Youth training and fitness

A fellow coach and I were discussing fitness and training youth players, specifically at the U12 level. I’ve coached for a few years and have attended many of the coaching courses, similar to the coach I was speaking with. He wasn’t against fitness training, but as most coaches do question, was curious as to how much is too much. He also brought up a good point, if the kids are too tired, will they be too tired to learn new skills/technique? – a point I definitely agree with and so fitness has to be balanced with the goals of the training session. Also, any fitness requirements should be age appropriate.

Last year I tried to create coaching sessions and ensure that fitness was gained through the small sided games and drills. I coach girls, so it may be completely different with boys, but I found that the intensity that they brought to training wasn’t intense enough to achieve the necessary fitness levels through this type of training. Previous to this little experiment of expecting fitness to be gained through drills/SSGs, I had always incorporated fitness into our training sessions and we’d been quite successful with a record of 46-3-2 over 2 years.

We went to a tournament and were destroyed, some due to our fitness, some due to the fact we were playing U12 soccer with eleven 10-year old players, and partly because we moved to the full size field. The coach I was speaking with, as many coaches are, was focusing too much on fitness and not enough on teaching soccer.

For those of you who don’t believe fitness should be part of every training session, I have a few questions:

• How do you keep up your forward run, if all you want to do is pass the ball so you can stop and watch?
• How are you going to get back on defense after the attacking run?
• How are you going to pressure the attacker, if you are tired?
• How are you going to decide to take a player 1v1, if you just want to pass because you are tired?
• And the most important, how do you make good decisions if the brain isn’t working due to a lack of oxygen?

Here is how our fitness regimen worked and it worked very well as we became a team that handled the fitness requirements of an entire game vs. barely playing a good 15 minutes at the beginning of the season.

• Team would warm up with dribbling exercises, coerver drills, dribbling in crowded spaces and then a game of takeaway (half the team in a square with the ball, half without – those without try to take other player’s balls, those without a ball at end, get 10 pushups).
• Team would go through some dynamic stretching (zombie walks, butt-kickers, jogging, hopping, carioca, shuffles, sprints)
• Team lines up and would run just under half a mile in 3.5 minutes
• Those who didn’t make the 3.5 minutes would get to do it again
• Those who didn’t make the 3.5 the 2nd time would get 1/3 less distance in 2 min. 20 seconds
• Those who didn’t make that would run half of that in 1 min. 10 seconds.

Half way through practice, before we went to our 6v6 or 8v8 part of practice, we’d do a fitness regimen again. Sometimes it’d be the above or it would be an exercise where the girls were lined up about 15 yeards from a partner and would have to chase each other down. The winner moved up a lvl in the drill the loser moved down. Bottom half would have to do push-up or one lap at the end.

After the first two practices of running the top portion of the fitness drills, all girls would make the first leg, so the fitness would only take about 4 minutes total and the second session would take anywhere from a  repeat of the 4 minutes to a more lengthy 10 minutes. So, in a 90 minute workout the girls would spend 15 minutes (16% of the practice time) working on their fitness.

The good thing about this approach is that the least fit get the most fitness workout and it puts the responsibility in their court. I’d say at the beginning, “make the first 3:30 so we can get to start playing.” I was on their side, but I’d hold them accountable and they knew that’s what I was there. As their fitness became better, nobody would complain/roll their eyes, huff and puff about having to run. I’d be sure to point out to them after games that we’d controlled the second half or the middle of the field, or possession because of their fitness.

Their fitness became a badge of honor, even as it became easier for them to maintain. Besides being fit, their overall game improved. There thought process was positive as they would take players on 1v1, close down an attacker, cover the far post after a 50-yard breakaway and create space by passing and moving.

I’m sorry, but the game isn’t 15 minutes long, for these girls it is 60 and to have fun and find success they need to be fit.