Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Physical Considerations

14+ Physical Session (Anaerobic)

Coach Task 1: Outline the key components of fitness that need developing pre adolescents (puberty) between the ages of 5-

14 years?

• Motor Skills
• Aerobic Capacity
• Bone Strength through progressive loading of the skeleton and muscles.
• Flexibility/Balance

Coach Task 2: Outline the key components of fitness that needs developing post adolescents (puberty)

ages 14+? - Look at the session above as an example.

• Strengthening 
• Balance/Coordination
• Agility
• Mobility
• Flexibility
• Fast vs Slow Muscle Fibers
• Aerobic vs Anaerobic Conditioning
• Position Specific Running (High Speed Distance) 

Primary Focus

Improve our teams anaerobic capacity through a variation of SSG and Longer Distance Running

Organization

Area Size (Will depend on the age of the players + skilllevel + number of players available)

Small sided games can range in numbers depending on how many players we have. In a perfect world we would have three equal teams. This will allow for easy periodization of the entire group.

Player No's

For this exercise there would be 3 Teams of 5 Field Players + 2 Gk's

Timings (18 Min Total)

Games will be a max of 4 minutes ; we will work in a 2:1 Ratio. 

Example: 

3 sets of 4 Min's on: 2 Min Off 

Explanation:

If we play 3 games, everyone will be each other 1 time, and the 4 Minutes that you are off, you will be doing the running. 

The mix between these two modes of running allow for game specific actions in the small sided game (Accel, Decels, Cutting, Jumping, 50/50 Duels etc) while the box to box strides allows for some high speed running and covering distance while having more of a full field feel( Extend, slow down, walk, stop, run again) (Would start at a 1:1 Ratio 15 Sec on/15 Sec Off for the 4 Minutes - 8 Reps (672 Yards Covered)). 

These distances/times and wanted output can all be tailored to individual players based upon where we are in the year (Pre-Season,Mid Season, Playoff), weekly periodization, if a player is returning to injury etc with the use of monitoring systems and RPE if GPS/Heart rate Monitors aren't available.