 Posted 10/07/2007 16:24:49
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| I have a real problem with coaches who make kids run around doing 'fitness training'. Most coaches only have 1-2 hours a week training and what i dont understand is that they believe that making them run around the pitch or doing shuttle runs for that 1 hour is really going to make a difference to these kids. 1 hour of fitness a week will never make a difference. Football training should mean exactly what it says. FOOTBALL training.Leave the fitness aspect to the professional players who train everyday. I have no problem with giving the kids knowledge about keeping fit and maybe giving them excercises they can do themselves but concentrate on the football guys please. Why also is it worse in pre-season? I bet there is a huge number of you who make your first training excercise of the new season a fitness excercise.
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Posted 10/07/2007 16:58:11
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| In response to the post on "fitness training" i do agree to a point as kids / teenagers have a natural energy. I think at a young age absolute priority should be technique, understanding of the game and team work, the thing with fitness work certain drills can be good fun and as well as working on their stamina and fitness it can be made enjoyable and add the training experience for the youngsters. I believe though once they go into playing on larger pitches and 11 a side that stamina is important. I have seen plenty of games at under 13 and upwards where teams although technically good run out of steam. Exhaustion physically also means exhuastion mentally and as football is a lot about decsision making then i do believe that fitness is important and should be worked on to improve stamina and to channel their energy correctly over the duration of the match. With most training sessions being only two hours a week i normally dedicate about 15-20 minutes per session. Last year at under 17 while the light nights allowed i had an extra mid week session to work purely on fitness to leave my saturday training purely for working on systems of play / team shape and ball work etc. The mid week session was half hour shorter at one and a half hours and the benefits were massive. I can honestly say for the first 6 - 8 weeks of the season our fitness won us as many games as anything else - and just for the record there would be a full attendance at each fitness session and the players thoroughly enjoyed it which was good considering no footballs were even allowed it was purely just fitness work!!
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Posted 11/07/2007 10:00:47
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| Absolutely no chance that i can agree with the last bit. No way does half an hour of fitness make a difference to your matches. Young kids dont need it. They need educated on how to keep fit but thats all. You may be introducing an extra session but if the child wants to sit playing games the rest of the week then whats the point in your session. Its all about mentality at a young age. I cannot possibly say its wrong because you say they find it fun but i believe it would be better this way- Drop the fitness aspect e.g running round the pitch shuttle runs etc. Educate your kids on how its important to keep fit and explain that you will take them off during matches if they are struggling (this will give a child more incentive to keep fit because they hate sitting on the sidelines). And when you see certain players are struggling explain that if they cant last the game then someone else will get the chance. Maybe i am wrong because i am less experienced but i remember what i thought when my manager made us do it.
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Posted 11/07/2007 11:03:53
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| Fair point Nick But - what fitness work also achieves is a good work ethic, i agree that maintaining your own fitness should be encouraged but with older players who are working and not doing sporting activities at school etc during the week then i find it really does make a difference. If you dont believe 20 minutes of fitness work can be effective i strongly disagree. It helps in the momentum of training, hard work then fun, if they learn a good team and work ethic by doing the things that they do not always enjoy as part of a team then it definatley builds up the work rate of the individual and the team. I encourage my team to work hard for each other and i strongly believe that certain fitness drills not only keep them physically fit but also instill this. Obviously 20 minutes isnt going to turn them into olympic athletes but i certainly think it has more benefit than not doing any at all. Please remember though i am working with 17 and 18 year olds and not kids as such and i thoroughly agree at younger ages this isnt anywhere near as important as ball work and technique etc.
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Posted 11/07/2007 11:59:15
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| Yeah i can agree with that. I would definately agree about the 17 and over age groups, especially with them all drinking at a younger age now and generally being much more lazy. Yeah i concede that it is probably more benificial than i first thought. Thats the benefit of something like this i suppose.
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Posted 11/07/2007 17:09:20
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Hi Nick,
It's not that fitness training isn't useful, but the real question is at what age does it make sense. You are right, that at younger ages, especially, it really is just a very poor use of time that you have to train.
I watched a coach of a team of 6 year old girls this past spring practice 4 weeks in a row. The girls had been moved up an age division by the coach and parents because they had a couple of players that were better than the other kids their age and they were "beating" all the other teams. After moving up, they were "losing" all of their games because the other teams were bigger and faster. (This information came from a mom with a daughter on the team.) DUH!!! What did they really expect, that the other kids weren't going to be physically different a year older at this age group? The worst part was the way the coach responded to the difference. In the typical 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minute practice, the coach would spend a good 10 minutes stretching. This was done first, without any type of warm-up or anything to get the blood circulating through the muscles. I faulted the coach less on the lack of warm-up than the need to do the stretching at all. 6 year olds don't need this. What a waste of time. When is the last time you saw a 6 year old pull a muscle on the playground due to not stretching and warming up? Doesn't happen. Their bodies are physically different and applying the principles that we know so well as adults doesn't make sense.
