Starting soccer

Other Sports Soccer
1

Starting up soccer league again soon.

I don’t know how to handle intensity/volume in season. I’m still bodybuilding, so weightlifting is more geared towards maintaining muscle than power, although power would be good if it comes as a by product.

Game days are Wednesdays.

I assume it will look something like

Mon - weights: bench, incline press, squat, sldl, shoulder press, rows, bicep curl, tricep curl
Tues - light tempo, med ball work
Wed - game day
Thur - pool tempo
Fri - weights: repeat of Mon weights
Sat - day off
Sun - light tempo, med ball work

Concerns:
Only 2 days worth of weightlifting, when I’m bodybuilding.

Volume, too much on weights?

Intensity, I’m ‘in season’ do I go high intensity or medium?

Last concern is ball skills. I tried doing this on tempo days before, but ended up with groin problems. Where can I fit ball skills in?

I’ve seen Herb, CF, Duxx and our Australian friend around lately, hopefully someone can help me out! Replies much appreciated, as always.

2

pa12345,

Do you train for a club, or you play recreative or for school?

Why not doing soccer practice before tempo, or before/after strength work?

Mon: Strength (squats, bench) + Explosive medball + socer practices
Tue: Soccer practices + tempo
Wed: Tonnization (light clean or snatch) in the morning + game
Thu: Tempo or Tempo Medball + beach work (hypertrophy — isolational stuff, don’t over-do it plus auxilary stuff: rowing, pull-ups, core)
Fri: Strength (Dead lift, press) + explosive medball + soccer practices
Sat: Soccer practices + Tempo + plus beach work
Sun: off or pool tempo

I don’t know if this is too much…

Hope it helps!

3

Duxx,

Could you please explain what you mean by “tonnization”?

Thanks.

4

It is basically a warm-up plus some sort of high-intensity very low volume work… just to “wake-up” the athlete.
A set or two of 3 reps with 5RM squats, or cleans, medball throws, couple of sprints etc… LOW VOLUME!
If we consider game day as High-Int day, with low-int day before and after, maybe the good time to lift something would be on a game day!!! Al Vermeil used simmilar stuff with his “ST” athletes…

5

Is there a set period of time before the match that you should use tonnization? Or would a couple of short sprints in the warm-up achieve the same effect?

Regarding same day training - wouldn’t soreness be an issue?

6

There is a study in NSCA showing that lifting weights (normally, not even with reduced volume) 6h before a basketball game or practice DOES NOT impair speed, nor agility nor precision (shooting)… I can find it if you want…
BTW, I am not talking about PAP (post activation potentiation) here… I am talking about strength training on the same day as a game separated by couple of hours.
I wouldn’t look as couple of sprints (look at above paragraph) as PAP nor as “tonization” but rather as a preparation ---- warm-up…
Hope this make sense… What if you play 2-3 times per week? When are you going to lift weight?

No if you have a strenth training history prior this… for example 8wks of preparatory period where you lifted weights… I wouldn’t consider this for someone who haven’t done this.
Please, remember that this is only my current opinion… I just started working as S&C coach in soccer club, and be sure I will try this out :slight_smile:

7

Thanks for clearing that up :slight_smile:

So basically - a few short sprints are fine for warm up but won’t achieve any real effect?

Looking forward to hearing the feedback from your experiences!

8

Yes, couple of sprints are part of a warm-up (like progressive sprint — WarmUP II of CFTS before speed work).