Gary Fixter -The training in soccer. Structure and parts of the training session
Today we are going to talk about the parts that make up a soccer training. The training session should not be a compendium of different exercises or tasks, without any order and no relationship between them. It has to have a general objective to which all the exercises are oriented either in the warm-up, main part or return to calm.
The training is usually divided into three parts: warm-up, main part and return to calm or cooling.
Next, we will explain what each of these parts consists of, as well as the objectives and relationships established between them:
1) Session information. It is done before starting the training. It explains to the players what is going to be done in the session.
It helps the player to be focused on the training before even having started, knowing what they are going to want from him and what aspects of the game are going to be improved. It is not necessary to invest a lot of time in it, in 1 or 2 minutes the players already have all the necessary information to start the training.
As we have commented in another article, if it is the first training of the week, you can carry out the previously shared post-talk and then inform the players of what they are going to do in the session.
2) Heating. It is important to understand warm-up as another part of training that prepares both physically and mentally, and not only focus on “running around the field for 5 minutes and stretching another 5 minutes.”
A good warm-up should last between 15 and 30 minutes so, in addition to preparing the player physically for the subsequent training, it would be good to start introducing the player in the main objective of the session and that he will carry out more specifically in the main part of it. In this way, those 15–30 minutes of training are prevented from being “lost” in a purely physical objective.
It can be divided into three parts: general warming, specific heating and stretching.
3) Main part. It encompasses all those exercises or tasks aimed at achieving the main objective of the session, be it coordinative, technical and / or tactical. There must be a progression in the exercises so that it goes from the most nonspecific to the specific in football. Continuing with the previous example, if the objective is to improve the blow of the head, you can start with a more technical exercise to later increase the complexity in the tasks with rules and rules of the game of football. You can start with a work by groups of players to finally do a global job, with all the players and based on game situations that can occur in a football match in relation to the specific goal of improving the hitting head.
This part of the training should be the one that occupies the most time and depending on the time we have to train, it could last between 30 and 45 minutes.
4) Return to calm or cooling. The main objective of this part of the training is for the players to return to the initial resting state they had before starting the training itself. This can be done through an exercise with a mild or moderate intensity (be careful to introduce games in the return to calm) and stretching of greater duration than in the warm-up, looking for muscle relaxation. It is part of the session and depending on the exercises performed in it, it can last between 5 and 10 minutes.
Regardless of the football category in which you train, from minis to youth or a senior team, you have to respect the structure of the training by setting goals to work that are attainable by the team and make them improve day by day. While it is true that with children and due to their conditions, both the warm-up and the stretching part can be ignored.
Gary Fixter — It is good that they know both warm-up exercises and especially stretching exercises for their training and their future sports practice.
