If you're going to hit the ground running when the season resumes, you need to follow a special programme during the break. Here's a programme I've put together so that you can work on your responsiveness, speed and explosiveness.
4 stations with a maximum of 5 players per station, with each player doing each drill 4 times.
Station 1
Header starting on a chair then sprint 15 m – 3 min recovery while juggling then 1 min of side plank (30 seconds left, 30 seconds right)
Station 2
Jumping with feet together over 2 mini hurdles then a 15 m sprint, 3 min of juggling then 20 crunches
Station 3
Header from a rebound (off a bench, for example) then a 15 m sprint – Juggling for 3 min to recover then 1 min front plank
Station 4
Skipping then a 15 m sprint, 3 min juggling and cross-crawl crunches.
Each station should take 5 minutes to complete, and sprints should be done at top speed.
Explosiveness is the ability to trigger maximum muscle tension in minimum time and is very important for football when accelerating, changing direction, kicking, jumping, etc. As always, practice makes perfect so here are a few examples of specific exercises to train it.
The basic rules for training explosiveness are:
- don't train when tired (nervous fatigue and not muscular fatigue),
- don't do too many reps
- have long rest periods (1 min between each set, for example)
- ideally do the physical actions of football without a ball
Station 1
6 mini hurdles, jumping over them with your feet together, then a 3m sprint after the last one
Station 2
4 mini hurdles (higher if possible) where the player keeps their feet together but with a bigger vertical jump than at station 1, with a bigger landing i.e. bending their knees to 90° to cushion the landing
Station 3
3 mini hurdles to quickly run over (normally, without your feet together) then sprint for 6/7 m
Station 4
Hold a squat position (ideally a wall sit) for 15 sec then sprint for 3m
Station 5
Hold a squat for 8 to 10 sec then jump with both feet together over a bench or chair (or anything else around 40-50 cm high). Don't stand up between the squat and the jump.
Station 6
Do 5 horizontal jumps (feet don't need to be together), the aim being to go as far as possible without overbalancing when landing.
