Making the Most of Speed and Agility Training for Soccer

Whether moving forward, backward or sideways, athletes who play soccer need to have speed and agility. Maintaining speed, balance, strength and coordination are important factors for the success of soccer players on all levels beginning from approximately the middle school level, through high school, college and professional levels.

What Happens in Speed Training?

In essence, as a runner on the pitch you're participating in an anaerobic sport, meaning that the short burst of energy required to sprint down the field causes oxygen deprivation in your body. That deprivation causes lactic acid to build up, making your muscles ache and feel tired. When you participate in speed training, you subject your body to repeated, intense drills such as zig-zag sprints, broken 100-yard sprints, T-sprints and high knee running, all with the intent of increasing your speed.


What is Agility?

​As in other sports, agility means the quickness in how an athlete changes direction. Agile soccer plays have the ability to change direction and keep their balance all while continuing to move. Agility is particularly important for offensive players because you have to know how to get around defenders.

Among the most important agility practice moves are:
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• Stop-and-go moves, where a player slows down with the ball and then quickly gets going again

• Marking, an important skill for defenders as you need to match an attacking player's every move, especially when close to the net

• Footwork for goalkeepers is important as saves sometimes turn into rebounds that come from the opposite direction of the original shot

What Speed and Agility Drills do to Your Body

Of course, the goal of the repeated drills is to make your legs become faster and more agile. At the same time, however, muscle fibers begin to break down, causing post-workout fatigue and soreness. That's one of the reasons why these types of drills are done during the offseason. To participate in camps or clinics for speed and agility when you're in season will only compound the problem. How many times have you felt fatigued after a game as well as experiencing incredibly sore leg muscles the next day? Most likely, that has happened a lot, which is why paying attention to your nutritional intake, as well as, your recovering, is an important part of your athletic regimen.


Pay Attention to What You Put Into Your Body

Anyone who plays this team sport knows that what you put into your body ultimately affects performance. In addition to eating and making sure that you stay hydrated, many athletes also take supplements to help them perform as well as to stay healthy. Supplements are important because they affect your cellular health. Our individual cells are the basis for all of our bodily functions, including repair of muscles as well as energy production for daily tasks.

Whenever you train in any type of sporting environment, you stress your muscles and thereby also stress your cellular health, so how can you work up to your potential by running sprints and doing agility drills while also maintaining energy? Again, supplements are the key, but the type of supplements you put into your body also makes a difference.


Boost Your Performance With ASEA

If you're constantly tired after your workouts or a game, you need a boost from something more. That extra is ASEA, a unique liquid supplement that harnesses the power of redox cell signaling to repair cells and improve cellular health. Redox signaling is the process where a variety of molecules such as nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide talk to one another in cell processes. These compounds act as biological messengers and actually help cells to repair themselves. What can ASEA do for you during your practice and during games? Take a look at these benefits:
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• Promotes immune function
• Enhances cellular function and communication
• Protects against damage from free radicals
• Boosts efficiency of antioxidants by 500 percent

In other words, ASEA can help make you a better athlete starting on the cellular level. Let's face it when you are an athlete, you are tired much of the time in training or when you are in season. You don't have to be. It's difficult to give your all when you are not feeling up to it. That also means that you may not be able to achieve everything you want while in practice. Find out today how ASEA can give you that superior boost that athletes need by contacting us today.