4 Basic Exercises That Will Improve Your Fitness For Football

Fitness for football is an important part of your overall football game. In this article I will present some exercises that you can use to prepare yourself for the upcoming season. Keep in mind that you do not need to perform these exercises while participating in your regular team training. It will be just fine if you perform them by yourself.

1 - In this exercise you should put 10 cones spread 20-25 yards apart. Start by jogging to the first one. Then sprint to the second one, jog to the third one and so on. You may also perform this exercise by running side to side or backpedaling. The important thing is to perform this exercise with maximum focus in order to benefit from it.

2 - This exercise is great for improving your burst speed in opposite direction. Simply, put 10 cones up (5 yards between each one in a straight line). Now, sprint from the first cone to the third cone, than backpedal from the third cone to the second cone. Continue the exercise by sprinting from the second to the fourth cone and backpedal to the third (and so on).

3 - In football, you are not supposed to sprint during 90 minutes. To perform well, you need also to have good distance condition in order to stay fit during the whole game. Running 4-5 miles two days per week will keep your endurance on a stable level during your whole game.

4 - Stair runs will increase your feet work greatly. In order to practice on this exercise I usually like to visit our hockey arena that is open for public proposers. In the arena we have stairs on each section that helps people get them to their seats.

These stairs are pretty short, however the longer the stairs are the more physical effort will be required from you. I usually like to perform at least 20 stairs runs but if your stairs are enormous you could limit your runs to 10 or so. The important thing is to concentrate on your task 100% and avoid cheating.

Summary
In order to prepare well for your football season you have to prepare early. My recommendation is to start at least 3-4 months before your first game. However, some coaches will force you to start preparing for your upcoming season 6 months before your first regular football game. Fitness for football is a crucial part of your football game and you really need to take it seriously. Believe me, all football players hate pre-season training fitness no matter what they say :-)