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.

The term “functional training” has been associated with a fair amount of controversy ever since it became part of the fitness training vernacular more than a decade ago. In Functional Training Anatomy, noted strength and conditioning specialists Kevin Carr and Mary Kate Feit cut through the clutter and misconceptions about functional training and cover all aspects of how to build a purposeful, effective, and efficient program that provides the strength, stability, and mobility you need to support your body in life and in sports. Beginning with a clear definition of what functional training entails, you will learn about the importance of mobility training and its impact on movement quality, performance, and injury reduction. Use the warm-up activities to prepare for high-intensity activities. Use the medicine ball and plyometric exercises to learn to produce and absorb force. Develop power with Olympic lifts, kettlebell swings, and jumping exercises. Improve strength in the upper body, lower body, and core with hip-dominant, knee-dominant, pushing, pulling, and core exercises. See the inner workings of each of the exercises with superb full-color illustrations that show the primary and secondary muscles and connective tissue being used. The detailed instructions for these multiplanar and unilateral exercises ensure you execute each one correctly and safely. The Functional Focus element shows how the exercises translate to specific activities, whether that be an explosive athletic move or simply moving a box. Functional Training Anatomy incorporates traditional and nontraditional exercises and mobility drills that will help you increase functional strength and reduce injury so your body is prepared to support the demands of athletic performance and daily living. Earn continuing education credits/units! A continuing education exam that uses this book is also available. It may be purchased separately or as part of a package that includes both the book and exam.

Reach a higher level of athleticism with "Functional Training for Sports." This book presents a complete system that focuses on training your body the way it will be used during competition. Detailed exercise progressions and training will help develop the movement skills, body positions, and explosive power essential for sports.

"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"--

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.

Athletic Development offers a rare opportunity to learn and apply a career full of knowledge from the best. World-renowned strength and conditioning coach Vern Gambetta condenses the wisdom he's gained through more than 40 years of experience of working with athletes across sports, age groups, and levels of competition, including members of the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, and U.S. men's 1998 World Cup soccer team. The result is an information-packed, myth-busting explanation of the most effective methods and prescriptions in each facet of an athlete's physical preparation. Gambetta includes never-before-published and ready-to-use training approaches in - sport-specific demands analysis, - work capacity enhancements, - movement skills development, - long- and short-term training program progressions, and - rest and regeneration techniques. Athletic Development explains what works, what doesn't, and why. Gambetta's no-nonsense approach emphasizes results that pay off in the competitive season and reflect his work at the highest echelons of sport. Merging principles of anatomy, biomechanics, and exercise physiology with sports conditioning applications and four decades of professional practice, this is the definitive guide to performance-enhancing training.

This book reviews the general acute effects and adaptations of small-sided and conditioned games (SSCGs) in terms of physiological responses, technical performance and methodology/periodization in the game of soccer. It also reviews the many studies conducted in the past decade to investigate the influence of SSCGs on physiological responses and technical performance in soccer training. SSCGs, which are smaller and adapted versions of formal team sports, are very popular training drills for players at all ability levels and competitive levels and offer an alternative to traditional fitness training. Exploring their role in depth, this book offers a valuable resource for academics, researchers and coaches with an interest in developing improved training techniques for soccer.