Circuit Training for Football.
Personal Exercise Program
For Football
Planning
Circuit Training for Football.
Circuit training is a method of training. A circuit usually has 8 to 15 stations, where at each station a different exercise is carried out for a certain amount of time. Circuit training can improve: - muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, muscular strength, speed and agility.
A circuit-training program may also be designed for a certain sport. Circuits for this purpose will include exercises to improve all the muscles and skills associated with football. Example: A circuit training program for football should include skills like...
Jumping (for a header), dribbling with the ball, shooting, control and passing.
I am going to plan and perform a personal exercise program using circuit training as the bases of the skills and fitness required for football. Circuit training allows these two aspects of my chosen sport to be incorporated into one single session, it is also easy to set up and it can allow for improvement to be monitored, which is one of my aims. The overall aims of my personal exercise program are to:-
. Improve my muscular strength to help put power in my shots and also it will improve my dynamic and static strength, which will be useful when I go up for a header and also change my direction more quickly with an explosive push-off, increasing my reaction time.
2. To improve the standard that I am currently working at.
3. Develop skills and techniques, so they can be more useful in game situations.
4. Improve my general fitness.
In order for me to reach my targets I am going to do 2 sessions a week for 5 weeks, giving 10 sessions in total.
My current levels of fitness.
Aspect of fitness
Test
Result
Compared with national average
Flexibility
Sit and reach
25cm
Good
VO2 Max
Bleep test
Level 8.4
Average
Power
Vertical jump
52cm
Good
Grip
Dynamometer
58kg
Excellent
Leg power
Standing long jump
89 cms
Excellent
Strength and Muscular endurance
Sit ups
22
Average
I tested these specific fitness requirements because they are specific to football. After the 5 week period I will retake the tests to see if the results for the aspects of fitness have improved. This will then determine how successful my personal exercise program has been. Hopefully these aspects will have improved, defining the success of the circuit and my fitness and skills should have improved, allowing me to perform better in football.
Age and Gender
In designing my circuit there were many aspects to take into consideration but age and gender appeared to be the most likely complication. In general males are stronger and work at a higher plateau than females. Evidence of this is made apparent in the National averages of the tests above, despite this; my circuit can be adapted to accommodate people of all age and sex.
Males have a hormone called testosterone and this allows the bone and muscle growth to be much greater than females, they also have larger hearts and lungs which allows there lung capacity and heart rate to be greater than the females. Males can transport the oxygen about their body more efficiently because the red blood cells has an increased surface area which allows the capacity of the haemoglobin to be higher, this allows there muscles to work harder for longer.
Specificity.
My circuit-training program is for football and the 9 stations are specifically suited to what is needed to play football. The Circuit is specified for an outfield player as there are no goalkeeping skills involved in this circuit.
My circuit is aimed to improve the following: - muscular endurance, muscular strength, speed, agility, cardiovascular endurance, and ball skills. These are all needed for an outfield football player.
For example:
* Muscular Endurance - To keep the muscles contracting for the full length of the match without them becoming tired or weak.
* Muscular Strength - the force your muscles exert when they contract. This is an important part of football as it is a contact sport and it is also very physical, players need to be able to guard the ball and hold other players off when they are challenging for the ball. Also muscular strength is useful when taking a throw-in, good muscular strength in the abdominal muscles is required to throw the ball higher and further to reach a player that is a long distance away from the touch-line.
* Speed - the ability to perform ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
* Muscular Strength - the force your muscles exert when they contract. This is an important part of football as it is a contact sport and it is also very physical, players need to be able to guard the ball and hold other players off when they are challenging for the ball. Also muscular strength is useful when taking a throw-in, good muscular strength in the abdominal muscles is required to throw the ball higher and further to reach a player that is a long distance away from the touch-line.
* Speed - the ability to perform a movement in a short period of time. This is essential in football, for example: to be able to sprint after a through ball or tackle an opponent who is through on goal.
* Agility - the ability to change direction quickly and control movements of the whole body. This is needed to be able to change direction quickly while dribbling or to collect a loose ball.
* Cardiovascular Endurance - the ability of the heart, lungs and circulation to deliver oxygen and remove waste during exercise. This is essential for the player to keep a constant pace all the way through the match.
* Ball Skills - the skills in football are all open skills. This means that the movement will change in a different environment. A skill is a particular action or set of actions. These are essential for football as they cover everything from a simple pass to more complicated skill such as dribbling the ball in different directions. These are all motor skills as they are skills involving movement.
Overload.
To improve the fitness of a part of the body, you need to overload it. That means you need to make it work harder than usual. Over time, it adapts to meet the increased demand by getting fitter
You can overload your body in three ways:
* By increasing the Frequency of exercise - how often you do it. For example, start by exercising twice a week, and then move up to three or four times a week.
* By increasing the Intensity of the exercise - how hard you work. For example, run faster or lift heavier weights.
* By increasing the Time you spend on the exercise - If you are very unfit you might start off jogging just for 5 minutes a session, and work your way up week by week to 30 minutes a session.
