The Holy Grail of Soccer Fitness - Avoid Cardio Training

It is very common for well intentioned coaches to send their soccer players out on steady state runs. I have treated many of these players in the clinic over the years for overuse injuries and muscle pulls.

It is for the following reasons I state -

Avoid Cardio Training for Soccer Fitness:

• Typical Cardio training trains the body to become slower, weaker and injured
• Typical Cardio avoids full range of body movement that occurs in a soccer game
• Typical Cardio training is boring - do you think a 10 or 14 or 18 year old soccer player wants to spend 30-45 minutes going for a run when they can be working on their ball skills?
• Typical cardio training takes a lot of time and prevents fast twitch muscle growth needed for speed and power
• Typical cardio training leads to muscle compensation and overcompensation
• Typical cardio training leads to overuse injuries like shin splints, chronic knee pain, hamstring, quad and groin pulls

There Must Be Another Way!!!

If you want your son or daughter or soccer team to become stronger, faster and have more endurance then they need to change their current training.

They must do these three things and they will become bigger, stronger and faster with more stamina than the "Energizer" Battery Bunny:

1. Build Strength

These budding soccer superstars need to be participating in a resistance training program.
This may start at the age of eight with any of the following items:

• Bodyweight Exercises
• Weights
• Medicine Balls

If you still believe that lifting weights stunts bone growth then you need to do more research. Injuries that arise from the weight room occur because:

A) Proper technique is ignored
B) Of lack of proper supervision
C) Of Unqualified strength coach

2. Build Speed

• Repeat sprints of 10 to 20 metres or yards with recovery - at least once week
• Do jumping exercises at least once a week - Hopscotch is great!
• Do ball work at game pace

3. Build Stamina (without doing cardio runs)

• Burst / Interval Training - Soccer is a game of bursts of energy and recovery with stops starts and change of direction.

This is how you train for stamina!

Soccer fitness training starts first with understanding the physical demands of the game, the movement patterns in the game and finally the mental demands of the game.


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