We find many common movement errors with young players and we wish to address some of the concerns of injury prevention and movement development within each training session.
Like technique development, movement education should occur at the beginning of a training session when the player is most receptive to learning. We typically use 6-8 minutes of movement exercises at the beginning to prime the athlete for the next stage of training (priming the central nervous system).
The exercises serve a different purpose:
1. Athletic movement laterally, forward, backward around cones or sticks: These movements provide a great opportunity for coaches to coach athletic dynamic balance. It is important that the player keeps a strong base underneath them as they move and they keep their center of gravity is kept low. These simple movements, with feedback from the coach, will provide a strong foundation for further movement development.
2. Hops/Jumps: Many of the techniques that we work on with a ball involve a hop in any number of directions. These hops allow players to remain balanced during the techniques. Consequently the hops are used for body control. Perhaps more importantly, there is an element of eccentric loading, or deceleration with every hop and we know that many ACL injuries occur during decelleration.
2. Hops/Jumps: Many of the techniques that we work on with a ball involve a hop in any number of directions. These hops allow players to remain balanced during the techniques. Consequently the hops are used for body control. Perhaps more importantly, there is an element of eccentric loading, or deceleration with every hop and we know that many ACL injuries occur during decelleration.
The hopping movements, with the non-hopping leg held to the front, the back, or to the side, distribute the athlete's body weight outside of the normal range of balance. This simply allows the body to learn how to control these subtle changes within a controlled environment.
The hopping movements where the athlete is hopping laterally, medially or rotating with each hop, again are introduced for varied loading. The more an athlete experiences the loading in a controlled environment and becomes comfortable with the eccentric loading/deceleration/landing, our hope is that the neural communication is enhanced to allow for appropriate proprioception which could prevent injury within a non-controlled situation (player tugs them from behind, they get bumped in the air and must land awkwardly, etc.).
3. Large Hoop Running: More often with the female athlete than the male, the athlete does not put themselves into positions where they move their centre of gravity outside of their body or within their body from side to side. By having an athlete sprint around the large hoop, they must learn to lean into the centre of the hoop to carry maximum speed. This moves their centre of gravity towards the hoop and in some cases outside of their body. They will then weight heavily the lateral (inside foot) and medial (outside foot) areas of the foot. We see athletes running these circles and their body is straight up, this keeps them balanced but does not allow them to perform maximally, nor does it allow them to learn important proprioception associated with ankle strength/stability.
Since much of soccer is about acceleration and deceleration, we feel these are a great blend of exercises.
- Do not over do them, 6-8 minutes of high activity should be sufficient.
- Perform them early in the training session when the central nervous system is prepared for learning.
- Instruct the technique of movement (like any other technique feedback is required) and challenge players to stretch their limits.
