Playing soccer is easy. All you have to do is run and kick the ball into a net. If you are a serious player, you should be laughing at this comment, since women’s soccer has evolved into a very complex and physically demanding sport. Not only must you be able to kick and pass the ball well, but you must be able to get into position to execute the most favorable shot and keep up with or away from your opponent. For this you must be fast and quick and be able to change directions while in motion to get away from your opponent on offense and to keep up with your opponent on defense.
The trend in modern soccer is toward improved and greater players abilities and functions. This in turn leads to execution of a greater number of sprints or dashes at high intensity, i.e., maximum speed. It is not uncommon to find that the total dash or sprint distance run at top speeds exceeds 2,000 yards. And the number of such dashes is well over one hundred. On some teams, because of the constant use of supercharged speed tactics, the number of fast changes in play require an even greater number of quick dashes and changes in direction.
The energy for this speed and quickness work comes from the anaerobic pathways, i.e., the work is executed without the benefit of oxygen for production of energy. In other words, your breathing, in which you get oxygen for energy, is not capable of supplying the energy needed for these quick all-out, high-intensity dashes. In addition, even a 3-second all-out run leads to significant depletion of your energy stores, especially ATP and creatine phosphate. Because of this, soccer requires a greater ability to develop short lasting, maximum efforts more than the ability to maintain effort over a long period of time. The higher your level of play, the greater is the need for executing short lasting, maximum effort.
Goal-keepers are usually superior in both their anaerobic power and energy expenditure. This position involves explosive efforts in kicks, throws, etc., and as a result, they must spend considerable time training for speed-strength (power). In other words, their game functions require a combination of strength and speed and the ability to demonstrate explosive movements generated very quickly. Backs and forwards have nearly identical anaerobic capabilities whereas, halfbacks lag somewhat behind, since they require a higher endurance level than other positions mainly because they are in almost constant motion during the game. Because of this, the energy capabilities of halfbacks are skewed more toward aerobic capacity rather than anaerobic as required in most of the other positions.
To play well requires not only good playing strategy and the ability to execute various plays and shots but you must have the physical ability to run fast and to make quick cuts in order to carry out your functions. To improve their abilities, most players spend more time playing, buy different equipment and seek out a better coach or team. These methods work in some instances but they will never allow you to achieve your full potential. If you are a gifted player and have the ability to run, cut quickly and execute the skills and strategies required, you can probably become a good player fairly quickly. But you should understand that only about one out of every one hundred thousand players is truly gifted.
For most of you who cannot exhibit these skills “naturally”, there are very effective ways available to perfect your soccer play so that you can be on a par with, if not better than, the more gifted player. Regardless of the recommendations given to you by a coach, you must have the physical ability to run well, cut as quickly as possible and to kick and pass accurately. In addition to the skills, you need adequate strength and flexibility to execute well, the actions involved in the different skills. If you do not, you are doomed to failure regardless of how much money you spend, clinics you attend and practice you put in. Your playing ability can only be as good as your physical abilities allow.
Most important to understand is that you can improve your skills especially your ability to run faster and make quicker cuts (changes in direction while running). You do this by perfecting your running and cutting technique and developing your physical abilities as they relate to execution of these skills. When you develop your physical abilities in the same basic movement patterns seen in execution of these skills, you can attain your true genetic potential. Each of you can do this and in a relatively short period of time.
Doing specialized exercises to improve your speed, strength, flexibility, speed of movement, reaction time and technique will improve your playing ability beyond your wildest expectations. This book will show you how to do this through The Yessis System of Improving Performance. It is a system that has been developed after working with thousands of athletes who significantly improved their speed and quickness by making changes in their technique and improving their physical abilities specific to the skills involved. By doing exercises specific to running and cutting, you will also be improving your jumping and kicking ability since many of the muscle and joint actions involved are the same. As a result, you will achieve multiple goals with minimal work.
By improving technique and increasing strength, flexibility and explosiveness specific to running and cutting, you will find it easier to execute game strategy with less effort and more confidence. You will find that you have greater control and feel for skill execution especially in regard to speed and quickness. When specialized physical training to increase strength and flexibility is coupled with speed and explosive training, the results are even more impressive.
It is generally understood among soccer players that weight (strength) training can lead to greater speed, power and overall game play. In some quarters, however, the need for strength training has not been universally accepted. In fact, many players and coaches still believe that weight training will make them slower, decrease their flexibility, and lead to injury. Others believe that only boys should weight train and that weight training for girls is dangerous. These are myths that have persisted in soccer (and other sports) for many years and should be dispelled. Weight training, when done correctly, is a female soccer player’s ally.
