Good Training Exercises for Football Players

Effective training exercises for football players should be geared towards making a player fit and available for games. Often the best teams and players  are the ones who spend the most time on the training field working on weaknesses and improving strength. Good training exercises for football players can help you keep one step ahead of the competition.

Warm ups

• Any training exercises for football players should begin with a dedicated warm up to get the blood flowing to all the important muscle groups and to stretch out the muscles you will be using when playing to prevent tears and other injuries. Begin by jogging on the spot then move into star jumps and spring ups to increase peak blood flow.
• Once you feel sufficiently warmed up you can start sprinting lengths. Incorporate circuit training, where you sprint around a circuit having to do exercises on call, like falling into press ups for example. Finally, practice simple throwing and catching to finish off the warm up period.

Sport specific exercises

• Good training exercises for football players should move on to sport specific exercises after the warm up is completed; for example, swapping the ball from one arm to the other when stationary or passing and catching practice.
• Exercises that target sport specific areas, such as agility, balance and strength should all be built into the routine. For improving agility, coaches can try the ladder technique where a rope ladder is placed on the ground and players have to step in and out of the rungs as fast as they can. Players should stay on the balls of their feet and can keep their knees high to recruit their short twitch muscle fibers.
• Next it's time for tackling practice. Round off the sport specific exercises by playing a practice game. Finally, finish with a warm down incorporating circuit training again followed by static stretches to ease out those sore and aching muscles.