Programming for a soccer athlete is primarily about making sure they perform the common movements significantly well. These include goblet squats, reverse lunges, pulling patterns (trap bar, SLDL), push ups, rows, chin ups, and core stability drills. Core stability is no different. The athlete is only going to benefit if you teach them how to get into the right position first before executing them. These are a few of the top movements that any soccer athlete can benefit from once starting a training program. These require the athlete to stabilize the pelvis in a neutral position (or to put them into a more neutral position) so that they prevent stabilizing through passive restraints (ligaments, spine vertebrae, tendons). Most extension-based athletes (soccer, baseball, hockey, offensive lineman in football) live in some sort of anterior pelvic tilt which stresses the lumbar spine, hips, and anterior abdominal wall to a significant degree. These next few movements should be executed with the ribs in a “down” position which encourages less extension through their mid/lower back which reinforces a move efficient and safe stabilization pattern.
Glute Bridges
Instead of cueing the soccer athlete to simply squeeze their butt up, have them exhale all their air out first (feel the ribs sink down), slightly brace, and then squeeze their butt up. 99% of the time you’ll notice their hip extension is more limited but where it should be.
Wall Press Abs
Just listen to Bill Hartman! Starting in supine (back on ground) is always a great place to start core stability and see how well they can control their pelvis and spine in an un-weighted position.
Front Planks/Side Planks
Have them start on knees and to keep hips (butt) squeezed all the way through. Next, see if they can take full diaphragmatic breath while holding that position. If too difficult, regress to on the floor again. 4-6 breath cycles is usually sufficient per set.
Cheers and more core stability progressions to come in the future,
Earlier this week I wrote about ways we start to help prevent hamstring strains in soccer players. These “pulls” are disappointing to the athlete and can happen more than once. There is nothing more debilitating to an athlete than recovering from the first injury only to rehab, strengthen, and return to play and find themselves back on the rehab table once again. There is no better feeling than an athlete telling us how strong, quick, and powerful they feel, all while not having suffered any setbacks to injury. Feeling great and moving well has a tremendous impact on confidence which can carry over to better performance. In recent months I had the opportunity to work with two of the teams for the South Jersey Elite Barons. Most of the time is spent towards teaching them how to properly warm-up along with a few miniband walk variations that reinforces pelvic stability, hip strength, and core control. All of them are with soccer players. Beyond the beginning slideboard variations that I included here, are other things that we need to incorporate on a daily basis to help them out.
If you do not have access to slideboards, which more than likely you won’t, then I would advise warming up by including glute bridges and miniband walk variations.
Lateral Mini-Band Walk: Progress band from below knees to ankles (shown in video)
Backward and Forward Monster Walks : Think of walking back on railroad tracks, knees should stay out, and feet should not get closer as you move
These movements look easy but are often performed incorrectly. Typically, you will get a holy s*hi* lateral hip firing feeling when you do these for 20-25 yards.
Look for…
The hips to “hike” while driving off the feet. A good indicator of this is the shoulders “rocking up” and down. Keep the shoulders level (they should slide right across as you move.)
Knee or arch collapsing inward: The more I see these exercises done in socks the more I see the arch of the foot collapse. Check both. It is a great assessment to see how stable their hips are. Poor pelvic stability (hips)—>leads to poor knee and foot function.
These are movements that I would try to incorporate as warm-up (before soccer practice) or as movements paired with our single leg variations and hip dominant patterns training.
When working with large teams, as a coach, there are always opportunities and various methods to incorporate some sort of strength training, mobility work, and stretch circuit daily. Nowadays, it seems that sport-seasons are a year-long event for younger athletes as there is a philosophy that playing the same sport is in the best interest of kids. I will gladly disagree as using the same movement patterns associated with that sport are not conducive to adequate skill requirement for later years. Most of top athletes in sport today played multiple sports during their younger years. I also have a soccer background and know many who played club or travel soccer all their lives and the schedules were brutal and most of that time is spent simply playing soccer, more specifically, the attitude is typically one that believes playing with a ball (juggling, dribbling, shooting) constantly is only needed to make the higher levels. What most may forget is that anything that is repetitive as specific movements for a sport (soccer-kicking, hockey-skating/rotational movements) can lead to overuse of these patterns and consequently, overuse of the require musculature.