Depending upon the type of weight training program that you undertake, you can: 1) improve kicking power, 2) increase running speed and quickness, 3) increase muscular and aerobic endurance, 4) lessen the chances of injury, and 5) increase jump height. By tailoring the weight training program to fit your needs, you can develop any specific type of strength that is needed. This includes strength-endurance, absolute strength, speed-strength, eccentric strength, explosive strength, and starting strength. You should not think of strength training simply as a means of getting bigger or stronger. Think of it as a means of improving specific aspects of your game.
Reading this book may be the first step on your pathway to getting the fullest possible enjoyment and satisfaction from playing soccer. By carrying out the recommendations given in this book you will be amazed at how much progress you can make in a relatively short time. This applies not only to making changes in your running and cutting technique but also in regard to specific physical problems that you may have.
For example, many players are plagued by hamstring or lower back problems. But these are some the easiest to take care of! Although this may seem hard to believe, it has been proven time and time again not only with soccer players but with athletes in other sports as well. In this book you will see how this is done, so that you too can play pain-free.
Although soccer is a team sport it is also very individualized according to playing position and your mental and physical abilities. However, regardless of how you run and cut, there are specific actions that everyone must be able to do in order to play most successfully. How well you execute these actions depends on your physical abilities. More specifically, your physical abilities determine: (1) how much you rely on each joint action, (2) the range of motion of each action, and (3) the force involved in each joint action.
You can find many general descriptions of what occurs in running and cutting but not an analysis. For example, I heard a top running coach talk about improving running speed to soccer coaches. He spent a considerable amount of time talking about how the body should be held, how the arms and legs must be moved quickly, how the elbow should remain bent, how the landing should be soft and other general factors. After a long discourse on running posture, he went directly to talking about some of the girls that he had coached and their successes. At no time in his talk did he bring out what actions occurred in sprinting or how they could be improved. In essence, he talked about running but not the how-to of running.
An analysis, especially an applied biomechanical analysis, is quite different. It answers such questions as: is the running or cutting effective? If so, why is it effective? What is the role of each joint action? Which joint actions can be changed to make the technique more effective? How can the specific actions be made more powerful? Should the running or cutting technique be modified? If so, how? Most standard instruction does not address these points. Instead, you may read articles and books and look at videos related to the opinions of coaches and players which are often at odds with one another.
For example, in running, you have probably read or been told that the heel of the foot should make first contact on the ground. But from biomechanics we know that the heel hit can cause injury and slow you down because of the braking forces produced. The forces generated when the heel hits the ground, which momentarily stop your lower body movement, can be extremely high and are usually the culprit in many leg and foot injuries. Equally important is that the heel hit does not utilize the economical and speed functions of the foot and leg tendons and muscles. Thus, by applying some of the laws of biomechanics, it is possible to come up with accurate descriptions of what takes place in running and cutting and the role each key joint action plays. This is one of the key features included in this book. (See the many cinematograms of different players in Chapters 3 and 4.)
Improving your physical abilities plays an important role in developing effective running technique and increasing running speed and quickness. The more you can improve your physical abilities to run faster and cut quicker, the more effective your playing will be. Keep in mind that regardless of your position or value on the team, you must still be able to carry out your assignments and to “come through” when the odds are against you.
I have biomechanically analyzed many of the best soccer players (and sprinters) in the world to determine the key joint actions that they execute in running and cutting and to evaluate their effectiveness. To be as objective as possible, the key joint actions in running and cutting and when they occur were identified through high speed videotaping and frame-by-frame analysis of the tapes. Illustrative photos were selected to identify the major actions and then special strength, flexibility and explosive exercises were created to duplicate these actions.
The special exercises duplicate each distinct movement so that strength and flexibility are developed in the same movement pattern and range of motion as in running and cutting. In this way, the strength and flexibility that you gain from doing the exercises have an immediate and positive effect on your running and cutting.
For example, in running, once you develop an effective forward thigh drive you will find that your stride length increases and you will be in a better position for a more forceful leg pullback action to give you an even more powerful push-off. The forward knee drive is one of the key speed-producing actions in running, especially in sprinting and when stepping or reaching out with the leg.
The muscles involved in driving the thigh forward are the hip flexors, located in front of the hip. A hip exercise involving these muscles in the same action and range of motion strengthens them in the same way they are used in the run or stepping out. As a result, you learn the feel of the movement as the muscles grow stronger, which in turn enables you to better learn or develop a more effective thigh drive. The increased levels of strength, flexibility and speed of movement give you more control of the thigh movement and at the same time increase your power and speed.
