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Starting the Climb on the Soccer Conditioning Pyramid to Athletic Success
by Tom Phillips
In soccer, as in most sports, serious physical preparation begins long after the athlete can begin to profit from it. Some studies have shown that resistance training can begin even before the onset of puberty; everyone agrees that the post-pubertal athlete will benefit from physical training. This means that by 13 years of age, athletes on the fast track should be engaged in a structured program of physical training. The reality is that most young athletes do not start serious physical training until they reach high school.
There is ample justification in scientifically-based literature for beginning training at 13. Everyone has a mix of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. A large proportion of fast twitch fibers allow us to be outstanding in the power sports, (of which soccer is one). Besides slow and fast twitch, there is an intermediate fiber that has shown to respond to training by adapting to meet the needs of that training. To compel our young soccer player’s muscles to adopt the desired characteristics of fast twitch fibers we must train that athlete with strength-oriented activities. Sports scientists agree that training a muscle to increase the rate of force production, (power), you are training the nervous system. Some experts believe that there is a time of plasticity of the nervous system during the early teenage years to train a young athlete’s nervous system that will be lost if we wait for the typical resistance training introduction at 15-16 years of age. I should mention here that physical training can and should take many forms. Barbells with iron weights have their place. In a program administered by a professional, body weight, rubber cords, medicine balls, and ankle weights will also be incorporated.
The Pyramid Concept-
During the most recent National Strength & Conditioning Association, (NSCA), national conference Al Vermeil, conditioning coach for the Chicago Bulls, detailed a plan for developing in a step wise fashion the physical talent of young athletes. His plan had three important points. (1) There is no time in-season for improving your athlete’s physical assets, they use all their energy working with the technical coach and maintaining the conditioning they have acquired off-season. (2) Off-season time is too short, and must be spent developing the physical side of your athletes. (3) The nervous system does not respond to working on everything at once. In my training and experience, most conditioning plans involve identifying the physical demands of a sport, testing athletes against those needs, and prescribing exercises to remedy deficiencies, shotgun style. Vermeil suggests testing the young athlete against norms of physical development in five areas, 1. Work Capacity 2. Strength 3. Strength/Speed 4. Speed/Strength 5. Speed. Vermeil advocates emphasizing one phase of the athlete’s development at a time. He believes that the five components of fitness exist on a pyramid (see Performance Pyramid Chart), where competence in the level below is prerequisite to serious work in the level above. The experience of the great sport scientist, Tudor Bompa, bears out these assertions. Bompa, trainer of a generation of Olympic-level Rumanian athletes, has stated that he never saw an athlete who was fast before he was strong. Notice that strength is low on the pyramid. Training in each of the five components will need upwards of one off-season training cycle to attain the norms. The culmination of this plan is that somewhere in the late teenage years every athlete will have close to 100% of their physical capabilities with which to attain their goals in soccer. In this way the technical and physical capabilities of the athlete will come together when it counts. Vermeil talked about players he has received from nationally known collegiate programs who have not been exposed to adequate physical preparation, but received national honors and a pro contract based on talent. This mirrors my experience working with post-collegiate soccer players, who have neither been taught the principles of physical preparation, nor its importance. It is very difficult to change a player’s attitudes about physical training after they have attained elite status. The answer here is clear, athletes must be convinced when they are young of the importance of physical training. They must be trained by knowledgeable individuals in their physical development in and out of season. Every pro team and big time college has a staff of conditioning coaches. A soccer club that aspires to produce future champions should have one as well. If every competitive player in the nation could be put through a comprehensive, norm-based physical training program beginning at the U-14 level emphasizing long-term development, our national teams would reap tremendous benefits. By beginning this physical training plan at the age of 13, athletes could be tested during their U-19 years, and with confidence identified as having the physical assets for national team placement.
