How to build and maintain physical resilience

Movement quality

How do your players move? Elegantly or awkwardly? The latter is a problem.

The first thing I look at when it comes to movement quality is co-ordination. Can players sprint with contralateral, clean mechanics? How is their gait pattern? Are they favouring one side of their body and compensating on the other side?

Movement quality is important, especially for a soccer player who plays 90 minutes. We do not want someone who is overusing one side of their body and being unbalanced for that length of time.

Try some basic co-ordination drills that augment movement quality, shown in the video below.

 

Strength

As sport scientist Dr. Tim Gabbett says: “Athletes must load in order to handle load.”

To that end, balance drills will help players develop a basis of single-leg stability, but the law of diminishing returns will soon creep in.

Strengthening, then, becomes an important part of the injury-prevention recipe. So what are the best strength exercises for soccer players?

 I like to program the major muscle groups involved in all the actions of soccer, especially the most demanding actions. 

Utilizing movements like split squat variations, lunge variations, pull-ups, push-ups and single-leg deadlifts are excellent. 

The single-leg deadlift is my favorite movement for injury prevention because of its eccentric load component on the hamstrings, which helps players decelerate safely when changing direction or jumping.

 

Deceleration, acceleration and agility mechanics

Speaking of changing direction, proper deceleration and acceleration mechanics are very much a thing.

In terms of injury prevention, can a player lower their centre of gravity when pumping the brakes? Does a player even have the strength to pump the brakes? 

The video below shows a drill to try once players establish their strength.

To get more technical: can a player utilize the proper shin angle to change direction efficiently without blowing out a knee?

Agility mechanics are paramount for reducing chances of injury, as players may tear their knees or roll their ankles from a cutting movement.

I highly recommend checking out speed and agility coach Lee Taft when it comes to agility mechanics.

 

Sleep and stress

Beyond the physical side of injury prevention, we must not ignore the mental components.

Lack of sleep and high stress levels have a way of decreasing cognition and ruining decision-making in soccer players. 

Since the nervous system plays a role in the actions of the muscles, proper sleep and stress management must be incorporated into an injury-prevention program and reinforced by coaches.

If your players are under duress, have them try the diaphragmatic breathing drill, shown in the video below, pre-competition.


 

 

A written explanation can be found here.

Diaphragmatic breathing is very powerful for tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system, which plays a role in calming athletes down and allows them to think clearer.

 

Injuries will still occur – after all, each body is different, things will work differently for different people and you always have to take into account age and general health considerations. But focusing on the above can help reduce your players’ chance of injury.

Which of these components could you do more with your players? More importantly, will you execute these year-round?

After all, injury prevention must be a non-stop program to protect our athletes and maintain their physical resilience for the long-haul.