Training for Winter Sports: Best Exercises for Soccer and Basketball Players

The weather is getting colder and the seasons are changing.  With these changes comes the beginning of new high school and college sports seasons with two of the biggest being soccer and basketball.

I have had the privilege of training both soccer and basketball athletes this past offseason and we have used many different training protocols to make sure they are strong, agile and more resistant against injuries going into their seasons.

Both soccer and basketball share similar movements in their sports; stop and go running, deceleration, cutting and acceleration and jumping components.  In this article I am going to share with you some of my favorite training exercises I use to get these athletes ready for their season.

Deadlift

There has been a timeless debate in the “strength and conditioning world” regarding which exercise is better to build strength, size and game speed; the squat or the deadlift.  Both exercises are great and should be used but if I had to pick one over the other for soccer and basketball players it would be the deadlift.

Like the squat, the deadlift is a highly effective movement to train the hips to extend.  Most sports are dependent on the athlete’s ability to extend their hips, whether it is to sprint, change direction or jump.  Being able to move and accelerate and object from the ground using one’s hips leads to great strength and power development essential in sports.

The one advantage that the deadlift has is the ability to train starting strength which is the ability to move the body quickly from a dead stop.  Many athletes, parents and coaches ask how they can improve their child’s “first step.”  This first step development comes from training to move deadweight quickly and effectively.

Forward Lunges

This is one of those exercises that I had used in the past, forgotten, came back to it while training at Cressey Performance.  When doing forward lunges again, I realized how weak I was at it and then realized the huge value it has.

I have had many of my athletes primarily performing reverse (step-back) lunges because I felt they were able to get into proper position easier and they could use the back foot explosively to train the first step.  This movement was great for that however I was neglecting one huge component necessary in both of these sports: deceleration.

Most deceleration during soccer and basketball comes when the athlete is moving forward and the front leg needs to slow the body down to change direction.

Forward lunges require the front leg to decelerate.  The forward lunge trains the hamstring muscle group to slow the body down through the eccentric contraction much like it needs to do when playing a sport like soccer and basketball.

During sports the body must decelerate loads greater than the body weight alone due to the acceleration of the body creating a greater force vector.  When doing this lunge variation with added resistance the body learns to deal with forces great than body weight alone much like what occurs when playing sports.

Kettlebell Swing

The kettlebell swing has several advantages when it comes to training for soccer and basketball; namely training the posterior chain (primarily hamstring and hip muscle groups) for power production, it can also be used as a conditioning tool.

Many strength and conditioning coaches utilize Olympic lifts (clean and snatch) to train the power element of sports; while these lifts may be great for power generation, they take much longer to learn the technique when compared to the kettlebell swing, and they are good for maximal power production whereas soccer and basketball are sports that utilizes repetitive bouts of sub-maximal force production.  Sports like soccer and basketball consist of a series of repeated sprints and stops; not an all or nothing explosive movement.

Kettlebell swings can be done within a strength program for repetitions if training posterior chain power production is desired or it can be done for time intervals if training for conditioning.

Core Stability

Core stability for soccer and basketball are crucial for the athletes to perform optimally.  Not only must the core be stable for the athlete to perform their dribbling and shooting skills effectively they also must have a strong core to be able to fend off all of the knocks and fouls that opponents will perform to steal the ball or disrupt a game winning shot.

Training the core for stability is quite simple and I recommend a variety of core stability exercises within a particular training program.  Plank variations, ball or wheel rollouts, strap fallouts, Pallof presses are all great exercises to train the core through stabilization.

Conditioning Circuits

This is one component that is not used frequently enough in strength training protocols.  It is one thing to make your athlete strong and perform well in the weight room, but if they cannot perform better at their sport then the job you’ve done is not complete.

In my article, Get with the Circuit, I touted the need for solid conditioning programs for athletes that needed both strength and endurance.  Adding a conditioning circuit into the program once a week will greatly enhance your soccer and basketball athlete’s strength transfer from the weight room to the field and court.  It is important that these athletes gain the strength endurance necessary to perform repeated measures of sprinting, stopping jumping, and cutting.  The athletes who are able to maintaining this strength endurance cycle will most likely be in better shape and perform the best at their respected sport.

Some of my favorite exercises to include into circuits are jump rope, kettlebell swings, pushups, body rows and the Prowler.  Time should be suited close to what would be done during a game situation.  I like circuits of 4-6 stations doing 20-30 sec. of work and resting for 10-20 sec.

Conclusion

Soccer and basketball players are just like any other athletes in respect to the fact that they need to be strong, stable and conditioned.  The details within a program should be tailored for each specific sport and specifically designed for the individual athlete for optimal success.

Tags: athlete training, athletes, athletics, basketball, training

Five Mistakes when Training Young Athletes

It seems more and more that younger athletes are not only starting to specialize in specific sports earlier but that they are also beginning to complement their sports with outside strength and conditioning.  While this is potentially positive for the athletes and the coaches that train them, with younger athletes there runs a great risk of not exposing them to a proper program and actually making them perform worse or even set them up for injury down the road.

In this article I want to expose some of the potential pitfalls that may occur when dealing with athletes who are pre or early teens and being exposed to strength and conditioning for the first time.  My goal is to not only give coaches some insight but to help parents understand what they should look for in a coach and what they should expect when they are looking for the right strength and conditioning coach.

