If you work with soccer players and provide injury prevention programs, FIFA has recently released their new F-MARC 11 program. It is similar to the PEP program and the Sportsmetrics program but is based on FIFA’s research over the last ten years. The link below is to their site with entire program along with video clips:
I just spoke with Dr. Krikendall, US Soccer and F-MARC member, and he mentioned that the program does not have to necessarily follow the exact 10 exercises provided but that these are just a starting point.
If you are wondering what the ‘11’ is for, it stands for safety in play. The majority of injuries in males come from unfair play and the original purpose of F-MARC is to promote fair play.
Well the site is very nice but what are the reasons for the majority of injuries in soccer? Is it lack of conditioning (at the lower levels) and overtraining (at the higherest)?
-lack of optimal motor control during deceleration in youth
-a majority of the injuries on the male side are due to unfair play. (thus in adequate strength levels are present in many players and get ‘thrown’ around)
It is pretty easy to do it… Teach movements not time movements (Boyle).
Squat jumps and stick (&one leg)
Altitude landings and stick (&one leg)
Long jump and stick
Side jump and stick
Falling lunge and stick
Falling side lunge and stick
Zig-zag jumps and stick
running and stoping in one-two touches (for exmaple in bb)
Long jump with rotations (90-180) and stick
Everything could be done with one foot…
I really suggest watching Parisi Deceleration method! Used some drills with my players last week, and they loved it!
Why do the athletes get better doing this when they have already been practicing deacceleration during game practice? Basically why are these drills superior? Are there any studies to show it reduces injuries?
I will answer you with contra-question: Are there any studies showing that game itself is enough for development of various abilities? Any studies showing that short-to-long is better than long-to-short?..
There are studies showing that “proprioceptive” training reduces injurie rates, but we can do it without balance boards… After all, try the drills, especially one-leg drills, and you will notice how it is hard “to stick to ground”!
After all, these drills are NOT only reaso for injury prevention and imporved performance; it is well developed training system that implements them in overall athlete development…
On the other hand it can be a concern over putting your athletes under -perhaps- unecessary risk, i.e., if the whole package doesn’t make much of a difference -if any- and if you can achieve similar/the same -if not better- results under a safer regime…
Good observation I hadn’t thought of this! Nik has already pointed out my counterpoint.
With team sports, involving cutting etc I find the whole idea of injury prevention hard to decide upon (i am totally undecided). At the UKSCA conference last year a german professor Dietmar Schmidtbleicher talked about propreioceptive training and how he has done a set of experiments that appear to show that proprioceptive training increased!! injury rates because he speculated the body learned to react pasivly to the ground rather than reaction to a simulus like getting pushed off balance. So he suggested if you want to reduce injuries you need to do “safe” unanticipated proprioceptive work where you react to an unexpected stimulus…
Uexpected stimuly you say… Hmmm… and what about balancing on a ball, while “new age” S&C coach throws berrys in your face :eek:
Ok, now serious: I undestand your point here! But, dont you get enough unexpected stimuly in game itself? Is there a need to introduce more of it? Is there a need to introduce more stress to overstress individuals with stickin exercises?
These drills could be done in OFF season, and later only as a part in warm-up… I dont see any problems with it…
To, introduce unexpectancy, you could:
a) Make your athletes jump from one foot to another, and on a signal to stick
b) Put an athlete on a box and stand in front of him with a ball. When the athlete drops off the box (before he hits the ground), pass the ball on random side. Athlete should react by running for the ball as soon as posible
c) Introduce some pulling/pushing in “sticking” exercises
d) etc
Tc, what do you consider under “safe” unanticipated proprioceptive work?
What do you consider under safer regime? Are you for or against those drills? (I know the answer is not YES or NO)
TC,
When looking at contact versus non-contact injuries most coaches assume that non-contact injuries would be a passive response. However, in somewhat agreement with the German professor, what research is now looking at involves the role of EXPECTATION in foot placement during landing and deceleration.
It’s when the player gets ‘bumped’ at the last minute or the foot steps in a divot on the field that the body is then at highest risk. So including drills such as a partner shoulder bump-land-and sprint would be just one example of including this factor into a training program.