Lots of the same pattern can lead to injury
One of the best ways to increase players longevity (staying healthy), strength, power, and movement quality is to incorporate just those same qualities at the end of a training session. It may be one of the best things that coaches can do if they really care and want the best out of their players. The question becomes, “What can we do at the end of our session to make it worthwhile?” If there are funds to buy 1 foot foam rollers (only 8$ for the one foot long), then please do so. Improving soft-tissue quality is one of the most overlooked aspects in keeping athletes healthy and buying a 8$ foam roller will drastically help. Perform Better has the most durable ones here. If you do not have a roller, even a lacrosse ball works well, but it can be a lot more intense since the ball is smaller and more dense than the roller.
Here is some exercises and progressions to what you can do if there is no equipment and practice is almost done.
Foam Roll (10 slow rolls-approx. 30s each body part)
Front thigh
Lateral thigh/IT band
Adductors (groin)
Lateral Hamstring
Glutes/External Rotators
Calves
Upper Back (between shoulder blades)
Lats & Posterior Shoulder
A1) Split Squats (3x sets)
Front knee stays over the ankle, drop back knee straight down, chest tall
Week 1: 8 reps/side, add 2 reps each week for 4 weeks.
Regressions- Bodyweight Squatting–>BW Squats w/ Miniband around knees, Split Squat Isoholds (do 5-10s/holds per side for a total of 20-30s/leg)
Progressions-after at least 4 weeks of great form, incorporate pauses at the bottom (ex. 3s hold) or rear foot elevated split squats (back foot on bench)
A2) Incline Push-Ups (3x sets)
Use a bench on the field : Week 1: 8 reps, add 2 reps each week for 4 weeks or go 8, 8, 10, 10.
Butt and belly tight, elbows tucked, chin tucked, lead with chest down to bar, no hip sagging at all
Regressions-Push up isoholds (hold at top of push up position for desired time), if you find something higher than the fence, do it.
Progressions- once incline push-up is mastered, you could either add in pauses at bottom (2-3s), do negatives (lower in 3s then up in 1s) or start doing normal push-ups
A3) Side Planks (3x sets)
10-20s/side
Ankle through ears in straight line, butt tight, belly breathe the entire time, elbow under shoulder
Regressions-bend knees and then go up
Week 1&2: 10s/side Weeks 3&4: 15s/side
Progressions-Feet Elevated Side Plank (feet stacked on bench). Same time principles apply
B1) Inverted Reach (3x sets) rep progressions are the same as above
Slight knee bend, get as long as possible from arms to foot, keep chin tucked, weight shifted towards heel. Pull through heel and squeeze butt to return to start position.
Regressions-learn normal hip hinge with two feet (could use inverted reaches and part of warm-up)
Progressions-if anyone has 5 pound plates or something to hold in hands, use it.
B2) Prone T or W holds (10-15 2s holds)/1 or 2 Leg Glute Bridges (20s holds or 8-15 reps w/ 2s pause) – 3 sets
Since there is no weights then this will have to do for now.
Prone T holds-chin tucked, thumbs up, butt tight, squeeze shoulder blades back and down, do not arch lumbar spine
Glute Bridges- feet straight, squeeze butt cheeks together for desired time or reps. Do not arch through lower back and drive heels into the ground/1-Leg version: Knee up to chest, toe pointed up to shins, drive through heel, do not leg hips sag or twist
B3) Front Planks (3x sets) holds can last anywhere from 20-30 seconds or can be broken up into 2-3 10s holds
Legs locked straight, butt tight, chin tucked, breath through your belly
Progressions-you can either elevate the feet or do front plank marches where you lift one leg a few inches off the ground, then drop, and alternate between legs
Regressions- front planks on bench (forearms on bench)
These are very simple exercises but they need to be addressed at a young age and the better you can get them moving with these exercises the better they will be able to progress and move more weight as they get older. It is about moving well not necessarily more. Hope the program provide some simple insight into a training session without equipment as well as some proper progressions. Thanks for all the people who had videos of the exercises, I think I need to get a camera for myself!
Team Comcast, an elite hockey organization in northeast area, are who we have been training for almost two months now. We are in our second phase that is made up of 3 different age groups. The programs are split up into age ranges: 16-18, 13-15, & 10-12. I have the majority of the youngest kids (10-12 yr. olds) and it has gone well. The first few weeks for the younger athletes is to make sure they know what I expect ( as well as the older athletes) and to make sure they stay focused. We also play a short game with the younger athletes to keep it fun. Here are videos taken last night of the way we organized our 2nd phase. I know that the form is not picture perfect, and it will not always with large groups. The most important thing in my mind is that (1) athletes are having fun, (2) they improve each session/movement is not injurious, (3) enjoy training and being with teammates. For one, some of the athletes last night told me that these training sessions were the best part of their day along with playing the game.