Assuming Everything is A-Ok

You have an 8th Grader coming into the gym today and you know that he is brand new to training, never had an injury and is all excited to go.  Like a blank canvas; a coach might assume that everything is pristine and just waiting for any type of movement to create an athletic masterpiece; however not doing some form of initial assessment will be setting up your young athlete for failure down the road.

A basic medical history from the parents and a candid interview of the athlete is a good place to start.  After I get familiar with the young athlete’s background, I like to run through some mobility and body-weight drills. These drills are not only a good warm up; they also give me a chance to evaluate how the athlete moves.  In my experience, a young athlete and their parents will not have a reference point of how well they move relative to how they think they should move.

Can they do a body-weight squat without the knees shooting forward or the legs caving in?  Can they raise their leg straight up to 90 degrees while lying on their back? Can they extend their shoulders directly overhead?  Are there differences in movement patterns between the right and left sides of their bodies?  These are just a few of the things I look for before I design a program to help correct poor movements patterns, flexibility issues and increase strength and conditioning.

Ignoring Stretching and Rehabilitation Work

I always get a chuckle when I ask the young athletes whether or not they get sore after all of the physical activity they do.  Many say “no” and some say “a little.”  As I brood in jealously pining for my lost youth, I remind myself not to assume that because the new athletes don’t really get sore, have injuries or poor movement patterns that they do not need to do some preventative rehabilitation work.

Foam rolling, corrective exercises, and stretching are essential in every athlete’s program.  Not only do they make up a complete program they also prevent any unforeseen problems that may occur if these modalities are neglected.

These modalities also create proper training habits.  As athletes get older they tend to get tighter in the muscles, especially in male athletes.  By consistently incorporating these rehabilitative modalities, athletes are more likely to turn them into good habits as they progress through their athletic career.

Ignoring the Proper Movements

Young athletes look up to older athletes as their guideline for how they want to act, play and train.  Grinding bench press sessions, eye popping squat reps and walking around with chains strapped to your body look impressive and potentially serve a quality purpose; but they are most likely not right for the young athlete.

Stress the basics and by basics; we are talking mastering complete body control (mobility, stability and strength) through a full range of motion of primarily large, full-body movements.   Basic bodyweight movements like pushups, squats, lunges, planks and pull ups are great movements to focus on and mastering them can lay the foundation for success in other movements down the road.

Ever see the young boy that is 5ft.1 and has a size 12 shoe? Many young athletes are not only growing into their bodies they are still learning how to move themselves efficiently.  Mastering full body movements allows for great neuromuscular coordination which not only makes the athlete stronger they gain more balance while going through the movements.

Progressing too Quickly

To piggyback on the previous point, when an athlete is new to training the learning curve is much larger than a more seasoned athlete. Generally speaking when the newer athlete is exposed to a specific stimulus, after a brief period of learning and small failures, there is a steep increase in task performance success.  This rapid growth of success can be validated through exercise progression success, weight lifted and work volume done in a certain amount of time.

This quick success should lead to some caution as to not get over aggressive with the progression of the program.  If an athlete is doing well with the kettlebell goblet squat it still might not be a good idea to move right into barbell back or front squats.  Essentially they are the same movements, however barbell back squats puts the load in a different position causing more spinal compression and barbell front squats cause much less spinal compression but demand much more flexibility in the wrists (depending how the bar is held) and also a much larger demand in core strength and stability to keep the weight in its proper place.  Another component to consider is that neurological muscle adaptations occur much faster than ligament and tendon strengthening.  The young athlete may have enough strength to move a particular amount of weight, however the supporting structures might not be able to properly handle the external loads and therefore fatigue, a compromise in technique and potential injury could occur.

Smaller progressions are usually more beneficial for younger athletes.  Keeping the same movement with a safe increase in weight and a decrease in repetitions is an easy way to get your athlete to progress.  I also prefer slight changes in the exercise movement, for example, going from using one kettlebell in the goblet squat and holding it with two hands to using one kettlebell and holding it in the racked position on one side of the body.  The racked position requires more balance and core stability than the goblet squat, yet it is not such a dramatic shift between the two movements.

Expecting too Much

This one goes out primarily to the parents.  Parents put their kids into strength and conditioning programs to help them in some way.  Whether it is to gain strength, size, speed, or to increase athletic performance; the reason is there.  All of those qualities take time to build and take time to transfer towards athletic success.  It is important to see improvements due to the training that you are paying for; however, it is more important to focus on the smaller gains rather than the optimal end results.  Is your child getting stronger overall, are they moving better, gaining more flexibility, are they more confident when playing and during life in general?

Also, another point to consider is that training should be considered a long term accumulation of the positive qualities of movement and mentality working together to create a more complete athlete over time.  Much like investing in the stock market, slow steady gains assure greater success over the long term rather than peaking quickly only to reach the inevitable descent just as rapidly.  Is your child’s goal to enjoy their sports and work their way to a college scholarship, or is it to be the best soccer player in the 8^th grade?

To have fully well-rounded athletes that perform well in their sport, strength training alone may not be enough.  A well balanced program should incorporate some appropriate conditioning protocol to get the most out of training and athletic potential.

Tags: athletes, gyms, youth training

Five Kettlebell Movements for Athletes

Here is the video version of the five kettlebell exercises for athletes. Movements include; Squat to press, two swing variations, alternating press.

Tags: athletes, Kettlebells, Strength