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…
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…
Charlie, being faster means being a better player. And I think this is the most important thing. Being faster means being able to cover a larger part of the field, get first on the ball etc. I implemented your ideas in my off-season training, well, like day and night. The only thing is that I’d put a little more emphasis on distances up to 60 meters, I find them useful a lot. I agree, speed potential without the ball! Then, you use that speed potential in the field with the ball (sometimes).
P.S. a lot, again, a lot of top level soccer player are low level athletes.
Next time you are in Florence you have to organize a seminar, Charlie!
There was no time for a seminar there but I would love to come back as Ange, James, and I had a fantastic time.
As for the 60s, I wonder if replacing them with flying 20s (30m smooth build up) when combined with the accels would cover all requirements without such an increased demand overall. If you have any ideas for a seminar, contact angela@charliefrancis.com.
This winter I used a 5 week progression and took 5 girls ages 16-18 from 2000m x 2 session/wk up to 4000m 2 sessions/wk. It can be done.
This year I have planned a progresion for the fitter players. First progression was mainly 100s and 200s, next porgression more 200s and 300s. Will report back in august.
Also I’m playing with a fairly new recovery method and also indirect aerobic fitness improvements using low level laser therapy.
I think it could have some benefits. 2 issues I have are no one has that type of bike and second, with the girls I have, they are overly quad dominant and prefer to keep them off the bike.
We have used alternatives for tempo that included various med ball circuits. This is usually the case if player is injured. I had girl with dislocated knee cap do these types of circuits for 8 weeks and was able to maintain most of her fitness during that time when she couldn’t run or bike.
ESTI,
was the progression in the off-season? 8 km a week of tempo seems like a lot of running for such young girls. Charlie proposed 12 km of tempo a week during the offseason, then less tempo during the season to make room for other work (And because a lot of tactical work is basically tempo work). I was wondering lately if 12 km a week are too many. Charlie probably proposed that considering the (maximum) distance travelled by players at low speed during a match.
What is the rationale behind moving from 100s to 200s and 300s? I ran a lot of 300s during my career, albeit at more than 75% of best time over the distance, but I never found them particularly useful.
As for speed work, still having 2x week, mixing resisted and unresisted over 30 m?
I recently read a paper in which it was shown that low laser therapy reduces recovery time after resistance training, but nothing about gains in aerobic fitness. I’m also curious about the fairly new recovery method.
This was an “off-season” of sorts. Typically 1 practice session a week, with maybe one game a week, but for most girls, maybe 2 games a month during the winter.
In summer, my girls work up to 12K/wk in 3 sessions (4K/session). I have found they are extremely fit, speed has increased, along with vertical, and all strength lifts. Considering in the fall they often play several hundred minutes of play in a 3 day stretch, most of their teammates are tired, yet these girls can play the entire weekend.
I made changes into 1s and 2’s to avoid boredom. Working into 300s at tempo speed is extremely difficult for most of my athletes. Also, for the athletes who have to do 2 mile/12 mile fitness testing, I think the longer tempo will help aid in this. Shorter tempo in years past has not improved that type of test, but has proven to be great for recovery type tests (beep, danish etc)
Still planning 2x wk of HI sessions, lots of sled and med ball work early on, reactive jumps early on, heavy dose of strength work and then will pull back as speed work gets faster. There are other issues I have to work with such as jump landing mechanics/technique, improving hamstring strength (relative to quad strength) etc.
Back in 2005 I started research on LLLT and performance (compared to injury and wound healing), which at the time would have been one of the first performance based studies. I have since used it with success for recovery and performance, as well as injury healing. The laser for aerobic fitness will come to the public in the coming years. I have protocols developed in Russia that are fairly rare and hard to find. The technology I use is Russian.
ESTI,
this is great information, thanks for it.
Do you work heavily on running mechanics (skips, cures during running etc.)? Most girls due to gender issues (biomechanics issues) in my experience may have greater problems with running mechanics than males.
As for the periodization of sprint training, or in general of HI activities, do you try to reach a peak (or a plateau) at the end of the preparatory period? Or you aim to a smooth transition between preparatory and competition period (keeping in mind that the competition period could be 4 months-1 month stop-4 months)?
Very interesting the use of LLLT, a 2009 paper found a significant increase in repetitions to exhaustion in bicep curl after LLLT. Speaking of technology, I wonder if the rapid thermal exchange cooling device developed at Stanford has been used in competitive settings.
knows his business. We both train in the same area, so it was a real pleasure developing a friendship. I have learned much from our interaction. The laser is phenomenal. I tore my soleus and he did some tissue therapy and laser. It was literally 30% better the next day. I have a unit as well and did an ESTI experiment with some of my football players. We tire flipped, prowlered and truck pushed on Saturday. Seeing as the kids forearms work with tire flips and they end up sore the next day through the flexors, I decided to run the light on just one forearm of each of them. Lo and behold, one forearm was suffering from DOMS, the other wasn’t sore at all.