How Often You Should Perform Soccer Conditioning
How Often You Should Perform Soccer Conditioning
By Jonas Forsberg
In Sweden there’s been kind of a trend to do a lot of long distance running during the first part of the pre-season, and then as you progress towards the regular season you start to decrease the distance the players are running.
When you first think about it, it looks like a pretty decent idea, right?
Well, it isn’t. I am so tired of hearing coaches talk about “creating a conditioning foundation for the players so they have base to stand on” when the season starts. But here’s where it gets weird in my opinion.
Every pre-season you do a lot of conditioning, and then when the season starts you stop doing all intense-related work because you are afraid the players might get sore or tired during the in-season period. So when the season is over the players have a few weeks (months?) off from training, and then when they start the pre-season again, you start doing all the conditioning all over again.
I have seen this happen for the last 10 years and experienced it myself as a player. At the end of the pre-season, you feel like you are unbeatable, but somewhere during the season you lose that feeling, and when the next pre-season starts again, it feels like you’re starting again from square one. I like to sum this up and give you my idea and explanation on how YOU should set it up. To sum it up, I’d like to quote Will Smith:
“If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready”
With that being said, if you work on maintaining a good level of conditioning all year round you don’t have to build it back up when the pre-season starts again, you can either take it to the next level or plain and simple just work on what soccer really is all about – playing soccer!
My players have a really great level of conditioning and therefore I am able to really work on developing their ability to play soccer, and develop their ability to play it at a high speed and a high level.
I have been the head coach of my current team for about 1,5 years now, and during that period, we have done a total of 3 sessions (!) where we exclusively focused on conditioning, not related to regular soccer training. Those 3 sessions where done as a Plan B because our training field was covered in snow.
Our philosophy on conditioning for soccer players is that everything can (and should) be performed on the soccer field, during regular soccer training. And most of those sessions can be done with the soccer ball.
For instance, let me give you one example of one of the absolute best drills to improve the players condition as well as their ability to make good decisions during a soccer game:
= Small-Sided Games
The variations are endless, and by making a few small adjustments, you make these drills so intense and demanding that it’s insane.
At the end of a game when the players are tired, the team where the players can make the best decisions is the team that will win the game. Sure, you may be able to run a mile at a pretty decent time, but that’s got nothing to do with soccer.
You need to be able to perform a lot of high intensity runs and recover quickly, and maintain you mental state and make good decisions when you are tired!
So by doing a lot of small-sided games where you play for instance 4 vs 4, you can make the drill more intense and demanding by having the players play man-to-man defense, meaning when they lose the ball, they have one player they should mark and follow all over the field, no matter what!
That’s a great conditioning drill, and best of all – it’s fun!
To sum it up – conditioning should be done on the soccer field (at the end of the practice) and it should be maintained all year round, even during in-season.
But don’t over do it. If you train 4 days/week, do some conditioning at the end of practice twice a week – that’s enough, I promise you!
Alright, if you stay ready – you ain’t gotta get ready!
Good luck!
- Jonas Forsberg
“The Soccer Speed Guy”
About The Author
Jonas Forsberg is a Swedish Soccer Speed Coach who helps soccer players to improve their soccer specific speed, without making it too complicated. Visit The Soccer Speed Blog for more info!
