Soccer Workout: Prepare to Succeed

Whether your children play soccer on a school team or as a hobby, using soccer workouts specifically designed for the sport will help them improve stamina, conditioning, and skill to accelerate their game as they play.

If your kids  play soccer competitively, these workouts are even more important to help them train efficiently to boost performance the next time they hit the pitch. Although soccer primarily uses the lower body, it pays to condition with a full body workout routine to provide balance and get even more powerful results:

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            Warm-up the right way. The basic foundation of an effective soccer workout is your warm-up. This warm-up is best performed with a partner: begin by kicking the ball on the inside of both feet back and forth with a partner to loosen and warm up legs. They can also perform slow drives with a ball down the field to pass while jogging to warm-up legs even further.

Finally, stretch it out before they begin to train for the workout. Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds without bouncing. For the best results, stretch lower body with leg swings, knee to the chest stretches, and deep stretches of quads and hamstrings.

·         Improve balance. Before they start running on the field to improve stamina, kids need to make sure that your balance is up to par. Have them continue to work with a partner by balancing on one foot and tossing a medicine ball back and forth from hand to hand.

This will help to strengthen their core, which is vital to support on the field as they run and stop on a dime to change positions.

·         Boost agility. A basic recipe for success for any soccer player is to improve agility and increase speed through regular interval training. Before soccer practice begins, have them take at least 10 minutes to sprint in 30 meter intervals back and forth across the soccer field.

It's best to continue to work with a partner so that they can time their sprints and provide them with feedback and motivation to increase speed. To improve agility with each sprint, stop and turn quickly before continuing instead of coming to a full stop at the end of each exercise.

·         Increase stamina. During a soccer game, they will need to be on the field for long stretches at a time, constantly moving to follow the ball. Make sure that stamina is on track by running/jogging/walking at least 3 miles five times a week.

To avoid hitting a plateau, continue to increase mileage accordingly, up to one extra mile every two weeks.

Bethany Ramos is a full-time freelance writer that co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump. The Coffee Bump specializes in a wide variety of Bunn coffee makers and assorted coffee and espresso products.