In this short article I will discuss some basic principles that top soccer players do to make an impact on the game. I recently watched 5 international level soccer games where I had the task of writing down every time a player makes a deep run to get behind the defense, or a sudden change of direction to get open for a pass. I am observing a lot of key attacking moments happen around both actions. When a player makes a hard run into space, the defense always seems to get disturbed, if not very annoyed. Sudden changes of direction are also difficult to follow and using the art of misdirection is a great way to get open. Watching Spain’s and Valencia’s striker, Rodrigo, it was incredible how often he makes deep runs and changes direction quickly. Why would he do this?
Realities of Speed: Interview with Track Coach Hakan Andersson
Team players gets a lot of acceleration, start&stop and change of direction stimuli in the team practice in general… small sided games in particular. The problem though that it develops a rather restricted movement patterns and poor sprinting mechanics. You often see 12-year-old soccer players moving better than 22-year-olds. Fore obvious reasons, I suggest some time is spent doing linear sprinting of various lengths and intensities at all ages.