.png)
Daniel James, one of Manchester United's most promising youngsters, would be considered by most a fair representation of how fit a soccer player should be.
I mean, he did completely CRUSH the bleep test, with rumors circulating that during his first pre-season with Man U, he maxed out all the levels possible.
Whether or not this is true is besides the point. The fact of the matter is, Daniel James is extremely fit and has a ton of stamina. But How did he manage to get to this level of fitness?
The Importance of Fitness in Modern Day Football
Modern day football has evolved into a very demanding sport athletically over the last few years. Although you have players who defy the odds, like a slow-paced Pirlo and a short-statured Messi, it's the players who are the quickest, fittest, and most explosive that see some of the best results on the pitch.
Alongside having tremendous technical ability, players like Messi, Ronaldo, Insigne, Bale, and the aforementioned Daniel James, are able to stand out among the professional world because of their combination of physical and athletic strengths with mastery over the ball.
Let's say we have two very similar players of whom a coach has to decide between for the starting role, athlete A, and athlete B. They have very similar technical attributes, and both have an equal understanding of the role they play. However, athlete A is fitter than athlete B, and he's just that extra bit stronger and quicker as well.
Because of this advantage in the physical side of the game, the coach is more likely to choose Athlete A to start the match compared to athlete B, since he offers more in terms of durability.
Not only will being fit help with whether or not a coach chooses you over your other teammates, but it will also help you when you are actually out there on the pitch and are playing the match.
If you are not conditioned for the physical demands of the sport of soccer, don't be surprised if you have a pretty crappy performance.
If you are fatigued just barely 20 minutes into the match, you're most likely going to see an impact in the way you handle the ball, the way you position yourself on the pitch, and how you react to certain situations. Why? Because you're body is so tired that you physically cannot exert more energy and focus into the match.
You could be the most skilled player on the pitch, and have all the tricks in your locker, but if you can't even last a whole half on the pitch, no coach is going to want to bring you into their team, let alone their starting eleven.
But you didn't come here for me to bash you on why being unfit is bad, did you? No, you came here to find out how to improve your stamina and be able to last a full 90 minutes. So first of all, I'd just like to say that I'm rooting for you. If there's anything I love about a player who is struggling, it's that those who are the most dedicated to IMPROVING themselves will fix their struggle and succeed in their goals.
Without further ado, here are 4 Steps to improving your Stamina for Soccer.
Step 1 ~ Decrease Rest Time, Increase Work Time.
For the first step of how to improve your stamina for soccer, you're going to adjust the way you're already training and add in a fitness aspect. How do you do this?
It's pretty simple, all you need to do is decrease the time you spend resting between drills, and increase the amount of time spent doing the drills.
Here's an example of one of my all time-favorite drills that not only works on your dribbling and close control, but it can also serve as a very effective stamina drill to improve your ball control when fatigued.
The Figure-8 Drill: For a demonstration of this drill, feel free to check out my post on Instagram where I showcase different variations of this drill.
For this drill, all you're going to do is dribble around the two cones in a figure of 8 shape, and you're going as fast as you can while maintaining control over the ball.
Now, you can choose how many times you repeat this drill, how long each rep will last, and how much you will rest in between each rep.
But in order to see maximal benefits in your stamina, you're going to want to apply PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD to this drill.
How is this done you ask?
Simple, start off with a set rest and work time, and overtime, as you do this drill across multiple training sessions, decrease the rest time by a little, and increase the work time.
Ex) Week 1:
Figure 8 Drill: 1 Set of 5 Reps Each Variation: 1 Rep = 30 Seconds, Rest 30 Seconds between each rep.
- Right Foot Only
- Left Foot Only
- Inside of Both Feet Only
- Outside of Both Feet Only
Week 2:
Figure 8 Drill: 1 Set of 5 Reps Each Variation: 1 Rep = 35 Seconds, Rest 25 Seconds between each rep.
- Right Foot Only
- Left Foot Only
- Inside of Both Feet Only
- Outside of Both Feet Only
See how between Week 1 and Week 2, the only difference we made was changing up the work and rest time by 5 seconds each? That's all you need to do!
Do this until you reach about 50 Seconds of Work Time, and 10 Seconds of Rest time between each set, and you're ready to move onto the next step.
Step 2: Increase Volume of Training
Now that you've applied step 1 to most of the drills you already do, the next thing you're going to apply to your training is to increase the volume.
What do I mean by 'volume of training?'
The volume of a training session is how many reps and how many sets you perform for a drill. For example, a drill where you do 5 reps for 5 sets, has more volume than a drill that's done for 2 sets of 4 reps. (25 Total Reps > 8 Total Reps).
Let's go back to the example of the Figure of 8 Drill. Let's say that you do 1 set of 5 reps for each variation, which means you are doing 4 total sets of 5 reps of the drill.
Now that you've progressively overloaded the drill by increasing work time and decreasing rest time, now you're going to want to increase the volume to further challenge your body.
