sport science - exercise programme for soccer
...ough the tackling rules are strict there is some significant body contact occurs with the potential for contact injuries. Time motion studies of the game have revealed that the average national and international player would cover around 10 kilometers in a game. A goalkeeper would cover a lot less – around four kilometers. DISCUSSION Some of the basic skills for a soccer player are kicking, trapping, running with and without the ball, and heading. The better the player is at these basic skills then the better their career or aspirations in the game will be. However, at the same time a player can develop these skills by working on them and at the same time developing ways in which they can improve. This can mean spending time training without a soccer ball. Instead a player can develop their body strength in the gym and their all round fitness by other means. Before all training sessions and games a player must carry out their warm-up and stretching exercises. In soccer this means taking particular care in ensuring that the leg muscles are sufficiently warmed-up before the game. In soccer the instep kick is the most powerful one. It is also a skill beginning players have the most difficulty with, mainly for four reasons – it requires a co-ordination of rapidly moving body parts; it requires accurate foot placement and body positioning; players believe that the previously learnt toe kicking as being more successful so because of that they are reluctant to use the instep kick; players are also anxious about the possibility of injury from kicking the ground instead of the ball. (Brown & Luhtanen) For the player the bigger the leg mass the higher the ball velocity. So for a player to be able to increase their leg mass there is a need to work on these muscles. This can be achieved by having the player use the isometric exercises. These are exercises that provide a means to execute strength exercises at a controlled velocity. Because of the ability to control the velocity these exercises are valuable for rehabilitating an athlete. (Kamen, 2001) The level of a player’s fitness is also important to the playing of the game, and for a player to be fit there is a need to work on their levels, especially their aerobic and anaerobic levels. For a player to achieve this they need to work on several different things. Anaerobic exercises are designed to improve the athlete’s muscular strength and power. A power kicking game is beneficial in soccer – especially if that player is the goalkeeper and can regularly put the ball into the opponents half with one kick. It is also important, when training a player, that the coach remembers that no two individuals are the same and that the same training methods can produce different outcomes with athletes. Heading is a skill that is unique to the game of soccer and because the ball is airborne for a large percentage of playing time, heading is the main method of playing the airborne ball. Velocity again has an important role in this play. Equally as important to an athlete is nutrition. To achieve optimal performance an athlete needs to have optimal nutrition. Athletes need to be careful in what they eat, with some and too much of other foods hindering their performance on the field. (Kamen, 2001) A soccer game challenges fuel and fluid stores with the belief being that there is up to a two kilogram fluid loss during a match. This can also double if the game is being played in humid conditions. Before the game and during warm-up the player should drink well. By doing this the chance of dehydration is lessened. During an injury break in a game players can have water drinks. However, in soccer this is not as apparent as it is in other physical sports as rugby or league when the trainer or water boy often comes on with a player’s water bottle. In some situations soccer players have become creative in finding ways in which they can have a drink during the game. A player that perhaps can do this with relative ease is the goalkeeper, who can put a water bottle behind the net and outside of the field of play. The food that a soccer player should look at...