How to Get in Shape for High School Soccer
Soccer at any level is an extremely demanding and physical sport. It requires skill, dexterity, fast reactions and a high level of cardiovascular fitness. If you are planning on trying out for your school's team or are already preparing for your season, you'll want to do everything in your power to make sure you don't let your team down.
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Instructions
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Attaining Match Fitness
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It's been estimated that professional soccer players at the highest level of play in the big European leagues may run anywhere from 10 to 20 kilometers in a single match. Unless you're the goalkeeper, playing soccer at any level demands that you keep up.
With cardiovascular fitness, as the old saying goes, there ain't nothing to it but to do it. If you want to play competitively you'll need to get your running up. Two- to three-mile runs, at least three times a week, should get you up to speed.
Run at a moderate clip, but if you're going around a track try occasionally sprinting for a half or quarter lap. This will get your body used to the sort of gear changes you'll need to make on the pitch.
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Ference Puskas, former captain of the Hungarian national team, was quoted as saying, "Once you can control the ball, football (soccer) becomes a simple game." Work on your ball-control skills.
To do this all you need is a ball, some grass and some cones. Practice dribbling the ball back and forth with your feet. Practice running with the ball at your feet. Set up the cones in a line and practice dribbling the ball in and out of them. Start with them wider apart and as you gain more control over your turns, move them closer together. This will simulate the sort of turns you'll need to make to evade members of the opposing team.
Roll the ball onto your foot, kick it up in the air and see how many times you can touch it with your feet, knees and head before it hits the ground.
Great players control the ball so well it appears glued to their feet even in the midst of determined opposition. There are many variables in a soccer match. Don't let your ability to control the ball be one of them. Keep your ball skills honed by practicing on your own whenever you can.
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You want to make your body as fit as possible. Soccer is about running and controlling the ball. However, when you are standing in the penalty box ready to receive a corner kick, you want to be the person who can jump the highest in order to head the ball into the goal. Often times this must be done while you are simultaneously muscling players from the other team out of the way.
It's not desirable to become hugely buffed from a soccer point of view. Enlarged muscles means extra body mass, which means more weight to pull as you race to outrun your opponents to the ball. However, simple exercises like push-ups and sit-ups can give you the physical balance and upper-body strength you need to be competitive in a soccer match.
Two sets of 50 sit-ups as well as two sets of 20 push-ups, five days a week, should get you well on the way to match fitness.
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Tips & Warnings
Know your strengths and play to them.
If you have a nose for goals, try and get a spot as a forward. If defense is your strength, it may be better to play back.
Soccer is a team sport so whatever position you are assigned, play it to the fullest.
Watching soccer on TV, one occasionally hears the commentators refer to a talented professional player whose form has been bad of late due to a lack of match fitness. Don't be that person!