So once you've reached 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest between each rep, now you're going to want to do 1 set of 7 reps for each variation, for a total of 4 sets of 7 reps for the drill. Now you've increased the volume of the drill from 20 total repetitions, to 28 total repetitions.
This means you are adding more load to your body, which is another way to progressively overload your stamina training.
Add as many sets and reps as you'd like, just make sure you aren't overdoing it, and adding too much too soon, since this can lead to injury.
Always aim to increase by a little each session, whether it's one rep, or one set, but don't immediately throw in 5 extra reps if your body isn't ready to handle that amount of volume.
Step 3 ~ Start Doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
High Intensity Interval Training is an excellent way to boost your body's metabolic load and teach your body to handle short and intense bursts of energy, similar to the way you will expend energy in a soccer match.
See, in a real soccer match, you are almost never running in a constant pace. You're always changing direction, cutting and sprinting in short intervals, then jog around a little bit to recover, and then again go straight into another sprint.
So what's the best way to learn how to be able to handle this sort of load? Simple! Just train yourself in a way where you are replicating that high intensity aspect.
There are many different ways to train for HIIT, you can do bodyweight circuits, you can do some timed sprints on the treadmill, (for example, the John Terry Preseason Fitness Workout), do some a Tabata-style bike workout (20 seconds max intensity, 10 seconds rest), or go to the field, and get some solid conditioning work in.
Personally, I like practicing my HIIT by going to the field and working on my conditioning by sprinting, and incorporating high load with some ball work.
However, I highly recommend you incorporate all types of HIIT training into your routine in order to train your body's anaerobic system and your metabolic capacity.
The more load your body is able to handle and be more efficient even when it's fatigued will drastically help you out in extending the minutes you are able to last on the pitch.
How do you perform a HIIT workout? It's easy, choose a certain action that you will perform at a high intensity of a set time (for example a 20 second sprint) and choose the amount of rest time you will take between each rep of that action (For example, a 40 second rest between each 20 second sprint.)
It's pretty much exactly what I recommended doing in step 1, except this time you want to do some work without the ball as well.
Just like in step 1, make sure that you are progressively overloading your training by increasing the work time, and decreasing the rest time a little each week.
If you want a solid HIIT Workout, feel free to check out my Instagram and YouTube page, where I have a variety of drills you can try out, from field work, to ball work, to bike and treadmill work, etc.
Step 4 ~ Maintain Consistency in Your Stamina Training
The last step to increasing your stamina in addition with the three previous steps, is to perform the top three steps in a consistent basis.
You can't expect to see much results from the previous steps if you start doing it one week, then you skip the next week, then do it once for the third week, and then again take another week or two break.
Make sure that when training your stamina, you are constantly pushing your body to it's limit in order to force it to adapt to the load you are placing on it.
Our bodies are built to be able to adapt to different stimulus around us, so if we are constantly push this challenging stimulus of stamina training on it, naturally, it's going to get more used to the type of stimulus.
Same applies to working out, the more we progress in weight and push our bodies to be able to carry that weight, the more the muscles in our body will tear and rebuild in order to be able to handle that heavy weight. Over time, our bodies will get so used to that weight, that it'll become easier to handle.
In terms of stamina, your body's metabolic load may be low at the start, but the more you push it to be able to handle that high intensity load, the more your body will change in order to adapt to that type of demand.
Now this goes without saying, but make sure YOU ARE NOT PUSHING IT TOO MUCH!
You don't want to go and completely destroy your body each and every single day. There are many reasons for this, the main one's being:
1) Your body will be overworked, which will lead to many pains and injuries.
2) You will soon overwhelm yourself with the stamina training and lose motivation to do it every single day.
3) By training too much in stamina, you'll actually be seeing the opposite results. You're pushing your body so much without rest, that you'll have too little energy to improve with each and every session.
I'd recommend not going past 3-4 stamina sessions per week during your offseason/preseason. This is to ensure that you aren't overwhelming your body, or your mentality.
You might think you'd be able to handle that load, and you might tell yourself that even when you're not motivated, you're still going to go to the field and train, but trust me when I say that sometimes doing less, is doing more.
SUMMARY
Let's sum up what we've covered on how to improve your stamina.
Step 1: Decrease the rest time, and increase the work time in your normal training sessions.
Step 2: Increase the volume of your training by adding more sets/reps for your drills.
Step 3: Start doing High Intensity Interval Training, and slowly progress over time.
Step 4: Make sure to stay consistent, (at least 2 times a week but no more than 4 times a week) with your stamina training. This is to make sure you don't get injured or unmotivated.
Stamina training is one of the most important physical attributes that will set you apart from your opposition. It's important to invest your time into it no matter how grueling and exhausting it can be. In the long run, those short, but intense stamina workouts, will help you out in the long run, and you'll feel very thankful that you pushed through the hard, sweaty work.
I hope you take this information and apply it in your own creative ways, and see results from them.
Thanks for Reading! Get up. Go GRIND.
Comments