Should we train as soccer players do?

Using my child as an example (13 years old and plays on the State Olympic Development Program team), he has club practice 2-3 times/week, and each practice is approximately 90 minutes long. There is very little stand-around time during these sessions, so it basically becomes a 90-minute fartlek.

He usually has at least one game/week. These are 70 minutes in length, and he is a midfielder, so he runs the entire length of the field.

His ODP team practices for 2 hours every other week.

Yesterday, he had ODP practice from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then had club practice from 3-4:30 p.m.

Thus, he usually plays/practices around 5-6 hours/week. However, I would consider it fartlek-type training. Is it the best training for distance runners? Maybe, maybe not. However, with that amount of training, a soccer player is developing quite a base to build from.

With the amount of training that he gets from soccer, he only does some pace work for track. And I try to keep that to a minimum so that I keep him fresh.

Here in Britain the Premiership is possbly the strongest domestic league in the world, yet the players are not that fit. I think coaching approaches and itness levels vary hugely through the game depending on the pattern of play adopted by the team. I have been to several Soccer training grounds to watch players train and its a bit of a sorry mess, an hour of ball skills, a few dead ball kicks and then stretching and maybe a half hour game of 5 a side, and this is some of the players who played in japan in the world Cup, their only really tough workout each week is the match itself. I really don't think the average soccer player would make a good distance runner. In fact they are famous for their lack of discipline, love of drinking heavily and doing as little as possible for astronomical wages, here in the Uk up to $160000 a week.

So DougM, the only running your kid does is from the practices when pretty much they are working on soccer skills? (I'm not saying this isn't a lot of running, just trying to get the idea). So, for example, the soccer coach never has them run 2 miles or something like that?

I would have to agree that soccer is just good fartlek training. As someone who still loves to play, I have come off a cross country season thinking I am in great shape and gone straight into a soccer game and hardly been able to play because I am so tired and out of breath.

I love playing the occasional game during season as a "rest day". Not all of the time, maybe just 1-2 times. Problem is, it is hard to find enough guys for decent pick-up game and soccer has a pretty high risk of injury.

So to answer the original question, Yeah, maybe we should train more like soccer players and do more fartleks. Makes sense to me.

waz wrote:

In fact they are famous for their lack of discipline, love of drinking heavily and doing as little as possible for astronomical wages, here in the Uk up to $160000 a week.

And distance runners aren't known for their love of drinking heavily?

Flagpole Willy wrote:

So DougM, the only running your kid does is from the practices when pretty much they are working on soccer skills? (I'm not saying this isn't a lot of running, just trying to get the idea). So, for example, the soccer coach never has them run 2 miles or something like that?

Our coach never has them run "2 miles or something like that." With the length of the practices and the constant movement, it's probably not necessary. They will do some sprint-type running, but for the most part, there is a lot of scrimmaging with constant movement. As I mentioned, there is almost no stand-around time during the practices. You might catch a walk break during some of the scrimmaging, but it's just constant movement for the most part.

My son also does some occasional individual skills practice with this coach, and there is no stand-around time during that either. My son has almost crawled off the field after some of those sessions.

They work hard during the scrimmaging because the losing team gets to finish the workout with lots of pushups and situps. The coach will "stack" the teams to make sure everyone gets their share of pushups and situps during the week.

Finally, this type of training probably works well for running the mile or 2-mile as a youngster. With the exception of the aerobic basebuilding, I don't think you would consider specific training for longer races.

DougM,

Thanks for the info. Interesting.

I?m not sure Waz is entirely correct, but I do agree with his conclusion.

The Premiership is probably the best domestic league in the world at the moment, but its reputation for hard-drinking, hard-living players has changed dramatically in the last few years, mainly due to a large influx of European and South American players who have a reputation for being far more serious and professional in their off-field activities.

Fitness levels - and indeed, fitness emphasis and training techniques - have also changed quite a bit since the mid 1990s, much of it one the heels of Arsene Wenger?s tenure as manager of Arsenal, the top-ranked team in the league.

But there?s still a lot to learn. The problem football is ? in my opinion - a lack of knowledge on the part of the training staff at some of these clubs when it comes to sports-related injuries. Players like Michael Owen (probably unknown in the US, but he?s one of the hottest young players in Europe) suffer from constant hamstring pulls and tweaks, usually resulting from an imbalance between the quads (massive on footballers) and the hamstrings (weak as kittens).