So in order to improve, the 3 points must be increased to allow progression to be made. With this in mind I am going to do the circuit to the best of my ability and collect the relevant data so that results can be devised, allowing the circuit to be a personal program. I am going to use these results as targets throughout each session, as each session goes on I am going to overload the following sessions so that improvement can be made.
Progression.
Your body takes time to adapt to the increased demands on it. So you should build up your exercise level gradually. But once it reaches a certain level, when it can comfortably deal with the level of exercise, it will not improve anymore. To prevent this from happening the exercises must be made progressively harder to ensure that the body continues to improve.
Figure 1: Level of fitness versus Time
There are three important points about the graph above:
. The most progress is made in the earlier stages of the graph.
2. There is less progress as the level of fitness increases against time.
3. Plateau is a mark, which could be reached where progression is difficult to achieve.
Equipment.
* 20 Cones
* 3 Hoops
* 10 Soccer Balls
* 1 Measuring Tape
The Circuit.
The orders of which the exercises are to be done are:
Warm Up >> Stretches >> The Circuit >> Cool Down
The warm up is very important, as the exercises you will be doing are very demanding. The warm up will: increase the blood flow and heart rate, warm up the muscles and loosens joints. This will prevent any injuries to the muscles or joints.
Start by lightly jogging for approximately 10 minutes. DO NOT SPRINT! Then move on to some dynamic stretching. For example, rotating hips and arms. Then stretch all the major muscles used for football, each stretch should be held for a period of 8 - 10 seconds.
I am basing the circuit training on the sport FOOTBALL.
A warm up prepares the body for the activity it's about to undertake. There are three reasons on why a warm up should be completed.
. To reduce the stiffness so injury is less likely.
2. To warm up muscles to allow a greater range of movements.
3. For mental preparation which increases performance levels.
A warm up has to consist of a range of movement including mobility work, pulse raising work and stretching work. Professional sportsmen have a warm up of about 10-15 minutes.
Circuits can be organised on the basis of time or repetition and sometimes includes rest intervals or sometimes they could be non-stop.
The muscles that need to be stretched are:
* Hamstrings
* Quadriceps
* Gastrcnemius
* Triceps
* Deltoids
* Trapezium
A warm down should be done immediately after the given sport. This is a phase, which should be done because it helps the sportsmen recover from the given sport. There are three
Reasons why a warm down should be carried out:
. Your heart rate and respiration rate return gently back to normal.
2. Lactic acid and other waste products are removed from the muscles.
3. It helps to prevent muscle soreness and also helps recovery of the muscles.
Station One.
Here you start at station 1 and run as quickly as possible to station 2 and then on to station 3 and continue to do this as many times as possible in a minute. This will improve your speed, agility and muscular endurance of the quadriceps and hamstrings.
Station Two.
This station is a sit up exercise. Perform as many as you can in one minute. These will improve muscular endurance in the abdominal muscles; this comes in handy when a throw-in needs to be thrown over a long distance. This is explosive strength because it is done in one explosive movement. The sit ups will allow the muscles, shown above get stronger in the abdominal cross section.
Station Three
5m
Football
This exercise concentrates on a player's chipping ability and accuracy, the hoops should be placed 5m apart. Place a ball behind the line and chip it so it bounces in the first hoop, then chip a ball so it bounces in the second hoop. Then chip it so it bounces in the third hoop. Try to complete as many successful chips as possible.
Station Four.
2m
5m
10m
This is a shooting exercise. Place two cones 5m apart, then line up five balls 10m away from the cones and one cone 2m behind each ball. Strike the first ball then turn around and sprint around the cone and strike the next ball then turn around and sprint to round the cone etc. this will improve muscular strength and accuracy.
Station Five.
Use this time (1 minute) to rest and relax. Some light stretching can be done to remove the lactic acid that has built up in your muscles during the first four exercises.
Station Six.
The exercise on this station are burpees, burpees are squat thrusts and star jumps mixed together. Do a squat thrust then stand up and do a star jump and then another squat thrust then stand up and do another star jump. This will improve your agility, cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance and strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings.
Station Seven.
Place six cones 1m apart then dribble a ball in and out of them and sprint back to the start, repeat this for 1 minute. This will improve ball skills, speed and agility. Record how many complete runs are done?
Station Eight.
The exercise on this station is kick-ups. Do as many as you can in one minute. This will improve ball control, and muscular endurance.
Station Nine. Wall
5m
2m
This exercise is passing; make a rectangle with cones 5m by 2m, then pass the ball back and forth against the wall using both feet, right then left in motion. The ball must be kept inside the area and any that leave the area are not deemed as a non-successful pass. See how many complete passes are done in 1 minute. This exercise will improve the ability to pass the ball accurately and ball control.
Once the circuit is finished it can be repeated or a warm down will take place, the warm down will consist of gentle jogging and stretching to remove the lactic acid that builds up in muscles while they are being worked. The warm down should help you perform better next time you exercise.
The muscles that were stretched in the warm up should also be stretched in the warm down. The stretches should be held longer then they were in the warm up to prevent stiffness and soreness.
The table below displays results for one week of this circuit.
