It’s a known fact that a soccer conditioning program provides a strong base for a team’s success. Without strength, agility, and endurance, all of which are build as a result of soccer exercises, the players cannot even dream of being fit for a tournament, leave alone winning it.

However, there may be situations when you and your team do not get enough days to train before a tournament. It’s not an imply that you to make changes and curtail your conditioning exercises. You don’t wish to see your players getting hurt prior to the match or at some point in the game.

Any well laid down soccer fitness training plan can lead to training players completely in just 3 days time. All that is required is sincerity, good plan, and execution. Here are some tips that work fine with short but efficient training programs.

Warming up: Instruct the players to start with any of the following; a five minute jog, high knees, jumping, or heel flicks. In the meanwhile, find time to rest to a minute or so. Then do a few stretching exercises for about 5 minutes to tone up the muscles. Be sure to include all the major muscle groups in these soccer workouts.

Soccer Fitness

Running: Some coaches make their players do continuous rounds of running. Even though its fine but I’d say that it would be better if players do just soccer specific running. This leads to the fact that they do running, jogging, walking, and sprinting in no set order for half an hour.

Running like this at different levels helps the players build stamina and exercise control over their body. Also, they do not get fatigued since a walk after a sprint balances things out.

Just let the individual players make a decision as to what they want to do and when. If they have a liking for sprinting more than jogging, so be it. As the players progress and their strength increases, you can augment the time of the soccer conditioning program by 5 to 10 minutes.

Stretching: Persuade the players to do stretching exercises both after the training session as well as a match. Focus on the entire body but give special attention to hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back. Ensure that the stretching postures are longer than the warm-up sessions. Usually, 20 to 30 seconds is perfect.

A day before the match, make the players rest. This will help the muscles restore their form and also there will be no possibility of an injury. It is also a time to discuss the strategy with them along with boosting their confidence.

Share some lighter moments as well so that they get into a great mental shape in addition to the physical one.

Understand me! When you apply this to your sessions, your players shall improve dramatically. If you wish to know more about soccer conditioning, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and equip yourself with loads of relevant information.

Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Soccer Drills For Kids.