"This book is an authoritative, practical guide to designing resistance training programs for soccer. It provides principles of resistance training, exercise descriptions, program design guidelines, and sample programs"--

The world’s best soccer players are incredibly fit, fast, lean, and strong. Achieving this level of athleticism requires a rigorous soccer fitness training program applying the most effective drills, exercises, and core training methods. In Soccer: Functional Fitness Training, the authors present numerous drills for this training. Based on the latest the findings in sports science and on the authors’ long-term coaching experience, they present an extensive practical guide to help you improve your team’s performance through core training, soccer specific exercises, and drills. The exercises can be used for amateurs and professional players, youth and adults alike. Your players can learn how to score the most exciting and acrobatic goals, how to tackle without fouling, and how to avoid injuries. The drills in the book create typical match situations to help your team prepare for the game and stay motivated. Many of the fitness exercises require no extra equipment and rely only on bodyweight, thus targeting many different muscles at once. The book is easy to use on the pitch and the ideal tool to turn youth players into the next Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or Bastian Schweinsteiger.

What are the best fuel foods for soccer players? What training regimen will best prepare young soccer players and improve their resistance to injuries? This comprehensive guide to health and fitness for soccer players offers expert advice for soccer teams at all levels. With decades of combined experience treating and training elite soccer players, exercise physiologist Donald Kirkendall and orthopedic specialist William E. Garrett Jr. present complex issues in an easy-to-understand format. The book addresses the physical and mental demands of the game, including the differences between boys' and girls' games and the differences in the levels of play in youth, college, and professional leagues; nutrition fundamentals, including food, drink, and vitamin supplements; physiology and training methods, with an emphasis on the basic elements of flexibility, speed, strength, and conditioning; and injury treatment and prevention. For players looking to step up their game, for parents who want to keep their kids healthy, and for coaches seeking the advice of the pros, this guide is an indispensable reference to keep handy on the sidelines.

The Strong Female Athlete is an evidence-based and experience-based text with a fresh, novel approach for youth female athletes to improve speed, reduce injury, and increase strength. In this exuberant body of work, Erica Suter gives a deep understanding of female athlete growth and maturation, anatomy and physiology, nutritional needs, menstrual cycle considerations, and performance training progressions. She presents the science, but in a way that is readable and fun for coaches, parents, and young girls. This is way easier to read than a scientific study! The final chapters discuss mental training and how female athletes can improve confidence, and overcome challenges from sports and life.

Strength and power are key elements of soccer performance. A stronger player can sprint faster, jump higher, change direction more quickly and kick the ball harder. Strength Training for Soccer introduces the science of strength training for soccer. Working from a sound evidence-base, it explains how to develop a training routine that integrates the different components of soccer performance, including strength, speed, coordination and flexibility, and outlines modern periodization strategies that keep players closer to their peak over an extended period. Dealing with themes of injury prevention, rehabilitation and interventions, as well as performance, the book offers a uniquely focused guide to the principles of strength and conditioning in a footballing context. Fully referenced, and full of practical drills, detailed exercise descriptions, training schedules and year plans, Strength Training for Soccer is essential reading for all strength and conditioning students and any coach or trainer working in football.

The future of soccer conditioning has arrived. With content ranging from how to properly develop speed, strength, power, and agility in players at all levels to unique position-specific training guidelines and detailed return-to-play protocols, Complete Conditioning for Soccer is a real game changer. Training protocols and progressions, complete with schematics of on-field conditioning drills, guide conditioning for players from youth to professional levels. Field players of every position will increase strength to dribble through traffic. Forwards will pack more power into shots on goal. Central midfielders will improve quickness and agility to find open passing lanes and evade opponents. Goalkeepers will develop the explosiveness to cover the width of the goal to make that save. Emphasizing player movement and conditioning needs for the long term, you will learn the positional and seasonal demands that directly impact player development and performance and discover the significant differences between playing styles, positions, levels of play, and genders. To keep players game-ready, you’ll find detailed information on avoiding some of the most common soccer injuries as well as step-by-step, position-specific training protocols for players returning from injury. Written by Ryan Alexander, the director of sports science for Atlanta United Football Club (MLS), Complete Conditioning for Soccer takes the process of physical preparation for soccer to a whole new level.

Physical training is a key part of preparing to play soccer (football) at any level, but organising a genuinely effective training programme requires both an understanding the physiological principles involved and a practical knowledge of the demands of the game. This book provides clear guidelines, an evidence base and a theoretical framework for proven effective soccer training. Includes: planning seasonal training to peak at the right time training for strength, speed, aerobic and anaerobic fitness designing appropriate sessions for training and rehabilitation best methods for recovery from exercise and reducing injury risk preparation for play in different environmental conditions evaluating the effectiveness of training programmes diet, sleep, lifestyle, young players and long-term development. Clear explanations of the physiological concepts and sport science research evidence are given throughout, and the book contains many examples to illustrate the training principles in practice. This is an essential text for students of the game and a valuable resource for coaches, physical trainers and sport scientists working in soccer (football).