1. The Football Athlete

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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?

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. 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?

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

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

16. 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

17. 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

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

19. 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)

20. 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:
Take home messages