Spring 2013 Schedule effective Monday, March 11th, 2013

As part of the team training program, club coaches will work on the overall development of the player with a physical, technical, tactical and mental focus within their training program.

In order to expand, reinforce and supplement the team training program, the club has established program called “agility and coordination” which also extends into Conditioning Training program in older age groups. As an addition to regular team training Agility and Coordination is also program provided by the Club and is set up based on skill level and age. Agility and Coordination was implemented initially to reduce occurrence of serious player injuries such as ACL incidents but it has been expanded to also develop these critical elements for all players in an age and development specific focus.

Depending on player age and development different focuses are trained more or less. For younger players, the developmental focus will be on psychomotor skills and development of basic motor skills, coordination and coordinative abilities with and without the ball related to development of soccer technique. Also agility and flexibility is something that requires focus from early ages. These focuses are being developed through regular team training in early ages and also through our Agility and Coordination program.

For the older players, the game is more physical, and thus, strength and endurance become more important as part of Conditioning at the regular team training program beside technical and tactical work on team practices.The main topics of Conditioning Training program are:

Speed

Speed is an essential component of soccer as well as most other sports. Someone who is said to be fast is someone useful to have in a team. But what does speed, or being fast mean? It doesn’t just mean being able to sprint 100 meters in a fast time. Being able to run fast in a straight line is great for a track athlete but for a lot of sports, and especially for soccer, speed means more than that. Speed in soccer can be quite complex and can be analyzed and developed as a different types of speed: speed of perception, anticipation, reaction, decision, absolute speed, speed of action and intervention.

Strength

Strength training now plays a major role in all sports, including soccer. However, simply lifting weights with the traditional “3 sets of 10 repetitions” approach is not an efficient way to spend training time. Soccer requires a balance of explosive power and muscle endurance.

Agility

Agility is the ability to rapidly change directions without the loss of speed, balance, or body control. As with other fitness components, agility is specific to a particular movement pattern. For a soccer player, agility is the ability to explosively stop, change direction and accelerate again. Agility and quickness training improves an athletes ability to change direction, brake suddenly and perform soccer specific skills with speed and dexterity.

Flexibility

Flexibility training is perhaps the most undervalued component of conditioning. In general terms, flexibility has been defined as the range of motion about a joint and its surrounding muscles during a passive movement. By increasing this joint range of motion, performance may be enhanced and the risk of injury reduced.

Endurance

Soccer is one of the most demanding of all sports. Few sports are played on as large a playing field, lasting as long and without regular rest periods. As a result, conditioning and endurance are essential, especially as players get older. The greater a player’s aerobic and anaerobic capacity, the more ground they cover during a typical game. Aerobic and anaerobic capacity, speed endurance and muscle endurance are all important conditioning factors for a player.

This program focuses overall on psycho-motor skills, coordination, speed, endurance, involuntary muscle movement, and flexibility. All of this is necessary to develop the complete soccer player; to improve reaction and agility; to improve performance; to increase power; to help in muscle recovery; and to help prevent or reduce the occurrence of injuries.