Soccer player training log

Members Area My Training Journal
1

Hei! I’m a 22 year old norwegian amateur soccer player and second year sports student. I really need to improve my speed to take my game to the next level.

My endurance is good. Spring 2007 I ran a 4.36min 1500 meter, and a year ago I ran a 10.06min 3000 meter. My stamina is at approx the same level today, and I manage to stay at this level by playing soccer three times a week. This gives me the opportunity to try and improve my explosivness.

I did some testing today and managed:
5rm deep squat 85 kg.
5rm flat bench 65 kg.
9 reps of wide chins with no hip movement.
17 reps of decline (45 degrees) glute ham raises holding a 10 kg plate across chest.

My height is 1.85 meter and I’m 81 kg.

Former records :
BPress 6 reps at 70 kg
Squatting 3 reps at 90 kg.
11 chins with narrow underhand grip.
Deadlift, 6 rep 70 kg.
Clean & jerk 50-55 kg.

Vertical leap: 54 cm
Standing long jump: 2.20- 2.25 m
Electric timed 30 meter: 4.21 (without reaction time)
Electric flying 30: 3.52.

I’m really slow the first meters. Done alot of sprint training and some plyos lately, but my first steps accel don’t seem to improve. My top speed has improved thought. My thoughts now is that my accel is really important as a soccer player and I guess strength improvement, mainly squat improvement is where my focus should be. Maybe hills will be more suited to me than flat sprints since I need to improve strength levels?

My optimal week plan looks something like this:
M: Soccer training, finish off with endurance sprints(sprint 10-20m, slow jog 10-20m, repeat 10- 15 times.
T: Sprints. Vol 200 meters and medium intensity weights. 3-4 exercises done of weigh training.
W: Easy soccer practise. Skills, tactical, finishing, short intensive game.
T: Match
F: Rest
Sa: Sprint/plyos and Heavy weights
Su: Tempo and some skill training.

Once or twice a month alcohol fucks up my plans. I sometimes do some lifting and ab work after I’ve been out drinking, but it’s the only training I do.

My goals to be achieved before new year:
5rm squat 105 kg.
5rm bench 80 kg.
Chins wide grip: 12 reps
Vertical: 60 cm
SLong jump: 2.40 m

More goals might be added. Hopefully I can record some sprints with dv camera soon and set some sprint time improvement goals.

2

Followed my plan on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Soccer training on Wednesday was not good at all. Technique was ok, but low on energi and not sharp in decisive situations. The match on thursday wasn’t especially good either, but the game was won. I missed a penalty in the middle of the first half, and continued to fail when given opportunities later in the game. Friday was rest day, but did two sets of light ab work before going to bed.

Today, I had planned to some sprinting and weights, but the gym was closed so i decided to do hills today and maybe lift tomorrow.

Plyo, hill, abs session:

25 min warm up
30 contacts of plyo. Tuck jumps, single leg box and one set of side to side. 2 min rest between sets.
Hills. 2 sets* 10 reps * 40 meter 5 degrees. Total 800 m of hills
1 min between each start, 2 min rest between sets. .
10 min of ab work.

I’m not sure if my cns will be ready for sprints + weight session tomorrow. Maybe I should only do weights tommorrow?

Have some floorball training and soccer training on Monday. Floorball on thuesday and maybe some explosive lifting Thuesday. Not intense soccer training Wednesday, and an important match on Thursday.

3

Todays lifting:
Full squats: warm-up+ 5 reps 70 kg+ 3 sets* 5 rep 80 kg. Struggled at my last set. Heavy.
BB bench: warm up+ 2 set 5 reps 60 kg and 6 reps of DB bench using 22 kg DB. Easy- Medium.
Rows: Standing BB row. 1 set 5rep 40 kg easy. 2 set 5 rep 50 kg. Heavy.
1 set 5 reps of bulgarian lunges using 12,5 kg DBs. Medium
Reverse hyper machine. 2 sets* 12 reps * 40 kg. Explosive.

