How old are these “younger players?”
In younger players (16 or younger), skill sets should be separate from physical training. Once skills are mastered would I introduce ball work into their physical training. However I have never been a fan of doing fitness work with a ball, since it’s been shown less than 2% of the game is spent with the ball (~3 minutes per 90 min game).
Having now had a much larger college female soccer group, it’s quite clear to me that most HS females going into college have a hard time doing a Big Circuit type tempo, with times being 18-20 seconds for the 110 yds (100m) and 40-44 sec for the 220yds (200m ).
I have had 2 dozen girls this summer be introduced to it and only 1 could do it with flying colors. None have any training background besides “athlete conditioning” in their high school PE class.
I am curious to see how many can adapt to 4000m/workout in a 6-7 week period.
England U-21’s beat Spain 2-0 the other day…
But more importantly Spains national senior team beat England comfortably 2-0 a few months ago.UK sprinters have had great results at junior levels for years but on the senior stage…its a similar situation in football. One result doesnt change anything!
I suppose you are not comparing the sprinters of the two countries… But what exactly do you mean re: the British sprinters at senior level?
I mean’t that Britain have consistently had juniors sprinters which have produced very very fast times for their respective age and produced medals at international junior level but then those results have not translated into the senior ranks.
The results are in for this years group!
Again, my girls have finished in the top for their teams in fitness. They all reached upwards of 4000+ m of tempo 3x/wk. Times reached 18 seconds for most, and in a few cases, low 17s for 100m and 36-38 for 200m tempo.
One observation, girls who had to do the continuous Beep test or 12 minute run saw limited improvement throughout summer. Not sure why that was. All other tests were sprints with limited recovery.
At one school, the coach ran the team so much girls puked, girls stopped running etc, the only girls left were two of mine. I have several stories of this.
The point is having athletes trust me to do this fitness work pays off in the end. All the while I saw squats increase consiberably for beginners, as well as 10-30yd sprint times (improvement upwards of 0.1 for 20-30yd sprints).
With some of these girls, they went from 2000m/day to 4000+ in 4-6 weeks. Having seen the results, I think I will increase my limit on the high school players from 2000-3000 range upward towards 4000 in certain circumstances. Will report back sometime in the future.
Again I thank Charlie for his open forum and advice which has helped my business, but also the lives of my athletes. 
ESTI, nice work as usual!
-
You cannot speak only about CNS low/high stress, because any soccer tactical role has a specific stress and time to manifest it.
Then CNS fatigue is not so common in soccer, generally you can monitoring hormonal/metabolic/neuromuscolar/cardiac stress.
You can see CNS stress during pre-season and during the season in the soccer team that use weight training or some strange training approach (as high volume plyo…ARGH!)
Actually the general trend is high field specificity with low or no gym work and much ball work at various intensity (see Mourinho approach i.e.).
Soccer is first tactical and situational game, where aerobic component is prevalent with really short repetitive sprint (10-30m) and often is the aerobic componet to be stressed. -
Injuries are FIRST AT ALL and repeat FIRST AT ALL training related, the most great problem in the European soccer is the not well balanced ratio between work/recovery, some terrible training idea (10x1000 meters) and the really low level (specially in Italy) therapy approaches.
Few minutes of massage, in the jargon of the soccer players is called “Beauty Farm”, is not enough for any kind of problem!
Spinal care is so terrible, that is better after “pop”…“pray”! I’ve seen things your human mind cannot imagine!
There is only a great business with Physiotherapic Machine and any kind of device on the market!
The only fault of the athletes is dancing on thursday, bad diet (cappuccino prior to a match) and sometime do sex the night before the match (someone has won a world championship with this approach!).
This is the REALITY of soccer!
ESTI - yes, great work.
Is this meant to be said in jest or as a joke or are you serious about this being a problem?
Thanks for the comments! 
I’m serious…
- I think we can divide high CNS, low CNS, at least for some activities. hormonal/metabolic/neuromuscolar/cardiac stress - are you talking about the output of the OW system?
Actually the general trend is high field specificity with low or no gym work and much ball work at various intensity (see Mourinho approach i.e.).
From what I know, this is the Mourinho’s and Faria’s approach, not a lot of followers. A lot of what is done by athletic coaches in soccer is rubbish, lately they present a lot of graphs, a lot of names, not a lot of results. A lot of pseudo-science, but at the end it is only to seem more professional.
