Starting soccer

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.

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!

Duxx,

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

Thanks.

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…

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?

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:

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!

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