Making the Pyramid Soccer Specific
Refer to the chart for details of what is developed at each level of the pyramid. The norms were determined through exhaustive research with physical training experts from every sport and discipline. All younger athletes should begin at the work capacity level, regardless of perceived ability or ODP rankings. High school age athletes can begin at a higher level if they meet the norms. The ideal is that an athlete will begin a structured program at the U-14 level, and spend at least one off-season training cycle/year in each level starting with the work capacity level. The purpose of this program is twofold. It insures that immature athletes are not pushed into a training protocol that is too advanced for them which may lead to injury. It gives the soccer conditioning specialist guidelines for knowing when to advance the training status of an athlete. The age old problem of what to do when is simpler with the Vermeil Pyramid as your guide. If at the end of an off-season training cycle player passes the norms for the next level, during the following years’s off-season training cycle you move them up. If this is done right, at the age of 18-20 this athlete will be at 100% of his capabilities.
Here is an example of an off-season training cycle for an U-14 player during Spring-early Summer when many are playing other sports and renewing themselves from soccer burnout. The plan will assume that you have four months to work with. This age player will almost invariably be in the work capacity level. It is critical that these basics of physical training be attended to, as an athlete who begins serious strength training without the proper base will at best not progress well, at worst be risking injury. The following protocol should be done three times/week with at least one day off from demanding exercise between each workout. Detailed is the work capacity level with introductory level information to the higher levels.
(1) Work Capacity
Anaerobic capacity
This is a measure of an athlete’s ability to sprint at nearly top speed for as long as possible. A common test for this ability is the 300 yard shuttle run. This training is directed to the immediate and short term energy systems. Our 13 year old player can improve his anaerobic capacity by finding a steep hill, sprinting up 20 sec, walking down for a rest interval, then repeating 10 times. Add 5 sec/week until you get to 40 sec, then add repetitions. This is a mentally and physically demanding workout. Adding time and reps should be accompanied by a clear indication that the child-athlete is ready for more.
Body composition
10-12% body fat for boys, 18-20% for girls is desirable. If your player is not in the range, nutritional counseling, plus extra aerobic work is the solution.
Joint mobility
Improving and maintaining range of motion is critical for injury prevention and performance at all ages. This is the age where your players can be indoctrinated to this simple truth. Active stretching should be done before and after every workout.
Strength endurance/stability
This is the ability to maintain a high proportion of your strength for as long as possible while also maintaining balance. An example would be during the shoving and holding that go on in the goal area during a corner kick. Players who can use their upper body strength endurance to maintain position and balance will have an advantage. This is training the immediate-source energy system. Have your young player do squats holding a stability ball against a wall with their back. Do 3 sets of 20 reps slow and steady. Use a 10 pound dumbbell for resistance, increase reps 2-3/week until you get to 30, then add weight. Advanced athletes use 1 leg.
For abs, lay on your back, feet on the stability ball (also know as a Swiss ball). Lift and lower hips. Progress from 2 legs to one leg. For back muscles, face down, arms extended, knees on ball. Bring your knees towards chest. Progress from two legs to one. For upper body, do pushups with belly under the ball. Progress by moving the ball towards the feet. Form is critical on these stability ball exercises. When form is lost, stop the set. Use less weight on the next. The exercise may be made easier by taking air from the ball, more difficult by pumping it up.
Aerobic capacity
This is the ability to run at a high cruise for as long as possible. The state of training of the aerobic system may also play a role in speed of recovery between sprints. Although there is disagreement over the role of aerobic capacity in soccer, many studies have found that elite soccer players have high scores on this trait. I would train 13 year olds with intervals of about 200 yards. Have them run from one goal to the other and return. The pace should be such that heart rates are in the 150 range immediately after stopping. Expect that it will take a few sessions for them to get the pace right. Rest periods to train the aerobic system should be 1/1 with work intervals. If it takes them 30 sec to run one interval, begin each interval 30 seconds after the last. The goal is to run every interval at the same pace. You are after specific adaptations, such as increased red blood cell concentrations, which happen as a result of scientifically proven exercise protocols. Begin with 4 intervals, add one/week as your player shows that s/he can. Have positive incentives for maintaining pace. This is a difficult workout for the immature athlete.
