Soccer FIT Academy Has Moved!

Our new site is now up at www.soccerfitacademy.com

If you have not already done so, you must re-subscribe to the site to continue to recieve information via email from the Soccer FIT Academy. You can subscribe by clicking here…

Thanks for all your great feedback over the past few months! I hope you enjoy the new site.

Scott

SPARQ Testing with Soccer Players (in the cold)…

Many of the soccer clubs around the country have jumped on the Nike SPARQ (Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, Quickness) Testing over the last few years. So in order to compare our players with other players around the country, we have adopted this testing format for some of our elite teams. Even though Nike allows you to time via a stop watch, laser time or a combination of the two, we have elected to use one of the best systems I have ever come across, Fusion Sports, Smartspeed system, to do the testing. This system allows us to run 2-4 lanes at a time, creating a very competitive testing environment (videos below show 2 lane testing). In Baltimore 2 weeks ago, we tested 180 athletes in 5 tests in less than 2 hours using 4 lanes.

Not only does this system increase the quantity of tests that you can run in a short time, it also increases the quality. For instance, in the past have seen athletes lean in to the beam to early, or throw their hands through the beam in the start which starts the clock before they actually begin the test. The Smartspeed system will take the longest break in the beam as the athlete crosses (in this case it will only capture their torso) making for much more consistent times. The system also saves all tests to a database on a hand held PDA so that we can sync the scores into our system without hours of data entry.

The SPARQ tests that we run for soccer players include:

• 20meter dash
• arrowhead agility run
• vertical jump
• yo-yo intermittent recovery run

Here are some video clips from our session last Tuesday. By the way, it was cold (around 40 degrees) and the wind made it feel like 20 degrees. Not ideal for testing, but what are you going to do, it’s Kansas in late November!

Click on the image to view video…

20 Meter Dash

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Arrowhead Agility Run

Yo-Yo Intermittent Interval Run

Homework: Fitness Week 4

Our Fitness Progression for the Off-Season is as follows:

1. Aerobic Capacity / Body Weight Strength Endurance
2. Short to Intermediate Strong Run Intervals / HR Recovery
3. Long Sprints / Based for Speed / HR Recovery
4. Soccer Specific Intervals / Gaining Distance with Intermittent Sprints
5. Yo-Yo and RAST based Anaerobic Fatigue Testing

We are currently finishing up the first phase 1) Aerobic Capacity and your homework this week will be as follows…

Day 1…

3 minutes on 1 minute off  – 8 times for a total of 24 minutes of work

Goal: to cover as much distance as possible in each of the runs…then let your HR recover as much as possible in the 1 minute rest interval. We have cut the rest interval in half this week from 2 minutes to 1 minute and we have cut the distance in half as well. You should cover more total distance this week than you did last week in the same amount of total time (24 minutes) as your pace should be faster. If you are having trouble with this workout please go back and revisit the workouts from last week (6 minutes on 2 minutes off 4 times) or Week 1′s workouts (8 minutes on 2 minutes off 3 times) on Days 2 and 3 of your homework.

Day 2…

Arc Trainer Strong Runs of 3 minutes on 1 minute off starting at 35 resistance and an incline of 5 or 6. Your strides per minute should stay above 140 and you should increase resistance each set (example: 35, 45, 55, 60)…

Goal: To strengthen your stride by increasing the load and keeping the Strides Per Minute (SPM) above 140. This pace is fairly vigorous, and if you are having trouble go back and revisit the workouts from last week, where we were at 6 minutes on 2 minutes off or from week 1 where we were at 8 minutes on and 2 minutes off.

We feel that the Arc Trainers ability to enhance both strength, speed and HR recovery is essential to the total development of the soccer player. Here is some more info on the Cybex Arc Trainer…

Functional Outcomes Study 2008

Muscular Endurance Study 2008