.png)
You just finished a long, tough season with your club team, but you might feel as if you didn't perform to the best of your abilities during most of the games.
You felt like you were too slow, or like your touches were to heavy, or maybe your positioning was off and you didn't 100% know what to do in your position.
You want to do better, you want to be able to dominate the pitch and be a standout player. You want to have the cleanest technical ability, you want to be the fastest, most explosive player on the pitch, and you want to be the smartest as well.
You tell yourself that during your offseason, you are going to grind as hard as you ever had in your entire life to become a better soccer player.
But there's just one issue.
You don't know how to do it.
Sure, you can hit the field every single day and kick the ball around and dribble around those cones, but you don't know how to create a structured plan so that you are progressively improving so that you could see some growth as a player.
Well lucky for you, you have stumbled upon this blog post, which will briefly summarize and point out what you should be looking to do in your offseason to optimize your performance on the pitch.
So get a notepad out, and start digging into this post!
Identify Your Strengths
Your first step during your offseason planning is to identify what you personally think you are really good at, and what you think you need some work on.
For right now, I want you to choose 1-2 things you feel like you are proficient in.
It can be shooting, dribbling, passing ability, defending, your positioning, etc.
Every professional player is exceptionally proficient in every aspect of soccer, however, some players are known more than others for a specific trait that they have become really good at.
For example, Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard are known for their exceptional control over the ball when dribbling.
Ronaldo has exceptional heading and shooting ability, and has a knack for finding the right spaces to score.
Kroos has an exceptional ability to play a cross-field driven ball and switch the point of attack.
These key traits that these players are known for are called X-factors (or at least that's what I call them).
By having one or two X-factors, you will be a much more valuable player for your team in your position. If you are able to be that Center Midfielder who has a tremendous ability to play key passes and set scoring opportunities, you will be noticed so much more.
If you're that pacey winger that is hard to stop who is also very good at cutting in an shooting, you will attract lots of attention.
Once you've identified your strong traits, now it's time to identify your weak traits.
Identify Your Weaknesses
The next step is to identify what you absolutely must improve to become a better player.
Do you struggle with your first touch? Your passing ability? Your vision? Your crossing? Whatever it is that you struggle with, if you identify it and acknowledge that is a weakness in your game that needs improvement, you can start to work towards making it proficient.
One of the most important parts of offseason is to improve what you feel is holding you back from being the best player on the pitch.
I'd suggest looking for your weaknesses that will effect you most in your position.
For example, if you're a fullback, and one of your weaknesses is being able to defend a 1v1, then don't go and work on your shooting if you're not actually shooting in games.
Instead, focus on what you first absolutely MUST fix to be a better player in your position.
For example, myself a midfielder, I personally feel like I am not as strong in my long passing trait, which is a pretty important skill to master for a player in my position.
That means I should go and work on my long passing that way I am able to perform it in games.
I'm not going to go to the field and practice whipping in crosses if I'm not actually doing that in games.
Once you've focused and improved on one goal, then it's perfectly fine to go and work on things that don't necessarily apply to your position that way you can become a more well-rounded player.
But have your priorities set to see the most improvement during your offseason.
Create a Structured Training Plan Around Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Now that you've identified your strengths and weaknesses, it's time to plan out how you're going to structure your training routine to make sure that you are improving those traits.
Training is a very personal topic, and you can't just copy someone else's training program, because what they do is most likely specific for their goals.
In order to create a well-structured training program, you need to identify the goals you want to achieve in your offseason, and then create a program specific to what your body can handle in order to reach those goals.
You might be able to hit the field 6-7 times a week, and that's great, but other people's bodies aren't ready to handle that load, and can probably only hit the field 4-5 times a week in order to make sure that they're not overworking themselves and causing muscle strain and injury.
Whatever your body can handle, stick to that number until you feel as if your body has reached a point where it can handle more load.
But how do you create a structured training program?
1) Plan The Intensity of Your Week
For example, Monday will be a low intensity day, Tuesday will be a medium intensity day, Wednesday will be a high intensity day, and repeat.
You don't need to follow an exact number of low, medium, or high intensity days. Again, listen to your body and find out what you can handle.
Here's a sample for you to try:
Monday: Low Intensity Day
Tuesday: Medium Intensity Day
Wednesday: High Intensity Day
Thursday: Low Intensity Day
Friday: Medium Intensity Day
Saturday: High Intensity Day
Sunday: Complete Recovery Day
2) Plan out your sessions to fit in drills for your strengths, your weaknesses, and your athleticism.
There are two main ways that you can train for your goals:
1) Dedicate one session to one trait.
OR 2) One training session is a combination of different traits.
Again, this is completely up to the individual, and there are certain perks and disadvantages for each method of training.
Personally, I liked to combine all my traits into one big session that way I know I'm improving in many aspects instead of one.
However in doing so, the amount of focus for each trait isn't as fixed as having a training session where you just focus on one. Instead, you have to distribute that focus over different traits.
However you like to train, just make sure you are including work for your strengths and weaknesses during the week. Each method works really well if kept consistently.
If you choose to go for method 1, then your week might look something like this:
Monday: First Touch and Passing
Tuesday: Dribbling
Wednesday: Speed and Agility
Thursday: Ball Mastery
Friday: Shooting and Finishing
Saturday: Speed and Agility.
