Basics for Improving Your Game
Football training tips have gotten very sophisticated, mostly because a great football player is a renaissance man in the athletic world. He is a package deal, so to speak. He is amazingly strong and solid with the ability to channel explosive power at that perfect moment in time. He is dense and powerful and wields tremendous inertia on the field. On the flipside, he must also be agile and quick on his feet. And the greatest players can disappear down the field in a flash, hopefully with the ball in hand.
If you’re thinking that this ‘great’ football player sounds almost super-human, you’re not very far off the mark. Especially when you consider that he must be able to think and make quick decisions even while he’s performing all this magic on the field. But don’t dismay, if you have a goal to become a better football player, you can hone your athletic skill to be this diverse. Here are a few football training tips for a great, all-around on field performance.
Top 6 Football Training Tips: Football Training Tip #1
Your first football training tip is to head to the gym for some weight training sooner rather than later. If you already have some basic weight training under your belt for balance and stability, you can go ahead and move on to more intense training that is very specific to football. If you don’t, you’ll want to ease into it and start off with a few weeks of lighter training. Start with about three to four weeks of circuit training to strengthen your larger and smaller muscle groups. You can do this at home or in the gym with free weights or machines. Check your local weight room as it may already have a circuit set up and ready to go.
Top 6 Football Training Tips: Football Training Tip #2
Once you’ve completed your prep-training, you can move onto the second football training tip – more intense strength training to build muscle mass, strength and power. This football training tip focuses on targeting your larger muscles and start lifting some serious weight, about 65% of your maximum strength. Rest for several minutes between sets and you really only need to perform this training three or four times each week, so long as you’re working each major muscle group 1-2 times each week. After four weeks of more intense strength training, you’re ready to move into about four weeks of maximal strength training, in which you’ll be lifting almost 80%-100% of what you can physically lift for as many reps as you can. Don’t get discouraged if you can only do one rep per “set”. Again, rest for several minutes between and only follow this football training tip three or four times each week. There’s no need to overdo it here. Also, get into the habit of stretching after each workout. Stretching increases flexibility and can help achieve your speed goals. Most importantly, stretching can help you fend off an injury which is key to completing a great season.
Top 6 Football Training Tips: Football Training Tip #3
This football training tip is more about what not to do than what to do. One of the most common mistakes in training for football is overtraining. For this reason, follow the football training tip I just described for off-season training. During the season, this program would be overkill and likely lead to fatigue and decreased performance. It is, however, a great football training tip to build you up before the season starts. For your training during the season, tone it way down and do the minimum amount to maintain the progress you made during the off season.
Top 6 Football Training Tips: Football Training Tip #4
This football training tip is also a warning against overtraining when performing drills and endurance training. While endurance is very important in football (you don’t want to peter out half way through the first quarter), training as if for a marathon is not necessary when training for football. Interval training is a great way to achieve the kind of endurance that is ideal for the game of football but without inducing fatigue due to over training. When you think about it, football is played in bursts of intensity which are then followed by a pause. Interval training recreates the same kind of activity in that there are short bursts of intensity followed by recovery. How you perform during the bursts is the most crucial part of the training.
Top 6 Football Training Tips: Football Training Tip #5
Running and speed is an integral part of the football game being that the combination often means that making a touchdown is more likely. In terms of speed training, you must refer back the previous statements about the importance of not overtraining. For the sake of getting faster, many athletes run farther and harder, and then on game day they are worn out and can’t perform the way they’d like. Speed training is often pursued on the field. However, strength training done properly is a sure-fire way to gain ground in terms of speed. If you’ve already done serious weight training for gaining strength and power, your speed is already being influenced by the strength of the major muscles of your body. The chances are good that you are already moving over the ground with some substantial power. However, power combined with stride speed can generate a serious shift in speed.
Top 6 Football Training Tips: Football Training Tip #6
To improve stride speed, spend some time working your thigh flexor muscles during your weight training sessions. Find a resistance band and fix one end to a stationary object about ankle height from the ground. Fix the other end of the resistance band to your ankle. Standing with your feet about hip’s width apart, move your foot with the band attached about 12 inches off the ground in front of you while slightly bending the knee. Hold this position approximately 15 seconds and then return to the original position. Perform this exercise for one set on each leg a few times a week to see improved muscle speed as well as strength.
The key to great football training tips is to aim for well-roundedness of skill: solid with speed, power with agility, strength with endurance. For a football player, it’s not enough to be just fast or tough. He’s got to be fast and tough. However, striking the perfect balance is very achievable with proper training and taking care not to over train while in pursuit of your goals. What we’ve covered in this article is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of football training tips, but it is a step in the right direction toward becoming a more powerful and confident football player on the field.
To learn more about how to run faster from Patrick Beith and Athletes’ Acceleration and to get the 7 tips to dominant speed for athletes go now to: Complete Speed
For the top speed and power training resources check out: Athletes Acceleration
