Halftime for the soccer event of the year: The European Championships. A celebration of European enthusiasm for the most beautiful of all sports. For many amateur soccer players in Germany, however, the sustained improvement of the corona situation will also currently trigger real storms of enthusiasm. Training and gaming activities are finally and gradually returning.
After this Corona season, players should be as hot as ever for the round. But there is an unwritten rule even after the one-year break:
Whether it's the Bundesliga or the district class, training is also part of it — not just with ball.
When Jürgen Klinsmann brought a US athletic trainer into the coaching team in 2004 to prepare for the home World Cup in 2006, the team was astonished. With elastic bands, medicine balls and other utensils, he brought training content to the dusty DFB system, which until then still relied on classical gymnastics and physiotherapy.
It was the start of the fitness revolution in German soccer. Stability and mobility exercises were gradually introduced. First with the professionals, then with the semi-professionals and finally with the amateurs.
Today, it is the absolute standard for every ambitious team to train strength, speed, agility and endurance in addition to soccer skills.
Mark Verstegen thus shaped German soccer like no other athletic trainer before him and German soccer was suddenly back among the top international players.
At international tournaments, the game schedule is tight. Due to the regular increase in the number of participants, there are even more games in the same period.
Whoever becomes European champion this year will have to play seven games in four weeks - and that after a season that was delayed, postponed, stretched and compressed again due to corona.
As soon as a team plays poorly or the results are not right, the ad hoc calls to “accelerate in training” and “get more involved in training” get louder. Sure, that makes you feel like you've done “something” — but often that's just blind activism.
It makes much more sense to optimize player regeneration. Because anyone who hasn't gotten fit by the time of the European Championships won't be fit in the tournament anymore. Especially when one game follows the next. Instead, it is important to maintain the players' fitness level and allow them to recover as well as possible.
That is exactly why the professionals in this tournament often train without a ball.
Of course, we usually see the pros on the court with a ball. These are just the best pictures for TV stations. However, when the cameras are off, regenerative units are on the agenda in particular:
The professionals complete flexibility training to reduce the muscle tone of tight muscles and at the same time stimulate blood circulation.
They integrate yoga sessions to release tensions and blockages and let the entire body relax.
They are increasingly using stabilization exercises to reduce the risk of injury — after all, a European championship is only held every four years and a failure is correspondingly heavy.
In order to always find the right balance between recovery and peak stress levels, there are now multifunctional teams of trainers with many different experts.
Only in a team can the most sensible decisions be made, because this is the only way the head coach can take note of and understand every angle.
There is also often friction here, as was the case with Pep Guardiola and the long-serving Dr. Müller Wohlfahrt. After a season with a noticeable number of muscle injuries, Müller Wohlfahrt resigned from service. As you can hear, load management was not the highest priority for the Catalan coach.
Hansi Flick, on the other hand, is said to rely more heavily on the assessment of the team of experts in these matters.
In any case, modern coaches always work with their team to optimally manage the load and give players enough recovery breaks.
The question is whether load management is even necessary in the lower leagues. After all, amateurs don't play international tournaments with matches every three days.
But that is a fallacy.
In fact, “load” does not depend on the absolute load, but always on the relative load. What a relaxed warm-up is for a professional soccer player can be a “grinding unit” for an amateur soccer player. Because amateurs do not have the fitness level that professionals have worked out for years, no nutritionists and, in addition to team training, also have to do a main job. Family and other obligations also increase the subjective load (physical nature) of the amateur.
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To start with, there is no “best” exercise, but if we had to choose, it would be these exercises.
The sprint is one of the most important exercises of all. Because this exercise is as close to the actual game as few others. The sprint is perfect for setting peak loads.
But “top” also means that not every training session should focus on this. This is because the body needs more time to regenerate after these sessions.
However, to get amateur soccer players fit quickly or to maintain fitness in English weeks, occasional sprints are the top choice.
recommendation: 2x5 sprints at top speed (15 meters) with a 1 minute break to maintain performance during a busy week
This mobility exercise removes tension from the front chain (thigh, hip flexor) and also activates the hip extensors. If this exercise is done regularly and conscientiously, you can quickly see progress in mobility and the explosiveness of hip extension (required for sprinting, jumping and changing direction).
In addition, the exercise is suitable both as a warm-up exercise, as part of a regenerative mobility unit between short consecutive trainings/games.
recommendation: 2x10 repetitions for optimal mobility promotion
Hardly any other exercise trains proprioception (= self-perception) and stability as well as the single leg deadlift.
This exercise helps to always keep a straight leg axis when landing and changing direction and thus prevent serious knee injuries. In addition, there is once again a focus on hip extension - this time even with one leg, which is also the dominant movement pattern when sprinting and shooting.
recommendation: 3x6 repetitions per leg (1 minute break after a set) with full focus on the technique for a stable leg axis
The adductors and hip flexors have to endure quite a bit of stress in soccer. All the better if you know an exercise that can effectively relieve tight muscles in this area.
With the Lizard Lunge, you can also ideally prepare yourself or your players for a training or game.
recommendation: 1x60 seconds per side with loose rocking for good hip stretching
An active mobility exercise that should not be missing in any regenerative training and warm-up. With the Windshield Wiper, your hip is challenged once in its full range of motion. This exercise “lubricates” the hip joint.
It is also an exercise that reduces injuries and problems in the hip and lumbar spine in the long term.
recommendation: 16 repetitions in a row for an optimally supple hip
By now, you know how the professionals will train in the next few weeks and, above all, why they are doing it.
Stress management and regeneration are two keywords that must be filled with life if success is the goal. It doesn't matter whether it's the European Championships or the district league — the relative load is the decisive factor, not the absolute one.
In order to get amateur soccer players fit and to ensure optimal load management even during the season, players and coaches can use digital solutions such as the B42 training app.
This includes not only the five exercises mentioned above, but also week-long programs that adapt depending on the season focus and performance class.
Rehabilitation and prevention programs are also included.
The B42 app is virtually a multifunctional team of coaches for amateur soccer.
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