After stretching, the coach then went to sprint work. After all, the girls were being out run by the physically older kids. He spent another 10 to 15 minutes just doing sprints. He made it a competition and the kid that won the sprint got to sit out the rest of the sprints. So the slowest kid on the team got to run a lot. Not that she was out of shape and couldn't run, it was just where she was in her physical development as a kid. 
So now, 25 minutes into practice they get the soccer balls out. Not that they start playing soccer, but they get in lines. They pass the coach the ball and run from the corner made by the mid field line towards the goal the coach passes them the ball and they try to one touch into the goal. Almost none of the girls could do this successfully. They didn't have the skill to receive the ball and re-direct it with one touch. They would all bobble the ball around and get it under control after the 3rd or 4th touch and then dribble once toward the goal before taking a shot. Each kid got about 3 or 4 tries at this. There were a couple of drills like this and they always resulted in very few touches by each kid and always had the coach serving the ball or being the one passing the ball out to the kids.
The only other drills during practice involved the kids in lines and running as fast as they could to the ball and kicking it out of bounds. There were a couple of varieties of this. The emphasis was on getting the ball out of bounds and stopping those faster girls that were breaking away from them during games.
And that was it. Well, one week they ran laps, without the ball. For 4 weeks, I couldn't watch anymore after that, but I'm sure it continued. I would guess that each kid got maybe 100 touches during an hour long practice if lucky. As equally as sad as this coach being okay with this, the parents seemed very happy with the way this guy was coaching their kids. I can't even imagine that this was fun for the girls and developing any sort of love for soccer in them. Kids at this age need lots of touches. Lots of time to experiment with the ball. Lots of work on technique. They should get 1000's of touches a week each to develop those skills. Forget about the stretching, sprinting, and lap running altogether. They shouldn't be focusing on the fact that kids are breaking away and running to kick the ball out of bounds, but focusing on how to dribble and control the ball when THEY get it. Focus on how to play 1 v 1 defense when a kid on the other team gets the ball, i.e. put themselves between the ball and the goal, don't dive in but get the ball when the other kid kicks it way out in front of them.
There comes an age when sprint work, distance running, fitness training, stretching, etc. all make sense, and not even necessarily at the same age. As kids bodies start changing around 10, 11 and 12 it is important to be doing the warmup and stretching of the muscles. Introducing this at earlier ages can develop the habits, but it needs to be weighed against having that time used for actual training with the ball. At the younger ages you are right, any fitness and endurance needed can be achieved through normal training. If the kids are actually moving and playing for and hour during practice twice a week, then there is no reason to believe they can't do this during the game each week. One of the larger problems in this area is that many coaches don't know how to run a practice that keeps the kids moving and playing. They end up with lots of lines, standing around, lecturing (hoping they have the kids attention), etc. instead of 30 seconds of this is what I want to see including the demo and then making it happen.
As the kids get older additional focus should be given to some fitness training. I like what Nick had done with his U17 boys. You are right, we should work to teach them about fitness and encourage them to do this work on their own. Some will, some won't. As coaches, it is our responsibility to put the best team on the field we can. This includes fitness level as well as technique. So as the kids get older and need more fitness training, this needs to be added into our training schedules to make them the best players we can. We typically train the older kids longer and more often than the younger kids so adding fitness components into training schedules doesn't have to mean less training with the ball. If we are really on top of what we are doing, we should be able to use a lot of small sided games to not only work on techniques, but on fitness as well.
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Posted 12/07/2007 17:18:31
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I think what lies behind the fitness idea is that in the last 10 minutes of a game you can catch the opposition out because they tire and you have the run of the pitch. My under 11s win everything, but in the last 10 minutes of a match are out on their feet. I got it in the neck from parents saying I didnt do enough physical training with them. Dont get me wrong they didnt lose games because of it, they just didnt run as much. If a clear opportunity arose for a midfielder to run up the pitch they passed it to transfer the responsibility so they didnt have to run any more. Surely it is far more important they had the skills to do this rather than be fit enough to run and run and run and run?
Dave Clarke Soccer Coach Weekly Editor
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Posted 13/07/2007 23:53:02
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a few good points there lads, at the moment i'm not to sure on it. next season i will be managing an u-11 team who i had last year and i beleive that if i can get them fitter that they will improve. the way i am going to approach is for first half hour kids will have a ball at there feet followed by conditioned games and i'll leave the physical running til last, tiring kids out and expecting them to perform skills well wont work i think. running at end will prob have to finish with relay or fun game.
johnny
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Posted 14/07/2007 14:52:40
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| MY Lads are going up to under 11s this season and up to 11 a-side full size pitch. Because of this we have 1 hour fitness training midweek, Stamina nd sprinting, at a weekend 2 hours footie coaching. If the midweek does anything it seems to bring the lads closer they work hard have a good laugh while creating a great team spirit then on Sundays they are really enjoying their coaching. WORKS FOR ME.
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Posted 16/07/2007 10:59:50
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