Warm up tips & tricks

From now, us start discusses about physical aspect:

• Stay warm.

If there’s a break in activity during the game or practice, do not let your muscles relax too much. Jog in place, do a few jumping jacks, and stretch to keep them pliable.

• Watch your time.

A good warm-up should take a total of 10-15 minutes, once a routine has been established. Any less is simply not enough to warm up, and any more will consume more energy that should be saved for the actual practice or game. In colder weather, however, you might need an extra 5 minutes of warming up for your body to reach a good playing temperature.

• Bring the goalkeeper into warm-ups.

Keepers need to get their touches on the ball, too, and require special considerations given their role in the game. In a possession game: Allow the keeper to use his or her hands. Often, keepers will want to and should play possession with their feet. It’s critical for the keeper to be able to use their feet when a defender or a ball is played back to them and they must use both feet to clear the ball. Set up a small goal in the center of the playing area and teams can take a shot once they reach a certain number of passes.

• Cool down.

It’s just as important to stretch after training and have a short cool down (light jog). A total of two laps around the field or four around half the field with stretching mixed in is sufficient. To some experts, stretching after training is almost even more important than stretching before. It’s an ideal time to stretch since your muscles are really loose and warm. Essentially, stretching after training helps the muscles relax, ensures normal resting muscle positioning, improves blood flow to joints and tissues, and reduces soreness and stiffness—the killer after a long, strenuous training session.

What to eat during and after a game/tournament

During a game

Water and fruits juices are recommended to recover a lot lost fluid. Water goes directly to the working muscles and quenches thirst. Eating between game is always tricky but not impossible but try stay away from chocolate, chips, meat, sandwich and etc. orange slice at half time are recommended.

After a game

Plenty of fluids (water, fruits juices) to replenish the body and a good hearty meal of whatever the player wishes (the only exception is if the team makes it to a second day of play then you repeat the above recommendations).

What to eat before a tournament?

Have a dinner/supper the day before the tournament be that of a complex carbohydrate* one. This dinner/supper will provide the muscles with glycogen which released through physical activity and helps in endurance due to a steady release of energy.

At the day of tournament, it is recommended to eat a hearty breakfast consisting of oat meals, fruits, whole wheat breads, pancakes (easy on the syrup) at least 1 ½ hours prior to the game but not to overload.

*Complex carbohydrate is brown rice, pasta, whole grains, cereals, breads made from unrefined flour, beans, peas, fresh fruits, vegetables.

What to eat before a practice game/training?

BEFORE PRACTICE GAME/TRAINING

Light snack consisting of carbohydrates (fruit,pasta) about 1 ½ hours prior to practice/game.

This will enable quick digestion, energy release to working muscle and will help in avoiding cramps.

Large/heavy meals before a practice/game will result in.

• Not being able to run at full capacity.
• Tiredness/weighed down
• Cramps and irritability
• Possible vomiting
• And not being to keep up

No chocolate bar, chips or ice cream

This will weigh down athlete and not provide a boost of energy.

If practice/game is scheduled around mealtime, only have a small snack on the way to the event. It is better to play on a slightly empty stomach and have a regular meal after the event.

Soccer Diet : TRUE or FALSE

The meal you eat the day of the game is the most important meal and will have the greatest impact on your performance during the game. True, or false? Keep reading…

In addition to following the guidelines we established in the previous sections, there are some foods (and drinks) you should definitely avoid right before a game, or before any intense physical activity.

For one thing, stay away from super-sweet and high-fat foods like they’re the plague. Whole milk, marbled meat, cheese, and anything fried will seriously jeopardize your game. So will havoc-wreaking foods like beans, pickled cucumbers, and spices. They’ll slow digestion down and could cause cramps, gas, and associated discomfort. Your body will be torn between digestion and performance. Why distract it when you don’t have to?

Also, don’t indulge right before physical activity. In fact, plan it so that your last meal is no less than three hours before a game (or even practice). If you get hungry, have a light snack, or perhaps an energy bar. Keeping your stomach close to empty is a good idea for the same reason you avoid rich foods before physical activity: energy spent digesting is energy taken away from your performance.

ANSWER: False! The most critical meal is actually the day BEFORE the game. It should be plentiful with good carbohydrates, as well as a little protein and fat. Don’t splurge on fast food just because you think it won’t affect your game tomorrow!

And don’t even think about drinking a drop of soda or even fruit juice before you put your cleats on. Keeping your body hydrated is of utmost importance, no matter what you’re doing, but any liquid that’s caffeinated, carbonated, and/or packed with high fructose corn syrup won’t give your body energy. Believe it or not, they might actually dehydrate you.

