. Attackers and wingers may run fewer total kilometers but sprint more frequently as they make quick runs into attacking spaces. Defenders, especially center-backs, might run less than midfielders but still cover significant ground, depending on the game's dynamics and their role in the team's tactics.
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