The Science of Training - Soccer (book review)

The Science of Training - Soccer: A Scientific Approach to Developing Strength, Speed and Endurance

There are a few books out there that have similar titles (Bangsbo's and Verheijen's come to mind), but I feel that this is the best of them. This book doesn't attempt to cover too much, and therefore the information is not spread too thin, and the late Thomas Reilly has presented the information in a very logical manner.

The approach that the author has taken here is to present the science that should help the sport scientist or coach design their own sport science program / protocols. This goes far beyond a list of drills or exercises to use, but includes areas of performance that are often overlooked such as recovery, travel, and the environment. These aspects are generally not seen as "cool" like fancy drills may be, but are important considerations.

A criticism of this text is that many of the references are very dated (from the 70s), and that information on the role of new technologies is brief. The other big criticism is that the strength training section is very poor, but this (sadly) is not uncommon in soccer-related texts.

NSCA... Why?

I was actually going to refrain from writing this post, but recent events mean that I cannot resist. This may well prevent me from having any official input in the NSCA Soccer & Rugby SIG (we actually had a good meeting at the National Conference), but I feel I have to vent on this one.

Me right now (some Hollywood glamorization added)

NSCA National Conference

Why did you schedule all of the sport science related presentations during the same time slots, forcing us to take in presentations at other times that were little more than infomercials?

Why could I not hear the excellent presentation by Dr. Greg Haff because of the medicine ball convention next door?

Why did your president make inappropriate jokes about the Japanese natural disaster (and subsequent radiation leaks) at the awards banquet? Referring to the Japanese people in attendance: "It must be fine and safe to visit Japan because they are not glowing" Dr. Jay Hoffman. Thanks for this.

US WNT fitness & strength training

Disclaimer: This is me just being an "outsider looking in" - just thoughts no concrete conclusions...

It was fantastic to see the sport science / fitness of the US women's national team getting good press during the world cup. It really did seem (from observation) that this was well deserved. Although the final result did not go their way, the team was able to press for the majority of the match with Japan which is very impressive. Credit where credit is due.

Science in the sport really has moved forward in leaps and bounds of late, especially in terms of on-field work and monitoring. The picture below, however, shows where sport scientists are "weak" in soccer. Weak being the operative word.

I am really not sure what is being trained here. Like athletes from other sports, soccer players need to be able to put more force through the ground (and opponents). This exercise will not achieve this goal. Possibly smoke and mirrors aimed at confusing the opposition? I hope so.

Thoughts?

Preseason: Low volume & always avoiding fatigue?

There has been a lot of criticism of double sessions (two a days) and high volume preseason training in of late. Now while I tend to agree that many coaches prescribe too many double sessions, and too much volume too early in the preseason, I feel that we may have lost our way here somewhat.

Preseason training is about preparation for the season ahead. There are many elements in the equation that you must consider when designing preseason (in conjunction with your YEARLY plan). It would be beyond the scope of this article to go over them all, but the three that are most relevant here are:

1. The activity / inactivity of the players in the offseason. How much work, the type of training performed, and the length of this period are all things to take into account.

2. How long is your preseason period? In the college game here we strictly only have 2 weeks (which is ridiculous and is not by choice but is essentially enforced upon us by the NCAA). Luckily,we are able to plan the start of the season in a way that this period can be extended somewhat. In my time in the football league, we typically had longer; between 5 - 7 weeks before our first competitive match. This obviously impacts how you approach preparation for the season.

3. What are the demands of the in-season? Where are the "nightmare" weeks that jump out of the page when you look at the fixture list? The 4 games in 9 days / Christmas in England kind of periods. What is the estimated training load that the players will have to deal with during this time? How about travel and other outside stressors? This is another reason to have a monitoring system in place - we can look back at previous seasons and see how players responded to these demands and can estimate (pretty accurately), how it will be in the future.