*sigh* Nobody has given me a player that is more agile than Messi or somebody of a similar physique yet. Please, when an example is provided then I'll start listening to you. NOWHERE HAVE I SAID BEING STRONG MAKES YOU A SLOWER OR WORSE PLAYER. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT AGILITY. THIS IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST POINTLESS ARGUMENT I'VE HAD ON THIS FORUM. Agility is a skill that you are born with - you are either born agile or not. Of course you can f**king work on it, it's a skill. I've just said that. Genetically, taller people will not be as agile as smaller people because as you say.. they have longer legs. But of course taller players can work on their agility and become more agile. Taller guys tend to also have worse coordination, because the limb length affects their game (as you say). I do not wish to come across as argumentative, or a nasty person, I just want people to see what I'm saying. What started this off was that Dejan guy saying he would 'shoulder charge any smaller, faster players into the ground', which is quite frankly pathetic. Is that all taller guys can do? Cheat and foul? No, of course it's not but simply suggesting that made him come across as naive. Finally, being stronger is better. We see players go through 'bulk' stages where they spend a lot of time in the gym getting bigger and stronger. It's a necessity in today's game.. I'm not denying that anywhere. I mean I'm going through a bulk stage myself at the moment while I'm injured. And not wanting to seem rude - but why have you brought NBA players up? Of course they're agile, it's what they train for hours and hours everyday. World-class footballers are all agile because they work on it. But we are not world class footballers, we are ordinary people who play football. I'm small, so I'm more agile than the taller guys in my team. However the taller guys are stronger, can win more headers and so on. It's swings and roundabouts, I can work on becoming stronger, as they can work on agility. But please, do not tell me that agility is something that you are not born with. You see millions of people who can't perform sports because they're born that way. Yes they could put hours and hours of practice into becoming a better athlete, but the people who are born and been given genetics that give them an advantage in sports have a head start. The point I'm making is as follows: Agility/Coordination/Balance/Reaction Time are all skills that we are born with. They can all be improved upon as they are SKILLS, and SKILLS are learned. There are many factors that effect how good individuals are at sports as they grow up, genetics, environment, lifestyle etc. I am not saying that tall guys cannot be agile, but smaller guys are genetically designed to be MORE agile than taller guys. Do you see what I'm saying? This isn't a dig at any of you - it is what I have been taught and seen in many different sources. Other people will disagree - that's fine, it's human nature. But I believe in this as it's something I've been taught by people I respect.
JonisAnOwl, I am not sure I should say anything else beyond, "agility is not innate". Lionel Messi has been playing soccer since a very early age. You are not born with it so to speak. You have shown sample programs, and I have told you the load you are using on those exercises wouldnt help you get faster or stronger, yet you keep on defending your position. Even, if you are lifting as super fast tempo for the concentric phase, it will only take you so far. To the best of my knowledge, soccer is a contact sport, shoulder charging an opposing player as long as I don't extend my arms and I am going for the ball is very fair and legal. However, again, we shouldn't go on and on about this. The only thing that you are born with that will not change is your muscle fiber type. Anyways, you are still very young, so stick with your sample programs and lets stop wasting bandwidth. However, do us all a favor, give us all report on how you are faring with your strength program and your performance on the field within the next 3 months. Is that fair?
Agility is innate. Messi has been given the genetics to allow him to be as agile as he is. Surely by your reckoning, ANYBODY could get as agile as Messi? But how come he's unique, and there's nobody else like him on the planet? Nobody as good as him? Answer me that one please. On your second point, I know full well that the weights I am lifting squats wise is not heavy enough. But I do not have access to a gym currently, and so am having to use weights at home. I benchpress 40kg at home, deadlift 35kg. I am aiming to get these up to 60/50kg by Autumn time. You are not allowed to shoulder charge a player. You aren't going for the ball if you're 'shoulder charging' somebody, you're attempting to push the opponent off the ball. I appreciate that you can tussle with somebody, but running in and 'shoulder charging' somebody off the ball is NOT allowed. See the video below: You can change your muscle fibre type, not extensively, but it is possible. If you are born with fast twitch fibres, then you can change the proportion from say, 80-20 to 70-30. So you haven't made that very clear. My relatively young age has nothing to do with this. I play at a high level, am having trials in the Summer for a professional team, can kick a ball at 75mph (yes, I've had it recorded) and can sprint 100m in just under 12 seconds. Hey, my programme so far isn't doing too badly is it! but never mind.. I won't stand a chance against big guys as they are super agile, strong and will just 'shoulder charge me into the ground' if I run past them.
Im so confused on how I should train by reading this thread lmao... I already do all the normal stuff such as Ladders, Plyometrics, etc... but i feel like I could add a lot more. Should I join my gym and go into weight lifting? ( not major weights, but light weights, high reps)
This thread has become a bit of a CF... But you should probably include some resistance training anyway. That doesn't necessarily mean you HAVE to join a gym though. Buy some bands or something.
I like the atmosphere of a gym hehe, I just dont want to become slow and less agile but I doubt low weight high reps would do that unless im mistaken
My game has improved dramatically since I started lifting. For any leg work, you should do low reps, high weight. As in, 4-6 reps to improve your leg strength. You don't want to get bulky legs really. Of course, your legs will naturally get bigger. But not as much as doing 8 reps would, which encourages hypertrophy.
I thought high weight/low reps increases bulk. Do you mean that that might not be the case if it's even fewer reps?
Nope. High weight/low reps encourages an increase in strength. Medium weight/ medium reps (as in 8 reps) encourages hypertrophy as previously mentioned. Low weight/ high reps increases muscular endurance, but that's pointless to me.
Jon: Read this article about strength endurance-- http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/soccer-strength-training.html In addition power is more important than strength (which you have implied if not expressly stated before). But also the rate that you can generate power is more important than pure power. That is because most movements do not involve full movement of the muscle before execution is completed(like a running jump is different than a squat where your feet are always on the ground). So it is how much power is quickly generated (i.e., before your foot leaves the ground) rather than total power generated by complete movement.
Interesting pal. Surely muscular endurance would be built up during running though? Upper body muscular endurance isn't that important, just power/strength for upper body. For lower body it'd be a mixture of power/muscular endurance? Right?
You have the right idea, but remember you are using your core everytime you move about the field. The need for strength endurance is similar to the need for anaerobic endurance. It is the repeated random periods of acceleration lasting 90 minutes that determines the fitness needs. Having strength endurance is important to keeping you quick in the second half, just like anaerobic endurance means you will still have the wind to keep going. When training advanced players, say U18 and certainly older, you use periodization. Your training plan assures that you have sufficient training of the different types. So for example you might have one session a week on strength endurance or one sessession every three weeks on it. Typically you train heavy on fitness (a lot of fitness session per week) in the off season and light on fitness during the season 2-3 a week. The plan tries to find the right balance in the sessions between endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, quickness, flexibility, and technical skills for where you are in the yearly training cycle. At that level what you do within each session is designed to meet individual needs. For instance a player will be evaluated for inflexibilities and inbalances between muscle pairs. If any are found, sessions will be designed to correct the problems to prevent injuries. What this means is at the higher levels coaches plan out not just his contact time with the players, but what the players are doing independently.