Yup, that’s right. To repeat, drinking certain kinds of liquids might actually dehydrate you. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but here’s how it works. Up to 60 percent of the body is water (the brain is composed of 70 percent water, blood is 82 percent water, and the lungs are nearly 90 percent water). Every time you sweat, you lose some of that precious water, along with electrolytes—minerals that are critical to your performance. A sugary, caffeinated and/or carbonated drink will act as a diuretic, making you lose a lot more water than you normally would. As a result, you could end up not only dehydrated, but also lacking electrolytes and putting yourself far closer to fatigue.

To avoid becoming dehydrated, don’t wait until you’re parched before you pour yourself a glass. By the time your body tells you it’s thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. So drink water throughout the day, even if your think you feel fine. Carry a bottle of water with you and take sips from it periodically. A good rule of thumb is to drink a half-cup to a whole cup of water for every 15-20 minutes of physical activity you’re anticipating. Try having 16-20 oz of water 2 hours before a game, then 12-14 oz of sports drink about 10-15 minutes before a match begins. (The warmer the weather, the more water you should drink.)

Don’t forget to continue hydrating your body during the game. You’ll be losing lots of water, making all those darting runs and game-winning goals. This is a good time to get your hands on some sports drinks like Gatorade, Powerade, Allsport, Power Surge, and others. It’s been proven that sports drinks help athletes avoid fatigue and cramps better than water does. You don’t really need them before you play, but during a game or practice, they’ll help you replenish your electrolytes (especially sodium). Have about 7-10oz of a sports drink every 15-20 minutes during your game or practice. Make sure to have 12-14 oz during half-time, even if you feel full.

Resource: www.soccer-training-info.com

Soccer diet

You probably already understand that in order to play to win, you need to train to win. But did you know you’re also going to have to eat to win?

Sure, it might seem like your diet is so detached from your game. The last thing on your mind when you’re fending off an opponent and aiming for the net is what you had for dinner last night. But your body might feel otherwise.

The fact is, if you’re looking to get the most out of your body, you need to make the most of your diet. What you get out of your body is a function of what you put into it.

You might think to yourself, “Oh, I know so-and-so; he plays well and doesn’t watch his diet at all!” But think again. If someone plays well on a careless diet, imagine what he or she would be able to accomplish by giving their body the tools it needs to perform optimally! If all you want to do is play well, you might be able to get away with eating whatever’s in front of you. But if you want to play your sweat-dripping, goal-scoring, and awe-inspiring best, you need to start taking a closer look at your diet. Do you want to play college or professional soccer?

Eating consciously will give your body the building blocks necessary to achieve maximum endurance, coordination, and skill. However, this is no easy task.

Fast food won’t put you on a fast track to soccer success. In fact, it’ll have quite the opposite effect. A quick, cheap and easy meal like a cheeseburger and fries might seem tempting, especially when you’ve just had practice and feel like you could eat an entire cow; but much in the same way that putting poor-quality fuel in your car will increase its wear and tear and keep it from running smoothly, pumping your body up with heavy grease and empty calories will only hurt your game. Ultimately, you are what you eat.

The effects of eating fast food on a regular basis might not be so obvious. It’s not as if you’ll miss more goals immediately after having eaten a Whopper. But over time, the results accumulate. Your performance will lag a little more, week by week and month by month, as your body struggles to make the most out of low-quality calories, and to pump blood through cholesterol-ridden arteries. And one day, you might miss a winning goal and wonder why your performance has suffered. No matter how much you’ve trained, your body can only do so much on a poor diet. Why impose that kind of limit on yourself?

Source: http://www.soccer-training-info.com

Mental Focus for Soccer

“How do I stop being so nervous before a big soccer game?”

This is a common and sometimes frustrating issue experienced by even the most talented of soccer players. But what you might not understand is that being nervous is actually a good thing.

Yup, that’s right! It means that you care about what you're about to do, and that’s definitely something to be proud of. You may not realize it, but it’s completely natural to feel nervous.

But you still might find it hard to play under the kind of big-game pressure that causes nervousness. The key to overcoming this is to focus on what you can control and not on what you can’t. Don’t burden yourself with worries like, “What if this happens?” or “What if this player is playing?” or “What if so and so is watching?” Don’t worry about that stuff! Just focus on playing the game with patience and simplicity. You love playing soccer, don’t you? Then, what’s there to worry about? Just play the game and have fun doing it.

Granted, all that sounds easier said than done, right? Don’t worry. If you have pre-game jitters, then read on and discover how you can relax yourself.

Here are some quick points to keep in mind:

• be cheeky (take chances in the attacking third - try that back heel)
• know where you want to play the ball before you get it
• play simple (pass and move)
• work hard (hustle)
• ask for the ball (communicate)
• make runs
• recognize where you are on the field
• have fun
• forget your mistakes and make up for them with hustle
• keep your head up
• play until the final whistle
• think positive--don't be hard on yourself