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Archive for the ‘Soccer’ Category

For soccer coaches who want their players to be the best, you should read this. Do you want them to enjoy every practice while learning the new and effective drills? If your answer to all of these questions is yes, then I want to share something that helped me achieve all of these. In 2007, I found a website that provides soccer coaching guides for free. This website has all the information and tips that I need to make my players learn and enjoy all soccer drills that I introduce.

This website that I am talking about is the Soccer Drills Tips founded by Andre Botelho in 2006. Andre Botelho is a famous soccer coach. He was much known online with all of his videos and guides. He wrote “The Youth Soccer Coaching Manifesto” and “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” which you can download from the website for free. All you need to do is fill in the boxes that ask for your first name and e-mail address. In an instant, you will receive an e-mail that has the link to where you can download the files. If you want more tips about the basics of soccer coaching and effective soccer formation and strategies, then you can avail of the $1 package. The package also contains questions from different soccer coaches around the world with Botelho’s comprehensive answers. You will also have 40 soccer video clips in the package. Our soccer drills became fun, exciting and dynamic since I applied Andre Botelho’s tips and strategies to our training sessions.

Since time immemorial mankind has played various ball games. Evidence of which can be seen in many ancient societies, ancient Greek society being an example. The beginnings of the modern game however began in Britain in the times leading up to the industrial revolution. Whole villages would band together against other villages in games, which would span several fields. These games were often violent and there wasn’t any particular restrictions on which body parts you could use.

Variances of such games continued for some time until the 19th century. More and more people were leaving their villages for the industry of towns. People were feeling pride and allegiances to their fast growing towns and soon people wanted to represent their own towns in competition with the other new fast growing towns around them. Soon games where-by you could only use your feet were being played in stadiums between the burgeoning settlements. At this stage in history there were no crossbars on the goals, only a piece of flimsy tape adjoining two poles. Other differences included, as you might suspect, no use of goalie gloves but also importantly no offside rule, the absence of such a ruling meaning strong attack bias with games frequently ending 10 a piece or greater.

More and more towns created their own football teams and by the beginning of the 20th century the structure of how football is contested today with leagues and cups were in place. Also around this time the game was beginning to be exported around the globe with teams beginning in countries like Germany and Italy around this time. International bouts were beginning, at this point England remaining supreme defeating the likes of the rest of the world on its own. With this international popularity it wasn’t long before the game was being contested on the world stage in the likes of the World Cup or European Championships.

Tactically the game was changing too, with the advent of the offside rule out went 5 strikers and in came more defensive approaches, teams such as Italy trailblazing such approaches to the game. England was losing its supremacy and by the 50′s Spanish and Italian club teams as well as South American international teams in particular had risen to an equal footing.

The game since has steadily grown in popularity around the globe, this popularity attracting wealth making former small town sports clubs into multinational plcs. With this greater professionalism has been introduced into the game with better use of nutrition and exercise as well as strict controls on player’s lifestyles. The use of emerging technologies and assistance from the likes of sports psychologists are all being used taking the game to new highs. The future of the sport definitely looks rosy.

The English football team have managed to reach the quarter finals of the Fifa World Cup, will this finally be the year that football comes back home for the first time since 1966? Despite not playing their best football, England are still in the tournament and must have a great chance of lifting the trophy.

Some might say that I am biased as I am from England myself and am an avid England supporter, however I really feel that 2006 could be the year for our boys out there in Germany. This may of course be all blown away on Saturday when the team face Portugal and big Phil Scolari. Scolari has been the manager of the last two teams who have knocked England out of the last two major tournaments and therefore will pose a big threat to my team. He was the manager of the Brazil team that beat England in the 2002 World Cup and he was and still is the manager of the Portugal team that beat England in the 2004 European Championship. I am hoping that it will be third time lucky for the English this year.

To say that England are yet to peak is a bit of an understatement as they have in truth been well below par. This could however be quite a good thing, how many times have Germany scraped through to the final stages of the tournament without thrilling the crowds?

With Wayne Rooney becoming stronger and fitter this has to be the best opportunity that England has had for quite some time. There are many leaders and potential captains in the English team. Players like John Terry, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard would all make worthy captains when David Beckham decides to give up this role. As well as potential captains, these players are also what I call winners and when push comes to shove hopefully will deliver the goods.

