The Football Athlete

Role of Athletic Development in Football and reducing injuries Ideas for warm-ups Ideas for 10 minute session Key take home messages for coaches Objectives

FA Youth Award ‘What will make a nation of good footballers?’ ‘Coaches that can truly understand players from a young age.’ ‘Talent/ability is essential but it’s only the start’ ‘We want to try and maximise the potential of all young players.’ FA Youth Award

Inter-disciplinary approach To maximise their potential we need their mind’s and body’s to catch up with their football skill level Mental Physical Technical/Tactical Inter-disciplinary approach

Why not just play football? The large match-to-match variability of individual player work rates, particularly high intensity activity, means players are unlikely to perform to their maximal capacity during most matches. Therefore some of our physical training needs to push the envelope to ensure we exceed the player’s current capacity. Why not just play football?

Injury incidence/1000hours High incidence of injuries in football Supporting evidence: Hagglund et al., 2009. Sport Activity Injury incidence/1000hours Football Training 2.8 Match 41.6 Rugby 17 Prevent injuries?

UEFA Injury Study 2006-2008 80% of injuries occurred during matches 75% of traumatic injuries occurred due to player contact Relatively few match injuries (17%) were due to foul play. Do referees see the incident? UEFA Injury Study 2006-2008

Demands of Football Most common injury Hamstring strain (eccentric strength and flexibility) commonly occur towards end of match Joint sprains (might be associated with fatigue-related changes in neuromuscular control, joint dynamic stability, and postural control) Demands of Football

Football is a sport where players perform complex movements such as accelerating and decelerating, changing direction, jumping and tackling. To do this players need an ‘appropriate’ level of fitness: Moderate-to-high aerobic and anaerobic power Good agility, flexibility and muscular development The ability to generate power during fast movements Demands of Football

MOVEMENT PATTERN COMPETENCY Build a foundation. Build the bricks. SPORT SKILL SPORT SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FLEXIBILITY PROPRIOCEPTION BASIC STRENGTH MOVEMENT PATTERN COMPETENCY Physical Development

How do we do it? Session Plan Priorities: Suppleness- (Flexibility) 5 dynamic stretches in warm-up Skill- coordination / balance Speed- Jumps/sprints/turns Strength- basic bodyweight skills Stamina- tag games or conditioned football drills How do we do it?

Question 1: Related to younger players (i.e. 10 years and younger) what should we be limiting them to at this early stage in terms of fitness?" Focus on Suppleness, Skill and Strength 10 and under

Skill What does skill mean? Sports skills vs. Movement skills: Football skills means improving player’s ability to look after the ball. Movement skills is about how to correctly move by improving the player’s coordination and balance Skill

Skill Categories of Movement skills: Coordination: Locomotion - getting from A to B Manipulation- important skills from other sports such as throwing, catching, kicking, striking etc Balance: jumping, landing Skill

Basic strength Single leg squat Overhead Squat Lunge Hop and stop Press up Pull up Basic strength

Question 2: ’’Pre-match what should we be doing to ensure an adequate warm up for the players?" Answer: Pulse raiser- locomotive movements across pitch Flexibility-5 or 6 dynamic stretches Sprints- short sprints with turns Warm-up

Example Warm-up Pulse raiser: coordination Jogging Arm circles Spotty dogs while skipping Side stepping with arm swings Butt kicks Front cross-over (high) Carioca Straight leg shuffles Backwards > forwards jockeying

Example Warm-up Flexibility Forward lunge and hold> with rotation Quadriceps stretch Side lunge Forward lunge into hamstring stretch Standing hamstring stretch Sumo squats

Question 3: How can you maximise the 20 minutes of fitness that we get with the boys in a training session?“ Answer: Warm-up 10’ (flexibility/coordination/speed) Skill development 5’ (balance: jumping and landing) Strength 5’ (bodyweight)

Don’t play sport to get fit- get fit to play your sport All young players should have physical capabilities in advance of their technique Daz Drake Tel: 07712647039 www.athleticperformanceacademy.co.uk daz@apacoaching.co.uk Take home messages