Tottenham District Soccer Club
P.O. Box 172, Tottenham ON L0G 1W0 905-936-1190 Monday, September 6, 2010  
 
 
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12 Minute Fitness With Ball


Fitness and Touches on the Ball


Today's activity works on ball touches and fitness.

Recently I saw a training session where a coach called to his team near the end "ok it's time for conditioning, everyone jog 4 laps around the field". The players then started jogging (SLOWLY) and some made it 4 laps, others seemed to stop at 3 and others walked. The thing that was interesting about this team was they weren't a bad team and they had some good athletes on the team. It wasn't that they couldn't run 4 laps but the players obviously didn't want to and didn't see the importance of running 4 laps (and for the most part I don't either). There are some alternatives to this type of running that will help toward better fitness, take less time and work on ball skills.


Here is one 12-minute alternative to running for fitness.

Players get in groups of 2's with one ball per group. One-person works and the other rests. The person who is working starts with the ball between her legs and for a one-minute period passes back and forth from her left foot to her right foot and
back. The objective is for her to go as fast as possible. The resting player counts each time the right foot touches the ball. The reason for the resting players counting include the added motivation of having someone watching them which will usually encourage a player to work harder especially knowing that they are counting. Also, it keeps the resting players concentrating and prevents them from becoming a distraction. After the one-minute period the players switch roles (there is no time for this transition so it's one right after the other).

After each player has done this for a one-minute period, next do touches on top of the ball. The ball starts off slightly in front of the working player and she touches the top of the ball with her right foot and then switches to her left foot. She does this as many times as possible in a one-minute period and the resting player counts this as well and then they switch.

Next they go back to touches on the side of the ball but this time for a two-minute period and then they switch.

Next they go to the touches on the top of the ball for a two-minute period with the other player counting and then they switch.

If the players know ahead of time what they are doing and there is no break between sets this takes exactly 12 minutes and in this 12 minute period (6 of which each player is working at full speed), the players get a lot of touches on the ball and a lot of hard fitness (assuming it's done at full speed).

Give this a try and see how your players are after this short 12-minute period!


Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to Lawrence@finesocer.com or they can be posted on the FineSoccer Forum at
http://finesoccer.net


Created by: Phil Short -- Last updated:May 29, 2010
 

 

 
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