Most football training regimes concentrate on explosiveness: power and pace (speed). The problem is, while training footballers like 200 metre runners, many teams forget that the aerobic component of the game is such that a player ? especially in mid-field or on the wing ? is more likely to produce an effort similar to that of an 800m runner. Without a focus on longer distance training, too many footballers end up sacrificing hamstring strength for quad power, and thus become susceptible to pulls and tears. (Check out the quads on some of today?s best players: they?re massive.)

I think footballers aerobic fitness is a bit misleading, since the best players can negotiate a pitch based on feel, experience and economy -?ie, no wasted motion. In fact, as early as a few years ago, some of the best players in Europe ? like Ginluca Vialli ? smoked a couple packs of fags a day. Try doing that and running a competitive 5K. Those guys get round the pitch by not wasting a single step, not from super-charged aerobic ability.

The BBC organized a charity TV event earlier this summer, modeled after the old ?Superstars? competition. Dwight Yorke, a speedy forward now with Blackburn Rovers (and formerly with Man United) ran against some other athletes in a 1000m road race. He was desperate ? finishing next to last, beaten by, if memory serves, a female pentathelete. He may not be the best-conditioned athlete in the league, but I would suspect he?s a fairly typical example.

I think football has a lot more to learn from athletics than athletics has to learn from football.

Martin

soccer is a great way for kids to develop their speed without beating the shit out of them. i give 9 years of soccer the credit for what tiny bit of speed i posess

Ok so distance runners like a drink but its unlikely you would see a Gebresillasie or for that matter a Jon Brown or a Jeff schiebler or a US guy like Dan Browne crawling along the gutter at 2am vomiting ona weekly basis which is a very common practice heer in the UK, I've seen it with my own eyes, ok so that isn't taht story at every club but there is a massive drink culture in the game, theer isn't a week goes by when some player isn't exposed either drink driving or unconcious on the stret, Clarence acuna, a midfield player with Newcastle, recently wrote off his car, when the police got to the scene he was 4 time sover the limit and dressed as captain hook on his way back from the club fancy dress party!

Martin - interesting analysis, except that you are completely wrong about Dwight Yorke who actually won the race (much to my surprise). Yorke went off fast along side Martin Offiah (former Rugby League player) and though they both faded Yorke won in 2:30 which I thought was quite impressive, (I'm not certain it was accurately measured). Stephanie Cook (Sydney Olympic Gold Medalist in Modern Pentathlon) was 2nd followed by Chris Boardman (Barcelona Olympic Gold Medallist in cycling).

I think one problem with soccer training is that by and large all the players in a particular team do the same training. Different players in different positions have different strengths and weaknesses but that seems to be overlooked.

Incidently I played a game of soccer just before Xmas - for the first time in years. The guys I played with, most of whom play regularly, were amazed at how fit I was. One young lad of 18 who was expecially knackered at the end couldn't believe it when I told him I more than twice his age! (Mind you, I felt great during the game, but could barely walk the next day.)

Bazza

Indeed -- you\'re exactly right! It was Boardman who stunk - not Yorke. I got that one wrong. I think I was confused by the fact that Austin whatever his name is won the 100 metre dash - ahead of Yorke, I\'m sure, who was quite a bit slower than I expected.

I would love to see the Beeb put together a proper version of UK superstars again - that would be class.

Here\'s a question: Of the UK middle distance runners, who do you think would perform the best in a mutli-event competition like that? Mayock? East? Robb? I wonder.

Thanks for correcting me -- that was a bit of a mess.

Martin

I don't know about training, but I will say that when it comes to organizing kids (and parents), both USATF and RRCA can learn a ton from AYSO. Consider that 20 years ago the term "soccer mom" didn't even exist! What kids do now will be reflected in their preferences as adults later.

Erin Sullivan was a soccer player before she won the Footlocker meet twice. Perhaps that was better training for her.

Soccer players lead local 5k's for about 200 meters before falling off the face of the earth. Train like a soccer player if you want to play soccer, otherwise, train like a runner for crissake.

So Doug.. how did you get your kid onto ODP? I've heard it was extremely political. Is he that good or did you pay your way in?

Hey, Dougie, you forgot to mention which college YOUR son will get a soccer scholarship to. I'm sure YOU already have that picked out for him just like YOU "try to keep him fresh".