Today the Academy team had a light day of training, because it is a day sandwiched between 2 matches (yesterday and tomorrow). We got a chance to walk around the "ciudad viejo" which stands for "old city." When it rains, it seems as though everyone in Uruguay stays inside their homes, but on a day like [...]
Today we had a meeting with staff from the first team, to begin planning the pre-season which will start in exactly 20 days. It was a very productive meeting, and for me personally it was great to finally see first-hand how a professional coach and a professional organisation functions. I am very excited for the [...]
Written by Soccer Fitness Strength and Conditioning Coach Jacob Ceccanese, edited by Richard Bucciarelli. The deadlift is an essential compound exercise within a strength and conditioning program. In general, the deadlift offers many positive contributions to an athlete’s training and functional abilities. Because it is a closed chain exercise, the deadlift is often used for [...]
Written by Soccer Fitness Internship Student Dante Blair, edited by Richard Bucciarelli. Hamstring injuries are very common in the world of sports, and especially in the sport of soccer. Injuries to the hamstring muscles can have a drastic effect on an athlete’s career and quality of life. Audits were done on English Professional teams over [...]
Written by Soccer Fitness Internship Student Celia Palombella. Edited by Richard Bucciarelli Every athlete knows the importance of training specifically to the type of sport they play. The question is, which forms of training are optimal towards each sport, and why? Soccer is a sport that relies heavily on a combination of various energy systems, [...]
Written by Soccer Fitness Staff member Alexandra Giannone, edited by Richard Bucciarelli. The drop-jump test is a vertical plyometric exercise that is used to evaluate an individuals explosive power (Ebben & Petushek, 2010) as well as a measurement of their eccentric leg strength and agility. To perform a drop-jump one must stand on box, with [...]
There is girl in the United States that can strike out any Major League Baseball player. Easily. This is not a joke. In The Sports Gene, a 2013 book written by David Epstein which should be required reading for any sports scientist or fitness coach working with athletes, the author discusses sport-specific anticipatory and reaction [...]
It’s the middle of April, and if you’re a youth soccer coach here in Canada that means you've probably started your pre-season in preparation for the outdoor competitive season, which typically starts sometime in May. One of the most important areas of physical fitness that must be trained during the pre-season is speed. If you [...]
Hi everyone, Welcome to the next edition of the Soccer Fitness Gols Video Blog. In this Blog, we will be providing weekly video content relating to all things soccer and fitness. In this edition, we discuss the problems with traditional March Break soccer camps, and provide some suggested alternatives for players, parents, and coaches. I [...]
As human beings, we suffer from an unfortunate tendency to ignore factual evidence in favour of our own beliefs and opinions. Sometimes, the rational areas of our brains allow us to “over-ride” this tendency and accept objective evidence as truth. Other times, as seems to be the case for some youth soccer coaches with regards [...]