Stamina training for soccer

Stamina training for soccer is important because when your young players are tired, everything becomes a struggle, especially their ball control skills. This often becomes obvious during the final minutes of a match at the beginning of the season or during mid-season. Use these endurance exercises to build up your players' soccer fitness and stamina levels.

An important part of any pre-season soccer coaching is to organise intensive endurance exercises. You need to tailor these to suit the age of your players, so they are not exhausted afterwards.

One I like to use is this Flower Power soccer drill, which not only gets players moving at pace, but is also good fun as they run around making the shape of a flower.

Using this soccer drill could give your players the advantage they need to win more matches, especially at the beginning of the season when they are not fully fit.

Soccer drill to improve young players' soccer fitness

What to look out for in this soccer drill

At each turn, focus on the correct turning technique – small steps and quick feet.
After every turn, players accelerate correctly.
Body position (lean from the ankles). Be aware that some players will bend at the waist, which is counter productive.
Use of the arms (powerful and dynamic). Elbows should be at 90 degrees.
Maintain the quality of movement, even when tired.

Set up the soccer fitness drill

Using cones, set up this soccer fitness circuit by placing one cone on each corner of the penalty area, one either side of the halfway line and six cones evenly around the centre circle.
If you're setting up from scratch, the circle should be 10 yards across and each arm of the circle should be 15 yards long.

How to play it

Three players start the circuit in the circle on the halfway line. They then run around the outer cone opposite where they started.
They return to the centre circle cone and continue around the set up in an anti-clockwise direction until they return to their start cone.
You can use up to six players starting in the circle on each of the cones. I use three players in case they catch each other up.
Each player must complete the circuit once.

Advance the soccer drill

To advance the drill, introduce a ball at each of the outer cones for the players to receive and return a pass before turning and continuing.

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Click here for a short sprint soccer drill to improve players' stamina levels and fitness.

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