Development for U-16

Doug, can you find a fitness trainer to help you with the speed, strength and endurance issues? I think if you can improve in those areas, your aggressiveness might also improve. The improvement in judgement comes from playing lots of games. Play where ever and whenever you can.

 

If you can use google, I'm sure you can find any number of workouts to improve you speed, agility and endurance.

Playing with better players will improve judgement as will watching a lot of soccer. One thing to do is go to a game and just pick out some good players and watch what they do rather than the ball. Try to anticpate what they will do. When race forward when you think they will drop back try to figure out why. When I watch games I usually call most goals before the final shot and can see most scoring opportunities a pass or two before the final pass. I'm sure other experienced, coaches, and students of the game can do so as well. Much of the game is based on common patterns and with time you can anticipate them on the field.

 

Have someone videotape your play in a game, and then sit down with a coach and go over the positives, and the things that need improvement.

 

If you have time in the spring, try going out for track. Make your events be the 400 and 800 meter runs. These are high speed races that require a lot of endurance.

The basic track mentality to train for long sprints should help for soccer as well, with some added speed cycling. Start of the running season is to build your base endurance.

Longer runs at a slower pace -- 45+ minutes at 7:00 to 7:30/mile pace.

After a few weeks of the endurance training, mix over to the sprint/speed training. Start out with a 15-20 minute slow pace run to warm-up and then go into some sprinting drills.
One of my favorites killer exercises is 30/30/30s: 30 second sprint, 30 second jog, 30 second walk, then repeat without any extra breaks. This is a great one for soccer because you rarely keep the same pace for very long. Work up to multiple sets, increasing as your indurance increases.
Another good one for long sprints, find a square block that is about 400 meters (1/4 mile) side. Jog to it to warm-up and jog all around at your 7:00 min/mile pace. Sprint one side (1/4 mile), jog the next, walk the next. Sprint 2 sides (1/2 mile), jog one, walk one. Hard run/sprint all around (1 mile), jog one side, walk one side. Work your way up to multiple sets.

There are a lot of exercises on the internet, plus a personal trainer will work great. One key note, don't forget your endurance training while doing sprint training. If you run 4 times a week, make 2 of those for long jogs (45+ minutes) and the other 2 for sprint or speed cycling drills.

 

Here's a link to a site with some fittness items.

http://www.brucebrownlee.com/coaching/fitness/fitness.htm


One thing that I don't see on your list is technical. This is something that you should always be working on. This is the base that everything else is built on. The better you are with the basics the better an overall player you will be.

Here's are some links to technical drills.

http://www.brucebrownlee.com/coaching/technical/technical.htm


Here's a link to the technical test that the UNC women's team does at the start of their pre season. It also includes their fittness test.

http://www.ncgsc.com/07_NCYSA_coach_convent_tech_olymp.pdf

 

Running backwards and side to side are definitely important. Drills to develop and improve in those areas were in the references from ButlerBob.

I'd also like to suggest playing pick-up full-court bball a bit if you can. It requires a lot of fast transitions from running backward to side-side to front on sprint.

Another suggestion is to combine with your footwork training. On an open field, dribble while running backward. Turn to side-side and then turn to front on. All while controlling the ball close to you and increasing your speed. This will help with ball control and with turning - a key on the field.

In general I would suggest keeping it a bit easy on the joints in preseason and instead focus more on the endurance training. This will provide the most benefit throughout the season. It will also impress your coach in the first practices, while other players are lagging back and you're able to run hard on through the end of each practice.

 

Run 180 meters on a track in 30 seconds, then jog 60 meters in 30 seconds, then back to 180, etc. Build up to doing this 15 times without rest.

A good way to build up is to do 5 reps, rest 3 minutes, do 5, rest 3 minutes, do the last 5. Then try 6/6/3 instead of 5/5/5 reps, then try 8/7, 9/6, etc. until you have built up to 15 reps without a rest.

"Interval running" in this or similar forms is a good match for the work/rest ratios of soccer, where you have to run fast, jog back, run fast, jog back into position, etc.

 

I ran track to help my endurance, and it twas a great idea. Purely running wise, start out with jogging a couple laps very slowly, go into some dynamic stretching (high knees, karaoke, butt-kickers, skipping, etc.) Strectch whatever you feel necassary. Build ups and breakdowns of distances are great, try running 300,400,500, and 600's at race pace, take a water break then go back down (500, 400, 300). After that, you could do some ball work or resistance training, then jog a slow mile, take a long time to stretch out every muscle comopletely when you are done. That is what my pre-tryout conditioning was, and it whipped me into shape. Try to get someone else to do it with you.

 

This is about right. You definitely don't want to run long distances at a slow pace. Better to train with 400s, 200s and 100s with maybe a mile at a pace within 40 seconds of your PR at the end. Don't overtrain, let your body rest and recuperate at 16 years old. You can go harder when you're 18-21.

 

You might be interested in this article, The Effects of Running Track on Athleticism: http://www.capprogram.com/newsinfo/Weeklyletter5.html

 

Here's another that may be of interest ot all. Conditioning for Soccer

http://www.capprogram.com/newsinfo/conditioningsoccer.html

 

That article had a couple good points, but a lot of bad, false ones.
First off, track is not just one 100 meter sprint. At practice, you go through many different plyometrics, run distance, work on speed, on accelerating, et cetera. Conditioning for soccer is not really that different if you work out with the 200-400 meter runners. We run speed ladders for both, for instance. Also, in track, you need to react to more than just a starters pistol. I had to react to hurdles, which also greatly increased my flexibility. Cross coutry would essentialy ruin you as a soccer player, however. Also, track is not running one event then resting. I ran as many as 4 events a day, and this reequired sprinting and endurance ability.