My Soccer Off-Season Work

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Hey all,

I’m a D3 college goalkeeper, trying to get prepared for the season (starts in Sept.). My main goals:

  1. Improve power
    a. Improve relative strength
    i. Improve absolute strength
    ii. Lower body fat
    b. Convert to power

  2. Improve 1.5 mile run time and overall work capacity
    a. Lower body fat
    b. Improve aerobic/anaerobic endurance

  3. Improve quickness/agility
    a. Improve power (see 1)
    b. Lower body fat
    c. Work on feet/agility drills

It seems from this that my main goals are:

  1. Improve relative strength (aiming for that 2xBW squat)
  2. Convert to power
  3. Drop body fat
  4. Work on endurance
  5. Work on feet

I’m currently 6’2, 195 w/ 15+% BF (will measure tomorrow). I’ve just started a low carb diet.

Squat: 250
Bench: 170
Clean: 180 or so?

My plan:

Monday:

Speed/agility/power

Ladder work and dot drill
Hurdle work
Tuck jumps 3x3
Standing long jumps 3x3
Lateral low hurdle hop 3x3
Agility drills 6-8 reps
20yd sprints 5-7

Strength

Olympic
Squat
Post. chain
Push
Pull

Tabata/strongman

Strongman stuff 20sec on/10sec off x 10
Rowing/boxing 20 sec on/10sec off x 10

Core

3 exercises 4x10-15 each

Tuesday:

Ladder and dot drill warmup

Repeated speed

something like 30x100 or more varied

Wednesday:

Ladder and dot drill warmup
20 sec jump rope, 20 sec dumbell swings x5

Strength/power/speed combo

Box squat for power 12x2
10yd sprint x 10
Snatch 8x3
20yd sprint x 6
Clean 6x4
30yd sled sprint x 4
Deadlifts 4x6

Chins/dips 50reps of each

Core circuit as before

Thursday:

Ladder and dot drill warmup

Hill repeats
something like 3x5mins, 3x3mins, 3x1mins

Friday

Speed/power
Lateral ladder work and dot drill
med ball circuit with accelerations
Sprints/lateral sprints
max. velocity ladder work

Strength

Olympic
Squat
Post.
Push
Pull

Tabata/strongman

Core circuit

Saturday (optional):

20+ minute cross country run easy

How does this look?

For someone such as myself who needs strength more than power at this point, should I start off doing a workout more similar to M and F on W instead of a mostly power based workout? I could also do some sort of complex there.

For the M and F workouts here’s the set/rep scheme i was looking at:

For squats:

4x5
2x5, 3x3
5,4,3,2,1

For all others:

4x6
6x6
6x4

Changing exercises every 3 weeks.

Thanks!

PS- I also have soccer training (mostly technical) 2-3x a week.

2

That’s an impressive amount of work but I can’t help wondering why you need so much conditioning including Tabatas and hill runs of up to 5 minutes.

When I watch matches in the premier league here in the UK it seems to me that the essential attributes are positioning, anticipation, control of the penalty area, jumping and kicking ability and good reflexes/speed.

I know nothing about goalkeeping training so you will be better placed than me to decide what you need but I really cannot see the need for workouts such as 30 x 100m. What attribute are you seeking to address by that?

3

Hello,

We have a 1.5 mile fitness test that I have to complete in 9 minutes, and so far I’m only at 11.30. That is the reason for all the extra conditioning.

Thanks

4

It is difficult to imagine what a 1.5 mile test has to do with goal keeping ability but if that is a team requirement then you obviously have to follow it.

However, if my aim was to run 1.5 miles at 6 minute mile pace I would ditch the Tabata stuff and 30 x 100m runs and instead utilise a combination of over distance runs of 3-6 miles, intervals of 400-800m and hill work either by a continuous run or repeats.