Afterwards I cycled to the track stadium and ran a 800 m. Developed some lactic acid on the 10 min ride up to the stadium. Not perfect conditions to test your 800 m time. My time was 2.25 min. Maybe I would have managed 2.20 with fresher legs. Not very happy with the time anyway. Was wondering if I maybe had some potential for the 800, but I had hopes of running something like 2.15. Will try to run a test at the start of my training once, to find out how many seconds the lifting decreased my time. Thinking of having a go at the 800 or 1500 m and see how fast I can run with specialized training. My aerobic condition is ok, but my sprint endurance is totally lacking.

4

A week ago since i last wrote in this journal.

Monday I played almost 2 hours of floorball in the morning, which was very demanding on my legs. Very competitve and alot of short accelerations. Soccer training in the evening was medium quality.

Tuesday: 1 hour of floorball in the morning was really heavy mentally. After 30 minutes I really had to struggle to run maximum and only did when I really needed to. Did 10 min of abs training.

Wednesday: Half soccer training (40 mins). Low tempo and varying quality, but important for doing well at the match thursday.

Thursday: Played a game today. Did well. High level of flow in the second half.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 10 sets of 8 reps of plyometrics with 2 min rest. Tuck jumps, 2 legged side to side, bent-over ankle jumps, seargants test. Only managed 48 cm on the seargants test, have never tested lower than 52 cm before. Legs felt heavy, will retest when I feel fresher.

Sunday 23/9: Sprints and one in-season DeFranco workout.
10 *10 m sprints, 1 min rest between sprints.
2 min rest
4 *20 m sprints, 2 min rest between sprints.
3 min rest
4 *30 m sprints, 3 min rest between sprints.
10 min rest
Worked up to 62,5 kg 5 RM close grip bench.
2 sets of blackburns
Bulgarian lunges, with 16 kg DB, 3 sets of 8 reps, 90 sec rest.
Rows BB 40 kg- 3 sets of 8 reps, superset with 18 kg DB shrugs for 12 reps.
Abs: 1 sets of sit-downs and rotation exercise.

Descent workout. Ran on a rough sand surface (soccer field) and I could see all my footprints on the ground. Measured my longest strike distance to approximately 6 feet. I thought that was a bit short so tried to run with longer strides and higher knee lift and it felt much better. Then I measured my strides to 7 feet and the prints on the ground was smaller. I guess i managed to push more down into the ground. Ground contact time was propably decreased too.

5

If you had not played for so long on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, you would have performed even better on Thursday :cool:

6

Maybe you are right. Wednesday was almost like a recovery day, but my lack of power on saturday indicates that I was extremely drained after the game.

I view soccer training as low to medium cns stress and games as medium to high cns stress. Soccer practise the day before games is normally not so intense and short in duration so the cns stress is low, but the floorball training on monday was really taxing my cns I believe.

7

Går du på Idrettshøgskolen?

8

Universitetet i Stavanger

9

Monday 24/9: Floorball training at school. Exercises and different variations of playing created for children in school. Easy.

Tuesday 25/9: In the morning, soccer juggling 45 min and easy spinning session 1 hour. Evening, soccer match. Didn’t do well. Beleive I need a break from soccer for a while, only tree games left this season.

Wednesday26/9: Full rest.

Thursday 27/9: Plyo and strength session.
Good warm-up. Core performance warm-up.
Single leg jump to step and controlled landing.
Did 3 jumps with right foot and 3 with left in one set. Also did lateral and medial jumps the same way. In total I did 6 sets of 6 reps using 2 min breaks.

Hang cleans: My technique isn’t good at all. Started at 30 kg and worked up to 50 kg singles. I have a tendency to split my legs when the weight is heavy, but managed some good ones at 50 kg. I really like the exercise thought.
Worked up to a 67,5 kg 5 RM bench press.
3 sets of DB rows: 28 kg6, 326, 34*6. 3 min breaks.
Bridge and side bridge work. 1 min each.
Bulgarian lunges: 2 sets of 5 reps with 16 kg DB. Easy- Medium.
Explosive half squats with 50 kg. 6 reps, 2 sets.
Military press, 1 set of 5 reps, 40 kg. Focus on full extension. Easy- medium.

