First a solid core strength is essential in any soccer player and cannot be eliminated from any successful soccer speed training program. The game of soccer is very much a balance game and having a solid center of gravity is needed to control your body as you evade opponents, jump obstacles and quickly change directions.

The deep muscles of the abdominals are most important to developing a solid core and athletes can engage these muscles by keeping their abdominals flat at all times during the exercises and maintaining a neutral spine with just a very slight arch in the lower back. At no point should the lower back be working. An excellent partner exercise for the core is to have one athlete lay down on the ground with his legs straight and pointed to the ceiling. He will grab onto the ankles of the standing athlete and the standing athlete will throw the first athlete’s legs toward the ground. The first athlete must maintain flat abdominals and neutral spine as he stops his legs about 6 inches above the ground and returns them to the starting position. Repeat this 10 to 20 times depending on ability.

Speed drills are another important aspect of soccer speed training. The first drill incorporates sprint from one cone to a cone 10 to 15 yards away. The difficulty in this drill comes from the fact that the athletes will start in awkward positions. For example, the athletes start by lying on their stomachs and at the cue will have to rise as quickly as possible and sprint to the cone. Be creative with this initial position for proprioceptive challenges. Athletes could also start on their backs doing sit ups, standing doing high knee runs or doing squat thrusts.
Another drill involves placing cones at 5 yards, 10 yards 15 yards and 25 yards from a starting position.

Athletes will start by sprinting to the first cone, then running back. When they return to the starting position, they’ll sprint to the second cone and then run back. They repeat this until they have sprinted to and run back from each cone. Depending on the fitness level, this drill can end at the 25 yard cone, or athletes can then pyramid down by sprinting to the 15, then 10 and then the 5. Resting time between repetitions should be between 45 seconds and 2 minutes depending on how many repetitions you choose and the athletes’ levels of fitness. 3 to 5 repetitions of the full pyramid should be adequate.

Since soccer speed training also involves quickness, don’t neglect to training for speed with resistance, whether utilizing a sled, a partner resistance band or a parachute. Every soccer speed training session should also end with adequate dynamic and static flexibility work.

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