January⚽️Focus. Here my Monthly 5. 5 ways to get ahead for soccer players!
1-MS/HS Athletes are heavy into club season but it's still vital to prioritize your training, especially if you're planning to dominate HS soccer or college soccer this coming fall. if you play club 3-4 days a week, my suggestion are to train 2x a week either on the same day or off days (budgeting at least 1 day off/week) If you only practice 2-3x a week, you can get 2-3 days of solid training in the gym.
2- College students-College athletes are just getting back from winter break and can capitalize on a big spring of training. With NCAA spring ball not starting for a while, College athletes can take full advantage of the next 2 months of some solid training and some pick up soccer. However, priority should be given to training 3-4x a week.
3-Now the focus for all soccer athletes during this period should be time under tension and building a solid aerobic base. We can achieve this through higher reps, eccentric training (negatives) or both. Currently my college kids came off a high volume winter phase and will now enter a Eccentric heavy phase. With MS/HS kids I advise to be careful programming high volume with games or practices. My advise is to program higher volume in the beginning of the week (away from games) and moderate volume during the end of the week. THIS is NOT the time to focus heavily on anaerobic conditioning, especially for college kids.
4-This is a great time to rebuild or build upon a base of eccentric/deceleration training. All my plyometric, jumps and strength work is slow and controlled. During these months we do ZERO rebounding work and train the body to accept loads, such as box jumps and depth landings along with slow and controlled strength work.
5-Lastly, we add in extra mobility around common injury areas which are the ankle and hips. In doing so we can also protect the knee better. (Problems at the ankle/feet and hip could result in knee pain/injuries). Be on the lookout for mobility drills I love to use for these areas.
Stay tuned for more monthly breakdowns on training goals. As always, like, comment, tag, share and save this post. Lastly, don't be afraid to reach out for help!