Meeting the Standards
Although there are tests you can run to measure your progress, especially at this age, progression of reps and weight is all you need to see. When it is time for soccer practice to begin again in July, see if your players meet the standards for strength training during the next off-season training cycle. They are: body fat <12%, (20% female); 10 reps of 100 yards in 18 sec, (20 sec female), 1 minute rest between; 5 trips through a 10 exercise body weight circuit; station training using multi-joint exercises, such as the squat at 40% body weight, (30% female); back extension, no resistance, 2 X 20 reps.
(2) Strength Training emphasizes complex, multi-joint exercises, such as squats and pulls with low repetitions and high weight.
This may be the most time consuming level, as the norms can be hard for many young teenagers to meet, but meet them they must. A necessary adaptation is the strengthening of connective tissues, tendons and ligaments. This is mandatory for the physical training that lies ahead, and because the sport of soccer is very hard on connective tissue. Studies have shown that strength training decreases the incidence of injury in many sports. If the process is rushed, connective tissues will lag behind muscle development, and injury may result at the higher levels of training. Norms to pass out of this level include being able to squat 150% of body weight/male, 130%/female, single leg squat=60% of back squat, front squat 85% of back squat, military press, 3 reps at 70% of body weight, and push press 90% of body weight.
(3) Speed/Strength Training introduces power exercises such as Olympic lifts, and weighted jumps.
Although strength is important, power, the ability to do work in a minimum of time is the coin of the realm in soccer. Everyone knows someone who is strong, but not athletic. An athletic person is powerful, relative to their body weight. Power is what allows a long jumper to project her weight over a long distance, and a soccer player to accelerate from stopped to 10 yards away faster than the other player. Strength/speed norms are the ability to power clean 100% of body weight, 60 % of squat, push jerk 100% of body weight, power snatch 70& of body weight and 40% of squat, clean pull 110% of power clean three times. When your athlete can do these he is ready for the next level.
(4) Strength/Speed Training is also about power, using plyometric exercises such as hurdle hops and depth jumps.
Plyometrics use the stretch reflex to elicit great power from a muscle in a very specific pattern. As such, this power training is more specific to the sport. The drawback is that it is very high impact, the opportunity for injury great. To do these exercises safely, the athlete must meet the norms for Speed/Strength in order to insure that connective tissues have caught up to muscle development. To pass out of Speed/Strength emphasis, the athlete must be able to vertical jump 22" no step, 36" with a step, standing triple jump 22 feet., and do a series of hurdle jumps over 18" hurdles. Some athletes may never meet these standards. This does not indicate that they will not be high level soccer players. Every team can use a Valderama. But generally speaking, the higher you go in soccer, the more lesser athletes are weeded out.
(5) Speed Training combines the previous two categories in a way specific to the movement pattern of the sport.
For example weighted sled pulls to improve acceleration over 5 yards, lateral cariocas with a weight vest to improve lateral speed, or weighted vertical jumps to improve heading. This is the most specific training, and the movement patterns should mimic the movement in the sport, but include resistance to effect the desired overload adaptation.
Vermeil’s norms specify when an athlete has progressed enough to move on to the next level by physical maturity and accomplishment, without regard to motor skill. This is a concept that has been independently arrived at by another conditioning practitioner. Istvan Balyi, conditioning consultant for the Canadian National Soccer team, has written A Parent Coaches Guide to Developing The Young Soccer Player. An important theme of this work is that physical training should be directed to the fitness age of the athlete, not the chronological age. The Vermeil Pyramid begins with very general conditioning. Each level takes the athlete to a more specific training, culminating with speed training, which is tailored to have movements which mimic movements done in the athlete’s sport, but with resistance that results in increased speed of motion.
Raising the game in this country is a daunting task. Soccer enthusiasts are burdened with a hostile media, youth coaches who would rather be at a baseball game, too many distractions, and a culture that values self-indulgence over discipline. Identifying the players who will defend our national honor at a young age is near-impossible. The only way to insure that our national team is physically competitive is to have a program in place to insure that all promising U-14s are started on a program that will result in their achieving 100% of their physical potential. I believe that Al Vermeil has given us such a vehicle.