15 Year Old Girls Soccer Players

Apr 24, 2010
Rating

Girls Soccer
by: Mitch - MTS

There are a lot of ways that you can go with 15 year old females. I'm personally not a big fan of chutes. I think that between the changes in running mechanics due to the position of the belt around their waist and the fact that oftentimes they have trouble openning and in windy conditions the pull is very unpredictable. But, if you have had good luck with them, I'm certainly not going to tell you what works best for your facilities and athletes.

When I work with this type of a population, I focus my attention on strength, technique, and fitness. Strength is the fundamental basis of all athletic movement, and without it, your girls will never be fast. And, athletes in that age bracket, typically struggle with strength. So, as one of my stations, I would work on a variety of bodyweight strength and power. You can combine a variety of bodyweight movements such as squats, lunges, squat jumps, scissor jumps, etc. into a circuit which will build strength, power and strength endurance.

I would also have a station which addresses running mechanics. Utilize the drills that I outline in the video on the speed pages on the MTS website. Things like A Skips, High Knees, Butt Kicks, Leg Cycles, and Harness drills will do wonders for these athletes. The Harness drill is especially good for combining mechanics and fitness. They are basically performing a high knee run in place with just enough resistance to allow them a slight forward lean to make it feel natural. This allows you to make immediate corrections while they are "running" in front of you. Perform 5 sets of 12 seconds and they'll be pretty well spent.

The other 2 stations can be used for agility and foot speed. Mini hurdle drills would work well here, as well as ladders. This will develop a lot of coordination, which is despirately needed in this population. You can also throw in some cone agility drills if you like. Just make sure that they focus on good mechanics while running through the drill.

Finally, I would finish with some kind of fitness (if they have anything left) for a little more conditioning. Then work on some core strength exercises and a good flexibility routine and you're set.

Let me know how it works out.

15 Year Old Girls Soccer Players

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