· Agility - the ability to change direction quickly and control movements of the whole body. This is needed to be able to step round a player so it is harder for them to tackle you.
· 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. This is hard to perform in a circuit, so it would be better to improve this by running long distances or cycling.
· 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.
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, 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.
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. This is called plateauing. To prevent this from happening the exercises must be made progressively harder to ensure that the body continues to improve.
Equipment
- Hoops
- Cones
- Mats
- Stop Watch
- Balls
The Circuit
The order in which the exercises are to be done are:
Warm up >> Stretches >> The Circuit >> Warm Down
Warm up & Stretching - 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, warms and loosens joints. This will prevent any injuries to the muscles or joints.
Start by lightly jogging for approximately 5-10 mins. 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.
Station 1
← Line 3
Line 1 Line 2
Sit Ups
Station 9 Station 2
Stepping
Station 3
Chipping
Station 8
Press Ups
Station 4
Grubber Kick
Station 7 Station 6 Station 5
Scoring Burpees Rest
Station One
On this station you have to start at the line, sprint to the first cone then jog back to the line then sprint to the second cone,then jog back to the line then sprint to the third cone, then back to the line. Then sprint to the second cone and jog back then to the first cone and back to complete the exercise. 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 pass needs to be thrown over a long distance. This is explosive strength because it is done in one explosive movement.
Station Three
This exercise concentrates on a player's chipping ability and accuracy, the hoops should be placed 5m apart. Place a ball 10m away from each hoop. The player must chip the ball and try and get it into the hoop. He will kick to the first hoop then move along etc.
Station Four
This is a Grubber kicking exercise. There will be 2 cones 4m apart the player must grubber the ball through these from 7m away changing his angle after each attempt.
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
The exercise on this station will help in the grounding the ball situation. There will be a ball placed on the 10m line and the player will stand on the 20m line he must run up to the ball pick it up of the floor and then run with it and dive other the try line and then run back and repeat this rotating through placing the ball down and diving over the line.
Station Eight
The exercise on this station is press ups. Press ups will help to build up upper body strength which will help the players tackling in a game.
Station Nine
This exercise is stepping. Players use this in games to try and go around the opposition. I will improve stepping on this exercise by laying out hoops on the floor next to each other but 1 slightly higher than the other repeatedly where the player must run through.
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.