I quess my cns is really burned now. Going to soccer training soon too. Will rest tomorrow and match on saturday.

10

I’ve not written on this journal for a while, but the soccer season is finished and now my focus is improving strength. Since strength is my priority in this period, I will only write about my strength development. I’ve designed a program which I believe will mainly improve max strength and maybe explosivness. I’m not very strong so maybe my focus should have been more on hypertrophy? Hope someone can comment on total volum, maybe some opinions on priorities for a soccer player. I don’t believe I got big inbalances and the program is pretty balanced and working total body. Program is very much inspired by Boyle/coreperformace, and Charlie too. Will also do some soccer, floorball and some other stuff, but not a great deal of cns stress. Will try to do med ball accels before day 1 and 3. 10-30 meter accels before day 2.

Day 1,
3 warm-up sets, and two sets of 3-5 reps, the last set to failure.
Squat/Front squat
Vertical pull
Vertical press
Deadlift

Circle 1 ,215 reps, 310 reps or 4*5 reps. Last set to failure.
Horizontal press
Horizontal pull
1- foot squat variation.

Circle 2 , 2 *8-12 reps
Abd flexion exercise
Ab exercise, core stabilized in neutral posistion (boyle/cook)
SLDL/reverse hypers/physioball ham curl(1-foot excentric, 2- foot concentric)

Day 2, explosive
3-4 sets, 3 reps, 2-4 min rest between sets.
Squat jumps(10-20 % of 1RM squat)
Plyo push-ups.
Hang clean
Push press/jerk
Explosive lunges, 1 set,10 reps in all directions.
Ab training

Day 3
3 warm-up sets, and two sets of 3-5 reps, the last set to failure.
Squat/Front squat
Horizontal pull
Horizontal press
Deadlift

Circle 1 ,215 reps, 310 reps or 4*5 reps. Last set to failure.
Vertical press
Vertical pull
1- foot squat variation.

Circle 2 , 2 *8-12 reps
Abd flexion exercise
Ab exercise, core stabilized in neutral posistion (boyle/cook). Using pulley.
SLDL/reverse hypers/physioball ham curl(1-foot excentric, 2- foot concentric)

11

Tue 16.10-07
Front squat, 2 sets* 3 reps, 70 kg
Chins, 2 sets* 4 reps BW+ 4 kg.
Military press, 2 sets* 5 reps, 42,5 kg
Deadlift, 2 sets* 5 reps, 80 kg.

Circle 1
Bench press, 2 sets15 reps, 50 kg.
BB rows, 2 sets12 reps, 40 kg.
Lunges, 12 reps, 2 sets, First set 14 kg DBs, second 18 kg DBs

Circle 2 , 2 *8-12 reps
Abd flexion exercise, crunches 2 sets of 40.
Ab exercise, core stabilized in neutral posistion (boyle/cook) 2 sets,8 reps,12 kg.
SLDL/reverse hypers/physioball ham curl(1-foot excentric, 2- foot concentric) 2sets, 10 reps, bodyweight only.

12

Tue 18.10-07
Front squat 72,5 kg3 reps. Struggled technically and decided to chance to back squat for the second set. One of my shoulders is elevated/tense, and I can’t get this shoulder under the bar. 90 kg * 5 reps bsq.
Barbell rows: 24 reps 57,5kg.
Narrow grip bench, 25 reps 65 kg.
Deadlift 25 reps, 82,5kg and 85 kg.
Standing DB military press, 9 reps using 18 kg DB, and 2 sets of 10 using 16 kg DB.
3 sets*10 of assisted chins.
Hypers with BB row,3 sets of 10, 10 and 15 kg Barbell.
Core work: chrunches, elbow too knee and tried some head circles.

13

My plan was to do an explosive weight session today, but I consumed some bottles of beer yesterday, and decided to perform the workout late in the evening outside the weightroom to improve the effect of the session. Maybe I should have stayed at home instead, but my body felt good.

