Pre-season training in Soccer in Victoria. The FFV has to step in!
The FFA pumps out the mantra that sports specific training with the balls must dominate a large percentage of training in Soccer. Especially with the developing player but throughout. Small sided games are proliferating at junior level which is great and generally till 13 or 14 there has been a shift to sports specific training. This article will not discuss the % breakdown of physical conditioning vs Soccer skills / Game related fitness that should occur. Suffice to say that Strength and Conditioning and general physical develpment should be a part of all players training programs. Not just the ball!
But the research points to the fact that decision making and specific tactical needs alongside fitness can be developed with the ball and/or in game related situations. And then it is up to the coach/fitness adviser on how to dose extra running or conditioning. This will vary with age groups and levels.
But there is a frightening trend I have noticed in Victoria with the VPL/State League teams and also associated U/21 & U/18 teams. Not only do many not use the balls much, more so they engange in archaic and ignorant methods of training. Many of the good juniors at 16 to 20 depend on these pathways to take the next step. IE To VPL or A League or overseas. But teams that are hellbent on winning their league often run countless laps of Princes Park and oodles of 200’s or run up and down hills and through sand and so on.
They engage in what I call the “aaaghhhhh” principle. Just smash them and get them fit and win. But by June heaps of players will be sitting on the sidelines with their beanies in dugouts and clubs will be buying or coaxing other players to play because in fact win loss ratios are crap.
So not only are these critical ” pathway” players not getting daily sports specific / decision making type drills and sensible and individualized trained. In fact their bodies are being trashed and no balls in sight. Lose/Lose.
So in the battle of the codes in OZ , soccer needs to look at this 2nd tier critically. And more so with training methods. From Skill Acquisition to Injury Prevention to enhanced athleticism. In the end we will lose generations of kids that have done all the right things with small sided games etc and then hit some lunatic coach who is driving them daily up the hills at Brimbank Park instead of working on the pitch or in the gym.They cant get a game because geriatircs dominate teams so they retire or wasted money on overseas academies.
Maybe the FFV and FFA have to grow some balls and change the structures of these competitions so that they do not allow them to just toss young players out mid season and buy old hacks. IE Salary caps and age structures. And then the tricke down effect could work down to training methods.
Some of the clubs in the VPL liek South Melbourne and Green Gully are quasi professional but most are developing players to send to commando camps and not European Soccer Pitches
Time to get smarter. Kids want to play the world game.
loris bertolacci 