Soccer Drills – Upper Body
Strength
Upper body strength is just as important
as the strength in your legs when playing soccer. The upper body strength can
help you to maintain your position when fending off opponents, make you more
supple and improve your balance when dribbling and shooting the ball.
Any upper body exercises improve your
stability and help to improve the movement in your hips, trunk and shoulders
allowing you to move more quickly across the field.
Increasing your lower backs strength,
alongside having strong arms, shoulders and hips can all help to increase your
running stride.
Some exercises that you may consider
are:
Push-ups
Abdominal sit backs
Body weight rows
Low back stabilisers
Bench presses
Activities using a medicine ball
Lat pull downs
Pull-ups
Abdominal curls
Resistance training – pulling on a
resistance band to strengthen the arms and shoulders
You can also do back extensions whereby
you would lie face down on the ground, raise your arms and legs as high as
possible and then lower them though not allowing them to touch the ground again.
For training with a teammate you can lie
facing each other and throw a ball to each other without allowing your arms to
touch the ground.
You may also consider weight training
but you only need to use lightweights to achieve optimum effect. If you choose
this method of training always seek advice first and it is thought that children
under the age of 14 are too young to consider this option.
It is important though in any exercises
to allow your muscles to rest and concentrate on only one muscle group each
day. You should always ask for help and guidance from a qualified person and
follow their guidelines.
