4 Tips On How To Plan a Successful Soccer Fitness Program
It was Vince Lombardi who said "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will". If it was good for the Packers...it's good enough for me. But, you'd find that each and everyone of us has that "sit on the couch and eat potato chips" bug, and that kind of thinking will hurt you in a big way.
Planning forms the platform for perfection and it is the best possible procrastination killer. Funnily enough, most people would not know where to begin when formulating a plan, it's one of those "I'll get to it later" tasks. 99% of the reasons that we complain about never getting to the next level with our soccer skills and performance is because we never had a well thought out plan.
Rewind...Just over 4 years ago, I was sitting in a little office cubicle day dreaming about making it back into the highest competitive level of soccer. My little note book was gleaming in the fading light of the afternoon sun, I was bored to tears waiting in anticipation for my next training session at the gym, so I picked up my trusty pen and started chiseling away at the paper.
Following are some vital steps in planning your soccer season:
Vision: Nothing starts without vision. Where do you want to play in 5 years? Manchester United. No, be realistic. Jot down that you want to play in a State league team and be their first choice goalkeeper, for example. Your vision begins the process for you to map out the steps you need to get there.
Note: Your vision is not going to happen today, it's a future forecast of things that are yet to happen. People often fail right here...at the beginning, because they fail to be realistic about their future vision, it all seems too far away.
Goals: Your goal setting processes are little benchmarks that you set along the way to reach your long term vision. Goals again have to be realistic, and they have to be daily, monthly and yearly goals.
Daily goals can be planning a plyometric session in the morning, while going for a goalkeeper specific training session in the afternoon. Your monthly goals could include increasing your training intensities week by week, while a yearly goal can be a specific milestone you envision that is the accumulation of every one of your minor goals.
Periodization: Now that you have your daily, monthly and yearly goals in place, the real fun begins. Soccer today is a year round sport, and winning teams (take your pick, Manchester United, Barcelona and co.) all plan there seasons well in advance, right down to the socks they need to wear on match day...get me?
So to be a winner, and forge a winning mentality, you have to plan yearly, and tweak your plan every single year until you reach your overall vision. Creating periods of pre, in, and off season training sessions, and the little details that go into each facet will unfurl into a complete overview of your progression throughout the soccer season...you're one step closer to your vision, exciting huh?
Get It Down On Paper: Following is an awesome example of how a goalkeeper can utilize a periodized plan for soccer to map out a long term training cycle very easily. Funny thing is, Sam didn't use some state of the art software that spat out an answer to his wildest dreams. Nope, he used a simple pen and paper, and got creative.
Mapping out your plan alongside a training diary will give you some keen insight into your overall performance, and will act a a great historical map of your evolution into a better goalkeeper. It's great to look back at historical data about where you were, and see your overall progression mapped out in front of you and what you have achieved.
Getting organized with a soccer fitness plan is not difficult, you just need to start with a simple vision of where you want to be and what you want to achieve. Set realistic and measurable goals, plan for years, not just today and keep on tweaking your plan, be it fitness or diet on a regular basis. If you have any more suggestions add them to the comment box below so others can learn from your own experiences.
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John Stevanja
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