Soccer: How Junior Athletes Can Build A Solid Foundation For The Future

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For development athletes, parents should look for a performance coach who not only works on the basic movement patterns to build a solid foundation for their child’s soccer training, but who also makes it a fun and positive experience. Your child needs the best physical preparation possible, so they can remain injury free to enjoy playing soccer in years to come.

Strength and conditioning training for young players will not only help them excel at their soccer pursuits but set their body up for life in terms of coordination and confidence in sport.

 

Testing sessions

First things first, the coach will need to test your child athletic development to assess their hip mobility and flexibility, and running mechanics. While this might sound a bit full on for a development athlete, it’s vital to make sure your child’s functional movement has been tested so a coach can tailor a strength and conditioning program just for them.

Don’t worry! Your coach isn’t going to throw your child straight into plyometric exercises or straight under a barbell – first, your child needs to learn the correct movement patterns and build strength in certain areas. Your coach has the experience to ensure the program is appropriate for your child’s age and athletic development and will help them achieve their soccer goals.

Injury prevention

The advanced testing will also give coaches an idea of any immobility, imbalances, or areas where your child might be overcompensating on one side of the body. This could lead to career ending injuries down the track if not addressed as soon as possible, so your coach will make sure that ankle, knee and hip stability is all aligned.

Unilateral strength exercises will also help your child’s stability on either side of their body so they can develop speed and agility as well as efficient running form. This will help them cope with fast direction changes to get to the ball or opposing player first.

The coach will address any issues with landing mechanics and force absorption and ensure the integrity of joint structures, ligaments and muscles is solid before introducing strength and power work. It’s vital that development athletes have a good foundation to work from before introducing more advanced plyometric exercises and position specific training exercises.

Not only will you have peace of mind that your child is developing under the guiding eye of our expert coaches, your child will also feel more capable in the gym as they get older from having established this base of knowledge from an early age.

Regular retesting

Your child will be re-tested regularly, not only because their body will be growing and developing, but also because their strength and physical fitness will be improving and their program will need to be adjusted accordingly.

Your coach will be able to model training around your child’s goals and make sure they are developing at an appropriate rate for their age so that efficient movement will become second nature.

Acceleration takes great pride in injury prevention and making sure a junior athlete can maintain their performance, playing season after season, match after match. This includes monitoring how much training and what type of training an athlete is doing because we want to make sure your child reaches their soccer goals as safely and efficiently as possible.

Enjoyment!

Your child’s mental development is just as important as their physical ability and the coaches at Acceleration make sure each athlete is enjoying their training, no matter their age.

We don’t want your child to find training tedious! Our coaches at Acceleration teach kids the basic skills, running and how to move their bodies in space – in a positive, encouraging environment.

How Acceleration can help

Not only will a tailored program help your child learn how to use their body properly, it will teach them skills to move, play and have a go at  all kinds of different sports throughout their lives.

If your child wants has a specific soccer goal, or just wants to build a solid foundation for any sport, Acceleration can help tailor an individual program to suit their goals – click below to find out more.

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