Pachuca Speed Training

[strengthcoach]

I just started working with a team, Pachuca, that's headed up by Caoch Pete Mehlert, former coach of the only American University team to reach the NCAA finals for men's soccer. Pachuca is getting ready for it's outdoor season and Pete approached me about getting the team ready for competition which starts in March.

 

Typically in soccer a match would consist of 1,000 to 1,200 bouts of action which would consist of starts, stops, jumps for head balls, and changes of direction. Most sprints are for a distance of around 50 yards with typical rest of 90 seconds.

 

Soccer is comprised of continuous action that varies widely in intensity. Therefore, your training program must mimic the game situations of a typical match. How does one determine this? You have to go to game tape and break it down by movements, i.e. walking, jogging, sprinting, sprinting with the ball, jumping for a head ball etc. Fortunately, in many cases this has already been done and is documented in research.

 

To have a sound program you must base it on facts. Soccer athletes don't have to move big bodies like in football therefore heavy resistance training is not needed, but body weight exercises that force one to produce forces in extreme positions in order to utilize mostability, the ability to do just the right movement at just the right time.

 

A typical session for Pachuca starts with a dynamic warm-up and progresses on to speed development, agility training, medicine ball work, plyometrics, and finally strength training. The team meets for this type of session once per week and also has sports specific practice up to three times per week.