The Yessis System used for improving your abilities consists of three overlapping steps that you must go through. First and foremost is improvement of technique (Step 1). In order to enhance the learning and perfecting of technique, a biomechanical analysis of the running or cutting skill is done first. Corrections are then given for technique deficiencies and, at the same time, specialized strength and flexibility exercises are introduced in order to learn the new movements and make the changes possible. These exercises duplicate what you must do to learn the correct muscle feel and improve the actions that are involved.
As technique is perfected, additional strength and flexibility exercises are introduced to enhance your physical abilities. As you increase your levels of strength and flexibility, not only does your technique become more effective and efficient but your running and cutting speed improves. This is Step 2.
In Step 3, your technique and physical abilities are coupled tightly together and then perfected. Some aspects of speed training are also introduced. At this time you are capable of displaying more effective and efficient technique, which is the basis for further improvement in your functional physical abilities. With an increase in your physical abilities specific to your technique, running speed and speed of executing cutting actions automatically increase. The increases are even more significant when some speed work is added to the workouts. As a result you make the fastest progress possible in relation to developing effective, efficient, and fast running and cutting actions (quickness).
By closely examining each key joint action of the running stride and cutting movement, you will gain a better understanding of each action and how specialized exercises can improve them. This knowledge and its application by you speeds up your improvement greatly. Unfortunately, it takes an injury before most players begin to see the true value of doing exercises specific to running and cutting.
Suzy is a classic example. She was involved in a 3-way collision in mid-field which wrenched her lower back severely and had her arm dislocated at the shoulder when she fell. When she was able to run again, her back hurt so much that she was unable to sprint. I helped her out with exercises specific to the shoulder after her physical therapy ended, and gave her some special exercises to strengthen the lower back. I recommended that she also do some Active Cord (rubber tubing) exercises specific to her running to become even quicker, but she was not interested. As a result, she only did the exercises for the shoulder and lower back.
As she began to see positive results, she slowly began to incorporate running and cutting exercises into her routine. It wasn’t long before she began to see dramatic results. Not only was she soon able to run for longer periods of time without getting tired, but she felt much stronger when executing quick sprints to the ball or cuts to get free. According to her, the running and cutting were becoming effortless. She is now a strong believer that only through specialized physical training can a soccer player realize her true potential.
Running and cutting actions and specialized strength and flexibility exercises to develop the muscles as they are used in running and cutting are illustrated and explained in this book. By studying the technique and exercises you will have a better understanding of how this information relates to your personal running and cutting actions. If your running and cutting technique deviates greatly from the most effective technique, then you should modify it for improvement. By doing the strength and flexibility exercises several times a week, you will gain the necessary physical ability and speed of movement required to not only execute the proper mechanics of running and cutting, but to run faster and cut quicker than ever before.
The improvement resulting from these exercises can be quite dramatic. For example, I recently worked with a high school soccer player who also ran on the cross country team. She had good running times but was not exceptional. I analyzed her technique and prescribed specific changes in technique along with a strength training program to develop the muscles needed to improve her technique and enhance her running and cutting actions.
She worked religiously on the exercises, and after about four months, began fine-tuning her technique and getting into some speed and explosive training in preparation for competition. During her meets, especially at the cross-country league championships, she was able to place in the top five. What was amazing to her was that she was capable of improving her performance without doing additional running training. In fact, she actually did less running training than she did the previous year. Her soccer playing was also significantly improved and she experienced an important side benefit; it improved her physical appearance.
The same can happen to you. By doing the strength and flexibility exercises that duplicate what occurs in running and cutting, you will be able to develop the strength, flexibility, and explosiveness that you need to improve your game play greatly, much more so than if you only play more.
Although this book contains a great deal of information, I have made a serious attempt to present it in a very simple and straightforward manner. It is well illustrated not only with actual sequence pictures of players running and cutting, but also with exercises that are specific to the main actions involved in each of these skills. Thus you should not think of this book as not merely a book on conditioning for soccer; rather, you should approach it as something that will give you a much better understanding of running and cutting and how you can improve your speed and quickness in the shortest amount of time.
You are waiting for the season to begin. Do you wish to attack improvement of your playing skills and performance and do better than ever, or would you rather continue to play the same old way and achieve the same old results? Your success or failure is up to you! If you follow the guidelines presented in this book, I can guarantee you will see outstanding results.