Training Middle School Girls for Soccer

[cafrey]

I'm a new teacher that just started as an asst. coach of middle school girls soccer. Half of the girls have not even played soccer before and I was wondering what would be a good condition program. The current one my coach has them on I think will led to over training, although I could be wrong which is why I'm asking for advice.

Right now, this is their program: Spirits for 20 min, jog for 10 min, other running drills for 20 min, soccer drills for 40 min, then scrimmage for 25.

If you had your own team, what would you recommend?

Thanks
Chris

[deldrar]

is this a really competitive school or something? in my area middle school sports programs are just for fun.

and yeah, that will lead to overtraining. as for a program, ill leave that to others.

[Fighterpilota10]

at least for the first week push them harder than usual to weed out the quitters. Then maybe do sprints for 10 min and jog for 20. 20 min of sprints would kill most people let alone middle schoolers.
Just my two cents

[cafrey]

Its about average in terms of competitiveness. The other schools we play train year round, our school does not. We're trying to take it to the next level.

[runjumpthrow]

Middle school girls...run away! Quickly! Don't look back!

[cafrey]

anybody else have some ideas?

[aqueous]

I've started coaching this year (rugby though I know) but Variety is the key.
It also depends how many times a week you'll train.

You are training for almost 2 hours there at the moment - in that time intensity and concentration will fall off rapidly. Ideally you only want to be training for 1hr 15 to 1hr 30 max!

If training twice a week i'd split the sessions into a speed session (15 minutes SAQ / 15 Minutes short sprints 50 metres or so) and a speed endurance session.

Hence your session would run 30 Minutes Speed or Speed Endurance, 30 Minutes Drills, 20 minutes scrimmage!

Just an idea though!

[Environ]

I'd advise you to start slowly and build up. If you kill them at the start (even after you've rooted out the bad apples) they'll lose motivation. Start off easy, but build the intensity reasonably rapidly. You don't want to take too long getting them in shape. Spend one or two weeks of training sessions just getting them familiar with the exercises that you are going to make them do. In the third week, start to increase the intensity. Intensity means working harder, though, not longer. A game is 90 minutes, or two 45 minute halves. So, that is how long they have to last. So, keep training sessions about 120 minutes, but with rest periods as necessary.

The exercises you are doing are fine to start them off and build some general cardiovascular fitness. However, you have to concentrate on a lot of other fitness elements too, such as agility, kinesthetic awareness, speed and SOCCER SKILLS. No matter how fit they are, if their soccer skills are crap, then they will not be good players (I'm not sure if skills is your responsibility though).

You also have to look at injury prevention. So, get them in the gym doing resistance training to build up the whole body, whilst placing particular emphasis on areas of risk.

Women in particular have major problems with their knees. Their angle of Q is much broader than mens' so they are at a much greater risk of knee injury. PREVENT IT by selecting appropriate exercises (in this case, unilateral exercises are crucial).

Core work is vital. You already know that.

Soccer players traditionally have poorer flexibility than other athletes. Surprisingly, however, some research demonstrates that this is actually beneficial for their game. However, I would encourage a base level of flexibility too.

I hope that this helps. pm me if you need more information.

[Dickson]

Do a long distance job with them, cross country for about 30-45 minutes(this will get their legs more intune with running for long periods of time like in soccer. Go into some sprints, I'd say like 10-15 minutes of different variations, racing and stuff to make it more fun. Then you have 30minutes to scrimmage.

Next practice do the 30minute jog, then go into techniqual work. ie passing, crossing, touch work for 30minutes and then go into scrimmage but make sure to stop them when something has gone wrong with shape and formation or whatever

[olinerules87]

If you are asking this to suggest a new routine for the girls be careful. The head coach may not take kindly to you doing this.
Has the head coach done this same routine for a few years? If so, he/she will know whether this program leads to overtraining (and if it lead to overtraining in the past I suspect the coach wouldn't continue the prgram)

[cafrey]

The head coach is pretty responsive to suggestions and is not an expert on the fitness end. She played in high school and a little in college but I know more about working out then she does.

I will try a few of the suggest that were given there are some good ones, thanks a bunch!

[DmStags45]

day one: 4 FULL gasers over 50yds back 50yds over 50yds back 50yds
day two: 6 half gassers
day 3: soccer drills at fastest pace possible in a row