Tips for Soccer Endurance Training

Soccer is a sport that shares much in common with long distance running (marathon) comparing to other sports (ex: hockey and squash). In a regular soccer match you will approximately have the ball at your feet in 2 minutes and approximately 35 minutes running where you will usually cover several miles.

Your soccer endurance training is therefore crucial if you want to have advantage on your opponents. To increase your soccer endurance you don’t need to run 10-15 miles a week, instead you need to focus on some elementary things:

Basic tips for soccer endurance training
The first thing you need to do is to build up your base. To build up a good base phase you will need at least six weeks during your off season. Any aerobic activity will be fine for building your base. Some of the most common are cycling, jog or swimming

Set up concrete goals

Second, try to set up concrete goals for your soccer fitness. One way of doing this is to create an individual fitness test such as a hill running. This test should be increased in every week or so. You could for example try to run 200 meters like this:

1. First 50 m with 50 % of your max speed
2. Second 50 m, with 100 % of your max speed
3. Third 50 m, again with 50 % of max your speed
4. And last 50 m with 100 % of your max speed

Train for your recovery

Recovering quickly from high intensity bursts is the most important thing when talking about soccer endurance. One of the beast ways to increase your recovering periods is through sprint workouts. While practicing on sprinting you should try to less the duration of your recovery for each practice session. You could for ex run 7 x 20 meters then 5 x 40 m rest little and then run 4 x 70 m. Allow you self to rest at least one minute between intervals.

Feed your muscles

Feed your muscles with quality fuel. Many soccer players don’t realize the advantage of fueling their muscles during trainings sessions and matches. Your most important fuel during your soccer practice and matches is the natural water. Some experts claims that sports drinks would give you some extra boost but my opinion is that water is still no 1 in this context.

You need to drink a lot of water especially in hot and warm weather circumstances. I would recommend you to drink at least 2 liter during the match day.

Simulate game conditions

Every practice should be equal to a regular match. What you do on practice will directly affect the way you play in a regular soccer match. If you really want to become good at soccer you must see every practice like a cup final. This mean that you should work hard and do whatever your coach tell you to do.

Keep in mind that soccer endurance training is just a part of your overall training. But it doesn’t mean that you should not take soccer endurance training seriously. See it like an important part of your soccer education and take it for what it is.