Body Control Soccer Players example essay topic

Dynamic Warm Up Soccer is a sport that requires the body to do some pretty amazing things. Players must be able to sprint at full speed, dodge defenders, see teammates out of the corner of their eyes, and control the ball at the same time. This is incredibly difficult! To perform such a feat, a player's entire body must be properly warmed up. By understanding the best techniques for warming up, a player will be less susceptible to injury and thus will spend less time in the training room, and more time on the field where they can concentrate on playing.

Body Control Soccer players often find themselves in a crowd of other players, and within this crowd it can get rough. But, despite all of the bodies banging into them, the player is still expected to be in the correct position to control the ball. A good soccer player must always win the battle of balance and body control. A sudden loss of control can lead to a blown play, a sudden shift in momentum or even injury. While some players must fight and concentrate to maintain this control; others never think about it, yet move around the field in a smooth, fluid motion. Players that naturally play with total body control are able to focus more of their mental energy on simply making plays and winning the game!

Reaction Recognition of play positions is what enables a player to make nearly every conceivable play in a game. As soon as a player SEES a teammate separate from the defender, he passes him the ball. As soon as a player FEELS the defender bump him on his right side, he immediately takes the ball to his left. As soon as a defender HEARS a teammate yell "go", she turns and sprints down the field for a break away. This is basic information, but soccer players must learn to recognize and react to it. The quicker they can do so, the more they will appear to be a step ahead of the competition.

Foot Quickness As soon as a soccer player makes the decision to move, the first part of their body that will be put into motion is the feet. For the body to move, the feet must move first. Before a shot can be taken, the feet must move to get the rest of the body in proper position. Before a defensive stop can be made, the feet must go into a rapid fire mode that keeps the rest of the body ready to counter the movements of the offensive player.

An argument could be made that Foot Quickness is the most important skill for a soccer player to train. Our young athletes love training this skill because it is one that produces almost immediate results! Lateral Speed Consider any one-on-one situation in soccer between an offensive and a defensive player. It all boils down to the fact that, at some point, the offensive player must make a move to get around the defender. When the offensive player makes this move, the defensive player will use lateral speed to make the stop. A great example of the use of lateral speed is when a goalkeeper is faced with a shot.

At all times, the goalkeeper has some amount of open net to his left and right. The offensive player is going to try and put the ball in one of these areas. When the ball comes off the offensive player's foot, it is up to the goalkeeper to move laterally to close the open area of the goal and to make the stop. This is pure reaction and lateral speed. The defensive performance of any soccer player will improve as they increase their lateral Acceleration Where does acceleration apply to the game of soccer? Answer: everywhere.

Soccer is a constant fight to occupy positions of the field, outflank your opponent, and to ultimately score. The key is for players to recognize "dead areas" in their opponent's defense, and to get in those dead area before the defensive players can cover them up. The skill that allows soccer players to win this game of positioning is acceleration. Top Speed As mentioned, Top Speed becomes a factor when an athlete is required to sprint for distances of longer than about twenty yards. Since this happens quite frequently in the game of soccer, top speed is a skill that should receive adequate attention. Plays like long break aways and kicks by the goalkeeper can cause the ball to travel a significant portion of the field, and thus forces players to adjust their positioning by an equal amount.

Because plays like these take place, soccer players need to possess the ability to kick it into top gear. Change of Direction A soccer player that can't change direction is just useless. If soccer was simply a game of break aways where players could sprint unimpeded to the goal or ball, then there would be no need to ever change of direction. But this is not the way the game works. The constant repositioning of the other twenty-one players on the field demands that a player recognize the need to alter his path and then be able to act on that knowledge as quickly as possible. Change of direction skills allow soccer players to quickly cut into open areas of the defense, fake-out defenders, and stick like glue to the players they are guarding.

Jumping In the game of soccer, every time the ball comes off the ground a situation is created where a player may need to go up and get it before it comes back down. In these situations, the player must possess jumping skills. A player in crowd will have to out-jump surrounding players in order to get his head on the ball first and redirect it in his team's favor. Goalkeepers must be able to jump in order to guard the upper portion of the net.

Also, since the same skills that propel an athlete into the air also provide explosive first step quickness and rapid acceleration into a sprint, increasing a soccer player's jumping ability will positively influence other critical areas of their game. Core Strength Skills such as jumping, acceleration and change of direction have already been identified as key components of a soccer player's performance. In their respective sections, we have identified how enhancing each of these skills will positively impact a soccer player's performance, and we have offered suggestions as to how a soccer player should approach improving each skill. Core Strength is a skill that can further enhance a soccer player's ability to jump accelerate and change direction. Core strength is a skill that a soccer player can train a little bit every day and can reap large rewards from over the span of their athletic career. Flexibility Flexibility is a skill similar to Core Strength in that it compounds the return a soccer player receives for the training they invest in areas like lateral speed, acceleration and change of direction.

Because each of those skills requires significant range of motion, gaining flexibility will increase the player's potential for gains in each area. Another key element of gaining flexibility is that it decreases the potential for injury. Since many soccer injuries are a result of an athlete being bent or pulled out of their normal range of motion, additional flexibility will allow the player's body to bend more and break less. When properly trained each day, gains in flexibility are both easily achieved and maintained.