Exercise
Amount
Shuttle runs
3
Sit-ups
22
Chipping ball into hoops
2
Shooting
4/1
Rest
-
Burpees
4
Dribbling
7
Kick ups
27
Passing
50
In five weeks time these results should improve, below is a results table set over five weeks, with a average of each week
Week
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
3
30
2
4/1*
-
4
7
35
50
2
3
31
2
4/2
-
5
8
39
53
3
3
30
3
4/3
-
5
8
43
54
4
3
28
3
4/2
-
4
6
40
53
5
4
29
3
5/4
-
5
8
38
52
*On target/Scored
For each week I gave my self targets to reach, to allow for progression. I altered each station accordingly.
Week 1
I started with doing two circuits with the same number of exercises and the same number of reps per exercise. I did this because then I would know if I needed to progress in certain exercises in the circuit. For example I found the first exercise easy so I felt that I needed to increase the number to allow progression, for future benefits to help my fitness. I specifically spread out the exercises to what muscles they concentrate on to allow rest for certain muscular groups that have been perversely exercised. I generally followed the pattern of legs, abdominal. I found this method of circuit training suited my style. I completed in the first circuit in twelve minutes. This time was respectable but I felt that I could easily decrease this. In order to reduce the twelve minutes, the rest period was decreased. As I haven't played sports for a period of time, after the first circuit, I felt more able to carry out the second circuit. Due to me being more able I ended up with a time of ten minutes.
Week 2
I felt that most of the exercises were easy and I needed to increase the number to improve my fitness. I didn't increase the shuttle runs too much because I don't what to over do myself at this early stage. I also increased the number of sit-ups. At this time I could feel the pain in my body. But I carried on trying my hardest. I found the burpees very easy and again I felt that it needed to be increased. I also increased the number of kick ups for the first circuit and followed it with the same number on the second circuit. I found the dribbling hard so I kept the same number on both circuits. I increased the number of passes to give me more progression. The only exercise I found very difficult was chipping the footballs into the hoops, so I decreased the number. I believe I am improving in my fitness.
Week 3
The problem I had with this week was that the first session was done very close to the second session. This affected me greatly as my body hadn't fully recovered from the previous session. The only big improvement I made was the number of shuttle runs. The minor improvements I made were the sit-ups, shooting and the kick ups.
Week 4
I felt that both sessions this week went really well, this could be some signs of improvement. I was working myself a lot harder than usual; I reduced the recovery time from 1 minute to 45 seconds. I also aimed a lot higher for each station, which gave me some positive results. I began to experience the first real signs of muscle fatigue in my leg, this was probably because I was working them a lot harder. The level I was working at seemed to be right in order for me to develop my muscular endurance.
Week 5
I felt that both sessions this week went really well, this could be some signs of improvement. I was working myself a lot harder than usual; I reduced the recovery time from 1 minute to 45 seconds. I also aimed a lot higher for each station, which gave me some positive results. I began to experience the first real signs of muscle fatigue in my leg, this was probably because I was working them a lot harder. The level I was working at seemed to be right in order for me to develop my muscular endurance.
Evaluation.
In general my circuit program was successful, it tested each area of fitness that I wanted it to.
Station 1, shuttle runs, this station was very successful by the end of the 5 week period I had improved my speed as I did more runs in one minute. It also improved my agility and the endurance of my quadriceps and hamstrings. Station 2, sit-up exercise, this station was very tiring, after each time I performed this exercise I could feel my abdominal muscles becoming stronger. I improved throughout the 5 weeks. But as a whole I improved the strength and endurance of my abdominal muscles. Station 3, chipping balls into hoops, I found this exercise very difficult my accuracy and chipping ability improved drastically. Station 4, shooting this station tested my shooting and accuracy ability. This was one of the easier stations as shooting isn't a very strenuous work out, although I did improve in the 5-week period. Station 6, burpees, this I found was the most difficult as it was very tiring and I had already done 4 other stations. This did improve my agility, cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance and strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings. Station 7, dribbling, this was a fairly easy exercise I have improved on my speed and ball control, I noticed this in week five when I wasn't as tired as I was the weeks before. Station 8, kick-ups, I am fairly good at kick-ups already but by the end of the program I was able to keep the ball under control at a lower height than what I started with. Station 9, passing, this station tested my right and left foot, my accuracy and my speed, my left foot has improved a lot by doing this exercise, my right foot has slightly improved.
I found the circuit to be very intense and tiring, but very effective as my circuit tested all the areas I wanted it to. I was very tired though after completing each week of the program, my muscles were aching and my heart and breathing rate had increased drastically. If I were to perform the circuit program again I would start by having a recovery time between each station, also I would make the exercise time slightly less at the beginning of the program so I could get use to doing the exercises gradually.
Although I had improved during the 5-week period I had only improved slightly, so if I were repeating this program I would make it last 10 weeks so improvements could be seen more easily. Once the circuit becomes too easy I would have to make it harder to affect plateauing. If the circuit is not made harder the body will stop improving in the areas of muscular endurance and anaerobic respiration. The body must also train to prevent reversibility. This is when the affects of training decrease and the benefits are lost. Overall I was very pleased with the results it gave and found it a very enjoyable way to improve on my football.
Neil Osullivan
- 1 -
