Post Season Soccer Training

Objective

• You should have two objectives during postseason training. The first is to physically and mentally recuperate from the more arduous levels of practice and play during the season, and the second is to maintain a certain level of the strength and conditioning you've built up through the season.

Intensity levels during postseason

• Don't keep up the same workout routine during the postseason, no matter how physically fit you may feel. If you are conditioning at top speed during the postseason, you may find yourself burning out halfway through the next soccer season.
  Maintaining a workout level of 50 to 60 percent of your peak fitness level will allow your body time to recover from the season while making it easier for you to return to your peak fitness level.
  Postseason training can be done solo, in small groups or as a team.

Conditioning

• Focus on aerobic exercises. Don't spend too much time running, especially on hard surfaces; instead, try sports that require different skills and muscle groups, like tennis, cycling and swimming, or exercises like rowing machines and cross trainers. These will get your heart rate up without putting as much stress on the same muscles you've used all season.
  Have two to three sessions of aerobic exercise per week; each should last 20 to 40 minutes. Aim for your heart rate to be 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Your maximum is calculated by subtracting your age from 220.
  Set conditioning goals for yourself; if you are running, time yourself for a certain distance and try to slowly decrease that time throughout your training. You also should work wind sprints or the 40-yard dash into training to help with your speed.

Strength

• You can opt to skip strength training entirely for several weeks, but it you want to keep lifting weights, there are good muscle groups to focus on. Strengthening your core and other stabilizing muscles (like hamstring and hip extensors and the lower back), and doing functional strength movements (like using fitness balls and stability boards) help to maintain overall fitness without overextending any muscle groups.
  Do not lift your maximum weight. You also should not be lifting to the point of muscle fatigue. Spend 30 to 45 minutes two to three times a week lifting weights.

Skills

• Skill maintenance is easier with a team, or at least a partner. Work on passing and receiving the ball with both one touch and two touches; if you are practicing alone, you can bounce the ball off of a wall. Focus on short and long passes and maintaining control of the ball on your first touch.
  Practice shooting by dribbling or receiving the ball in and around the goal and aiming for specific targets in the goal: each corner high and low, the posts and so on.
  When you can get a team together, scrimmages are always good for both conditioning and skills.

Flexibility

• Plan to stretch for at least 10 minutes three days a week, ideally after each aerobic workout.

Mental preparation

• In addition to setting and working toward workout goals, visualize game situations and how you would react in them. Especially during skills training, imagine a goalkeeper in the box or a defender challenging you and perform as you would in that situation.