Tried some medball accels using a 2/3 kg stone instead of medball. Didn’t feel correct. Maybe I should jump more vertically. I didn’t land smoothly between the jumps, and I need a medball to get maximum effect.

Ran some 30 meters, and did some broad jumps. Total sprint distance including medball accels ca. 300 m.

I did 3 sets of depth jumps and 3 sets of clap push ups (2 claps in air). 5 reps per set.

Afterwards I tried some sled pulling. Timed a 40 m forward and one 40 m backward. Used 48 sec pulling forward and 40 sec pulling backwards. 1-2 min rest.

Finished the session with two sets of chins.

14

23.10-07
Worked up to a heavy set, 5 reps squat @ 90 kg.
Hang cleans, 4-5 sets of 5-7 reps, 40 kg. Technique work.
2 sets of deadlifts, 5 reps @ 80 kg.
Chins, 1 set, 6 reps, BW+ 6 kg DB.
Military press, 1 set, 6 reps @ 45 kg.

15

24.10-07
Push press behind neck. 3 sets of 50 kg. Could easily have added more weight, but was afraid of injury in eccentric phase.
Jump squats with bar only. 33
Push-ups with 10 kg plate on upper back. 3 sets of 10.
4 sets 5 reps, 33 kg dual pulley row.
Physioball push-ups, 10 reps, and 12 reps.
Incline hyper complexes with 20 kg BB. 12 reps first set, and 8 reps second set.

16

Standing BB rows, 2 sets* 8 reps @ 50 kg.
Bench press, 3 sets * 4 reps @ 70 kg.
Back squat, One set of 3 reps, and two sets of 5 @ 90 kg.
Deadlifts, 2 set* 5 reps @ 90 kg.
2 sets of pull-ups.

17

28.10-07
Worked up to a 60 kg power clean, 1 rep with squat, 2 reps without squating. Tried to clean with squat, but failed to do so.
Worked up to 1 set of 5 reps squats with belt @ 92,5 kg.
Shoulder width bench @ 70 kg, 1 set of 4 reps.
Deadlift with belt. Worked up to 105 kg 4 reps.
Military press: 44 @ 45 kg.
Pull-ups: 3 reps BW +11kg, and 3 sets* 4reps of BW+ 6 kg.
Hyperextensions: 3 sets of 10 with 10 kg plate.
5 min of ab work.

18

29/10-07
5 min ab work
30/10-07
Jump squats 30 kg, 4 reps3
Bench press @72,5 kg, 33
Romanian deadlift 10 reps3 @ 70 kg. 1 min beetween sets. Not to ground, 5-10 cm above. Not sure if correct form is to ground or higher up?
Standing BB rows, 50 kg, 44
Push press, 3*3 @ 50 kg. First set behind neck, but was difficult eccentrically so changed to front.
Push-ups, 10 kg plate on back. 13 reps.
Iso-hold/Slow eccentric pull-up. Starting at top position, Managed 59 sec from top to bottom. Really slow ecccentric for 50 sec.
5 min ab work

19

Bsquat 90 kg, 5 sets3, 3 min pause
Strict pull-ups, 8 reps BW. Hoped to manage more than this. Same amount as I did 3 months ago. Will try to increase volum. Did a second set with no motivation, 6 reps.
Dips, BW+ 6 kg, 3 sets8.
Seated rows, 2 sets
Military press, 45 kg. 2 sets, 7 and 6 reps
5 min ab.
5 total body strength workouts in 9 days, so I have a feeling a few days rest will be good.

20

Track stadium:
Ankle jumps 210
Dynamic 1/4 squat jumps 28
Depth jump, 30 cm, 34
810 meter sprint from push-up, falling, side bridge, crossover
8* 10mFast-10mEasy-15mFast.
3 broad jumps
Weight room:
Bench press, 70 kg, 45 reps.
Seated rowing 48 reps, 50 kg.
Military press, 40 kg. 28.
Bulgarian lunges, 36kg(182), 2*10 each
Pull-ups, doubles, starting every 30 sec, 12 doubles/24 reps performed. Total time 5,40 min.