Article from the NY Times from months back that I liked. Maybe of interest to some. It details the goings on at the Ajax youth academy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
This is taken from the PP online sie that is linked in the previous blog. It's about SAQ training which I feel is of growing importance to football and other sports:
SAQ (an acronym for ‘speed, agility and quickness’) is the title of a system patented by a company called ‘SAQ International’, which works in the UK with top football teams like West Ham United and the Rugby Football Union, and internationally with the likes of the Miami Dolphins American Football team and the New South Wales Waratahs rugby team in Australia.
Jason (‘the Whiz’) Robinson has two of the fleetest feet seen on a rugby player and, although blessed with innate ability to dance rings around his opponents, he has also honed his agility through the use of such SAQ drills as the ‘foot ladder’. This type of rope ladder, a key component of SAQ training, is placed flat on the playing surface in order to develop foot speed and improved foot-ground contact.
There are numerous permutations of ways for athletes to step and run through the ladder, which can challenge the fast twitch fibres of even the fleetest athletes. ‘One foot in, one foot out’ (left, right, left into each rung) is not too difficult; ‘two in, two out’ (two feet one after the other into each gap) is more challenging; but backwards and sideways combinations definitely need to engage the brain as well as the feet. It’s a bit like learning to waltz against the high-speed rhythm of Garage music!
These drills, like many of the speed-enhancing techniques mentioned in this article, are designed to optimise neuromuscular patterning and condition. Like any other physical attribute, speed can be trained and improved through repetition and overload. SAQ techniques never lose sight of this overall goal and the playing requirements of various sports. Depending on their emphasis, the drills are designed either to develop absolute speed and agility or to develop these attributes under the conditions of fatigue that players experience during a match.
Drills with a sport-specific emphasis often shape up looking like an obstacle course, involving short swerves through cones, hopscotch, zig-zag runs, long swerves, two- footed jumps over low hurdles, backwards running and turns through 360 degrees. Players are often required to perform even more sport-specific tasks during the course of these workouts; for example, a rugby player might have to receive and pass the ball while running through the foot ladder.
SAQ (an acronym for ‘speed, agility and quickness’) is the title of a system patented by a company called ‘SAQ International’, which works in the UK with top football teams like West Ham United and the Rugby Football Union, and internationally with the likes of the Miami Dolphins American Football team and the New South Wales Waratahs rugby team in Australia.
Jason (‘the Whiz’) Robinson has two of the fleetest feet seen on a rugby player and, although blessed with innate ability to dance rings around his opponents, he has also honed his agility through the use of such SAQ drills as the ‘foot ladder’. This type of rope ladder, a key component of SAQ training, is placed flat on the playing surface in order to develop foot speed and improved foot-ground contact.
There are numerous permutations of ways for athletes to step and run through the ladder, which can challenge the fast twitch fibres of even the fleetest athletes. ‘One foot in, one foot out’ (left, right, left into each rung) is not too difficult; ‘two in, two out’ (two feet one after the other into each gap) is more challenging; but backwards and sideways combinations definitely need to engage the brain as well as the feet. It’s a bit like learning to waltz against the high-speed rhythm of Garage music!
These drills, like many of the speed-enhancing techniques mentioned in this article, are designed to optimise neuromuscular patterning and condition. Like any other physical attribute, speed can be trained and improved through repetition and overload. SAQ techniques never lose sight of this overall goal and the playing requirements of various sports. Depending on their emphasis, the drills are designed either to develop absolute speed and agility or to develop these attributes under the conditions of fatigue that players experience during a match.
Drills with a sport-specific emphasis often shape up looking like an obstacle course, involving short swerves through cones, hopscotch, zig-zag runs, long swerves, two- footed jumps over low hurdles, backwards running and turns through 360 degrees. Players are often required to perform even more sport-specific tasks during the course of these workouts; for example, a rugby player might have to receive and pass the ball while running through the foot ladder.
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Some links
some useful links of sites I use:
SAQ - http://www.saqinternational.com/
Peak Performance - http://www.pponline.co.uk/
Footy4Kids - http://www.footy4kids.co.uk/
Soccer Expert - http://www.soccerxpert.com/
SAQ - http://www.saqinternational.com/
Peak Performance - http://www.pponline.co.uk/
Footy4Kids - http://www.footy4kids.co.uk/
Soccer Expert - http://www.soccerxpert.com/
Friday, 6 August 2010
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