Argentina, Brazil and Germany could prove to be the biggest dangers to England. After a slow start Ronaldo seems to have found his scoring boots again and the Brazil team has some great players all over the park. I have to say that I am getting quite bored of them winning however, surely its the turn of England this time around.

Germany have played some great football on their home turf and seem to building up a head of steam. They could prove quite difficult to stop and always seem to do well in the World Cup.

Many people would argue that Argentina have probably played the best football so far and that they are worthy favourites. I would have to agree with this and just hope that they have peaked too soon.

It certainly would be a great summer in England if our team can bring football home to where it belongs this year. Good luck England.

A fitter player and, more importantly, a fitter team can play at a faster pace for a longer period of time. Fitness and player stamina is what sets apart professional and part-time teams, especially when they play in “all or nothing” matches such as the FA Cup where there is no middle ground for a draw. Stamina training in soccer is just a party of getting and remaining fit for the entire season. A player requires strength to keep the ball and win the match and this means the player must be able to sprint, accelerate and move quickly around the field for 90 minutes.

The warm-up is an essential part of injury prevention, vital when your star player is earning £70,000 a week and will pick this up whether he plays or is sitting out injured. To improve your fitness and agility, start off with five minutes of jogging on the spot followed by high knees, heel flicks, jumping jacks and then five minutes of stretching. You can also perform press ups, squat thrusts, ‘lateral raises’ by using dumbbells or resistance bands, crunches, dips and sit to stand using the dumbbells. Instead of running at a continuous pace, mix up the routine with running, jogging and sprinting in a random manner.

You can start by jogging for five minutes, then sprint for 20 yards, slow jog for 100 yards, cruise for 200 yards, backward running for 20 yards, turn and sprint for 30 yards, walk for 50 yards and then jog again for 300 yards more. When you finish your training session, stretch the hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back for between 20 to 30 seconds to allow your muscles to recuperate properly.

Soccer demands a high level of stamina, thus endurance training is an essential part of any professional soccer training programme. It serves as a great confidence booster when you can see your opponent fading during the later stages of a match and you have reserves to use and take advantage of. Endurance training is a must that requires a solid aerobic base so that you remain active in the playing field for a long period of time.

Stamina fitness training for soccer players include activities like jogging, hill running, cycling and shuttle runs. It requires certain exercise equipments like cross-trainer, stair climbers and treadmills. Sprint training includes shuttle runs, relay runs, and the pattern of sprint-walk-jog. For sprinting, a strong drive is required. The upper body should be relaxed. Strength training includes circuit training and weight training.

You can easily perform some of the activities for improving your overall stamina:

•    A full squat with bodyweight
•    Clean and press seven-tenths of their weight overhead
•    Curl six-tenths of their weights
•    Hop 25km distance in 10 hops on each leg (if you are feeling especially masochistic!)
•    40 press-ups in one minute
•    40 bent-knee abdominals in one minute
•    40 squat thrusts in one minute
•    Eight chins (male) and three chins (female).

Stamina is developed by completing rounds of continuous activity at moderate intensities, performed for longer than three minutes. The general-endurance component of run-play training has a middle distance event where you carry out a cool run of 2000-3000 metres at around 70 to 75 per cent of maximal heart rate.

Stamina training also includes a distance events where you have to to try a cool run of 3000-5000 metres at about 70 to 75 per cent of maximal heart rate.

Any soccer matches, from all over the world and live from the stadium, are indeed interesting for all soccer fans. However, not all of the soccer fans are lucky enough to watch the soccer match from the stadium. There are at least two reasons of why soccer fans or supporters cannot watch the match: they do not have either much money to buy the ticket and much time to go to the stadium due to their jobs.

If you are one of those unlucky supporters, you should consider following up the Live scores from television, radio, or internet.

Among the above three Live scores media, you are to consider the online live scores, for some reasons. First, the online live scores only require a computer, laptop, or cellular phone and internet connectivity.

Second, online live scores allow you to get informed, even if during your office rush hour, for you do not have to stand in front of the television or radio.

Moreover, not all Live scores sites are good enough; thus, you are to know the characteristics of good live scores site. The main characteristic of a good live score site is the reliable and exact scores it presents. Good live scores site also provides such complete result of soccer league from around the world.