Sunday: Rest Day
If you choose method 2, then ONE training session would most likely look something like this:
20 minutes of Ball Mastery / First Touch
20-30 Minutes on Strengths
30-40 Minutes on Weaknesses
10-20 Minutes Fitness / Athletics
And you repeat that same session over the course of the week.
Whichever method you choose to work on, stick with it.
3) Implement Progressive Overload to Your Training Routine's
The next step to creating a successful training plan is to make sure you are applying the fundamental aspect to growth, which is progressive overload.
All progressive overload is for those who don't know of it, is consistently making your training sessions and workouts harder over time in order to force your body to adapt and become strong/better overtime.
But how can you make drills harder?
1) Implement an Aspect of Fitness
This is probably the most effective method of progressive overload if you're looking to improve your stamina and athleticism with the ball.
Not only will working under fatigue allow you to last longer on the pitch, it'll also challenge your ball control by forcing you to focus extra on your touches when your legs feel heavy.
By adding on fatigue, it's as if your adding on extra weight onto your body to push through, that way when you take those weights off, you feel much more in control of the ball.
2) Add A Variety Of Different Variations to Simple Drills
A good example of this is with the cone weave. Once you've gotten really good at the cone weave, throw down some extra cones and add another obstacle course you have to dribble through.
It can be a 1 v 1, or a zig-zag dribble, or a figure 8, etc. But by adding this extra variation, you're challenging yourself to shift into a different environment where you will have to take different types of touches.
For shooting and passing, you can progressively make drills harder by increasing the distance between where you take the shot, and the goal/target. This is why you should start really close to the goal when working on shooting, that way you can nail the technique down. That way once you've gotten really good at shooting from that distance, you can challenge yourself more by going farther away and focusing more on adding extra precision and power to your technique.
But the point is, by finding creative ways to challenge yourself more in already simple drills, you are forcing your body to have better control over the ball in different scenarios.
If you need ideas on some drills you can do to challenge yourself just that little bit extra, check out my Instagram page, where I post a variety of free drills on a daily basis.
3) Making drills more Game Realistic
Another way to make drills more difficult and to further challenge your technical ability, is by using those skills you've practiced in a game realistic scenario.
Your goal in training is to improve yourself as a player that way when it comes game time, you are ready to perform to the best of your ability.
So what's the best way to prepare for matches? By working on match-specific scenarios!
If you're a midfielder, practice scenario's that you might encounter in a game, like receiving the ball from your center backs, turning, beating a player one on one, and then playing a through ball to your attackers.
If you're a defender, practice being able to open up your body when receiving the ball from your fullback, and playing a long pass to your winger.
If you're a winger, practice cutting and finding the corner, or linking up with your striker, and then finding the net.
If you're a fullback, work on being able to beat an opponent down the wing and whip in a cross.
Always find scenarios that you might see yourself performing in a match, and practice them!
4) Add a Mental/Cognitive Aspect to your Training
Lastly, another way to make simple drills harder, is by adding a mental aspect.
Things like reaction type training are perfect ways to further challenge your ball control since you need to process the cue you receive either visually, or from hearing it, and then accommodate your body to perform a specific action.
Not only does cognitive training further challenge your technical ability, it's also game realistic, since in a real game, you are taking in information, and then reacting to what you take in.
Want a full technical training session that I performed with this cognitive aspect? Check out this YouTube Video on our channel!
Click on the video thumbnail to view the video!
4) Maintain Consistency With Your Training Plan
Finally, once you've created a structured training program, now it's time to follow it up with action.
However, if you lack the discipline to keep the consistency of following the program week in and week out, don't be surprised and bummed out when you don't see results.
Growth is only achieved through consistently showing up every single day and learning.
If you have one perfect week, but the next week you skip 2-3 sessions or workouts because you were too lazy, or because you rather stay home and play FIFA, then you won't see growth!
Now, there are some cases where I'd encourage to take a few days off, and that's when you've overworked yourself and your body is reacting in a negative way.
As I'm writing this, I'm taking a small break from my training program because I've pushed my body to do to much too soon, which led to some unfortunate hamstring tightness that requires rest.
But because I'm listening to my body and taking a rest when I need it, I'm setting myself up for success by not getting even more injured and failing to keep consistency with my plan.
It's all about doing what your body can handle, and showing up as often as you can.
But you must be disciplined and put that work in even when you don't feel like it.
SUMMARY
During your offseason, you should always look to improve on a daily basis, whether if it's by doing a high intensity speed workout, or by taking the day to recover and improve your flexibility and state of mind.
By having a structured plan that's specific to you, and by consistently showing up an putting the work in, you are setting yourself up for success in your spring season.
You want to make sure you identify what you're good at, what you're not so good at, and what you can do to improve all areas of your game.
Create a training program that you can manage in the long run, that allows you to progressively challenge yourself and improve those different traits you'd like to work on.
There are many different aspects of training during your offseason, like your physical attributes, and your nutritional aspects as well, but those are posts for another day.
I hope you found value from this blog post, and you were able to get an idea of how to program your offseason to help you become the best player you can be.
Good luck. I'm rooting for you.
Thanks for Reading! Get Up. Go GRIND.
Comments