Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, performed by men and women, children and adults with different levels of expertise. As with other sports, soccer is not a science but science may help improve performance. Performance depends upon a myriad of factors such as technical, tactical, physical, physiological and mental areas.

Soccer players require a high level of physical fitness to cope with the demands of the game and to allow their technical and tactical skills to be maximized throughout a match. The physical demands of soccer require players to be competent in several aspects of fitness components. These include high levels of aerobic capacity, muscular strength, speed, agility and flexibility

The three main areas of the fitness program are: TRAINING, EVALUATION AND EDUCATION 

TRAINING

All activities will be plan taking into account that physical performance is related to biological maturation, which means that each player will be treat as an individual who has a personal rate of development, need and physical work capacity.

Team Work

Working together with coaches: During periodical meetings with coaches activities will be planned for each team. These will include technical and tactical objectives, period of the season, along with special team and player needs. Coaches will receive a periodic report of the fitness activity and status of the players.

EVALUATION

The fitness components often vary with the individual player, the positional role in the team and the team’s style of play. It is important that the player and coach obtain objective information about the players’ physical performances to clarify the objectives of training, plan short- and long-term training programs, provide objective feedback and motivate the player to train harder. Such information can be obtained by using tests that evaluate physical performance capacity.

These field tests include aerobic capacity, velocity, leg power, flexibility and body composition.

EDUCATION

Periodically, not only with coaches but also with parents and players, there will be   meetings to provide specific information about topics related to the physical development of players.