Soccer is first tactical and situational game, where aerobic component is prevalent with really short repetitive sprint (10-30m) and often is the aerobic componet to be stressed.
Just like any team sport. But speed is so underrated in soccer, better, the development of speed. Tell me, how many players at the highest level have you seen improving their acceleration through their career? Yes, it is the aerobic system to be stressed, but gains are elsewhere…
- You can write with capital letters, but injuries IMO are not first of all training related. First of all they are traumatic. The first problem (training-related) is insufficient strength-endurance. Others are bad running technique (this is interesting, you run 10 kms or more during a match with bad running technique and no one had the great idea of “correcting” it) and yes, rest, insufficient therapy, even if it is not the same for every team (you have much more info than me on this aspect).
The only fault of the athletes is dancing on thursday, bad diet (cappuccino prior to a match) and sometime do sex the night before the match (someone has won a world championship with this approach!).
I don’t understand here.
Otherwise, great post.
- Trends of soccer training is like Mourinho approach, ball work, with variations, mix, combinations of ideas, concept, but basically high specificity on the field…again with BALL.
Only few teams do serious Gym Work, other joke with weight.
2)Speed is not underrated, probably at low level, but at low level soccer all is underrated!
You have to see speed from a soccer and not sprint prospective, there is a great difference in training approach (again ball work).
-
Science or Pseudo-Science, grapichs or names…who wins is the best, this is the rule in the sport.
-
Injuries on the field (traumatic) are not prevedible, and IMO are out of any form of discussion.
90% of the problems are training dependent, but this is an obvious statement for who works in the sport/soccer field, specially at high level.
Yes, running form is important, but how can Athletes correct they form? With the help of a Coach.
But Coach have to do this into junior teams not at 20-23 years old, because during the competitive week/season there are a lot of things to do and time is few.
Do you have worked with a top level team? You have no time for running form, specially when you have 24 players!!!
And this is only a side of the problems, technical, then you have to fight with social and psyc aspect of players.
We can speak about all kind of problems, have new ideas, but when you’re on the field many of this idea are fried air…
PS: Biosignal Analysis are complex, speak about CNS low or high stress is relative to:
- Athlete Level
- Training
- Recovery
- Other physiological system
In a team you have young athletes at their first year at top level team and they have a physiological level of response to stress, medium age athletes (about 22-26) and old athletes (>28), plus their specific role on the field.
CNS stress is different for any single player and often not predictable.
You can do statistic trend, but a night of bad sleep put your statistic into the garbage!
Again, work on the field is not as a test in a lab with all comfort.
Injuries are obviously a key issue at the pro level. As most injuries are training related, improved speed can play a huge role in prevention, since improved maximal speed potential reduces average percentage required in all aspects of game and practice speeds. This speed POTENTIAL must be built without the ball IMO. This can be designed into a program because the overall volumes can be quit low and there is no need for SE work separate from any that might be found in the game itself(this may sound strange but the sport is made up mostly of short bursts mixed with a substantial amount of aerobic work.)
as well, traumatic injury must be treated properly before it contributes to an injury that at first glance might seem unrelated. for example a blow to the calf restricts movement there and increases stress on the hamstring. i saw a clear example of this while at a Serie A team this spring.
I agree with you about speed developement without ball, but actually in Italy (and probably in Europe) there is a trend of high specificity…with ball.
Probably this can cause other problems, as injuries or low level speed capacity.
-
It doesn’t seem the trend to me. Right about joking with weights.
-
The development of speed is underrated. Speed is not underrated, but seen as a god-given ability. Everyone can get faster.
-
Yes, sure. A bit too simplicistic, too.
-
Sorry, but if you exclude the traumatic event, it is surely training dependent. Don’t you think so?
You know, the problem is that a lot of time is wasted in activities not useful. A LOT. Take out the rubbish and you’ll have a lot time. There is not a single coach, at least a couple in each team. Stephen Francis works with 80 athletes. The difficult part is to motivate the athletes, there lies (also) the great coach. I played at the professional level, I know some things.
Absolutely agree with the last statement. Motivation of athletes is one of the most important things in soccer. Soccer players are generally lazy in mind and body, this is the truth. A lot of coaches are not charismatic enough. You can have the best ideas in the world, but…