15 Yard Sprint-Side Standing Start 3x/side
Broad Jumps 4 x 6-8
Bodyweight Squats 3 x 10-12 (at 20s mark notice one of our players step up in full hockey gear, he came to off-ice like this. haha)
Glute Bridges x 12 w/ 2s hold paired with Side Planks 3 x 20s/side
Of course, you may be sitting there saying, that is not perfect form! But take into consideration these were athletes who have basically never trained before. In one month, they have had fun, got a lot better, and enjoy coming to training.
How often do we hear people saying they have tight hamstrings? It is probably the one muscle that everyone has stretched too much in their life. Literally. I feel that having been an athlete myself, everyone that I have every played with stretched their hamstrings (ok, 95% maybe) before a game or they complained of their hamstrings always feeling “tight.” The typical answer by many is if a muscle feels tight, stretch it. It is the simple answer, but how can this tightness seem to stick even when they continue to stretch it, all the time. The problem most likely may lie within the brain and the pelvic position. Or is it the brain creating the position? I am not sure, but maybe I am confusing myself again.
The nervous system: the control center for everything. It is supposedly what controls or dictates the limits in our movements. An assumption is that if something feels tight, it is the brain creating a protective mechanism for the body. We cannot always go off the feeling we have in muscle because that feeling is probably telling us that is working double time or under tension for longer than it would like to be. I think this is what many call muscles being toned. Tone is the brains way of saying to the muscle that it is turned on constantly. You cannot change this by simply yanking on a muscle (just holding a stretch).
Pelvic position: the pelvic position is a huge reason why this tone may be occurring. Take a look at the picture below, the hamstrings attach on the back of the pelvis. Most people live with an anterior tilted pelvis causing the pelvis to tip forward (picture 2). This constant position then puts the hamstring on stretch. If this is the case, then obviously a feeling of tightness will present itself constantly. The muscle, in its optimal position is when the pelvis is in neutral, so this whole time it has been trying to pull down on the pelvis. Does it need more stretching?
Patrick Ward wrote this on one of his posts, and I really liked it. “If you go into a movement pattern and the muscles that are being lengthened contract and push you out of the pattern, THIS IS NOT TIGHTNESS. This is actually a contraction, even though the client describes it as tightness. A good example of this is clients who can’t touch their toes and claim that their hamstrings are tight, when in reality, the hamstrings are turning on (when they should be lengthening) during the movement to provide stability to the pelvis since the core is not doing what it needs to do. This is muscular contraction and not hamstring tightness.”
This blog post does not mean I do not believe in stretching but it depends. We have a stretch circuit for all of our athletes right after they foam roll.
The above picture (active straight leg raise) is primarily what I am talking about. If you can get to 90 degrees, you do not have tight hamstrings. Even if you are just below that, you are still in pretty darn good terms with your mobility. The tight feeling is probably the overuse of your hamstrings as a primary hip extensor instead of your glutes. Start learning how to hip hinge and use your glutes for your warm-up and during your workouts. Glute bridges and 1-leg glute bridges are great ways to start. I had a general member come up and ask me what he could do to fix his hamstrings tightness (where he also injured himself during football season)? I truly had no idea what he did when he trained or anything else in his life, but I knew he played football. Seems like so many football players have a hamstring problem at some point in their career. I showed him some soft tissue work for his hip flexors and up high in his adductor/hamstring area, included some activation and strength exercises for his glutes and told him to do on a consistent basis (could be everyday). Two weeks go by and I randomly see him in the facility working out, he came up to tell me that his hamstring pain/annoying feeling (maybe his groin since that high adductor area near the butt is a place that seems to be problematic) felt 100% better. He went on to say that he wish he knew about what I told him earlier because it may have kept him healthy during his senior football season in college. Was I a genius? I wish! Hell no, not even close but it is amazing to see that a very simple understanding on this can help people tremendously. It is situations like that, that drive us as an athletic development coach.
If during the active straight leg raise, you leg mobility is horrendous, then mobilizing the hamstrings may be your way to go, but I think it is imperative that people start realizing that a feeling of tightness is not always needing passive stretching. It may be neurological or the position. Mobilizing is a better option not just sitting there holding a stretch. Movement is where it is at.
