Speed, strength and agility training

Desert619

SILVER
Out of curiosity, how many of you have your kids in speed, strength and agility training? I would like to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons and also please tell me how it has helped your kid with soccer? Have you seen any Benefits?
 
Out of curiosity, how many of you have your kids in speed, strength and agility training? I would like to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons and also please tell me how it has helped your kid with soccer? Have you seen any Benefits?
I have my daughters with a trainer. I have noticed a difference indeed. They running form and strength has gotten a lot better. One of my daughters loves doing headers and even that has gotten better. It's been all around great. If need be I can recommend the guy we use. Only con is more driving and days for me
 
Unless your kid has naturally perfect form and balanced strength in their different muscle groups, it will definitely help.
 
Definitely helps with many things. Injury prevention is number one, if the program includes a good amount of core strength training that is very good as well. Of course, like many things, depends on trainer/sessions and if you child puts in the effort. Give a go for at least six months. Then re-evaluate.
 
If your kid is playing almost every weekend and training 3-4 days per week with their club and then you adding some outside "Speed and agility trainer" they are being way way over trained! These are little growing bodies and can only handle so much.
 
If your kid is playing almost every weekend and training 3-4 days per week with their club and then you adding some outside "Speed and agility trainer" they are being way way over trained! These are little growing bodies and can only handle so much.

I can't believe I am agreeing with sand shark, but speed and agility training can lead to overuse injuries. Also most of these "trainers" have no idea what they are doing. If you are worried about core strength, there are exercises they can do at home. YouTube is your friend.
 
I can't believe I am agreeing with sand shark, but speed and agility training can lead to overuse injuries. Also most of these "trainers" have no idea what they are doing. If you are worried about core strength, there are exercises they can do at home. YouTube is your friend.
OHHHHHHHHH MAN or WOMAN whatever you are:D I feel like I won the Lotto today! Crazy agreed with me.:)
 
Seems to make a big difference. I will say that this is something that my children have to keep up with or else they regress. They are able to learn the exercise routines and stay physically in shape. The challenge is the improvements to the form. My son and daughter have seen huge improvements, but within a couple of months off from training we can start to see a noticeable difference.

I will also agree that some of the trainers can overtrain, but if you have experienced trainers they can notice the pain points and modify the training to lighten up. My daughter in particular can have some issues with joints, and in those cases her trainer tends to work around certain exercises and drills.
 
We do 2 practices a week, game(s) on weekend and added S-A training 1-2 days so 4 days training total, very happy with results
-9 yr old boy- We dont do more than that , its just right, kid loves it , and it shows big time in his playing.
Last year we added Santa Ana League with no S-A- training and that worked well too.
 
I asked my kid what he did in speed training and why it worked for him. I normally have to drive him far for practices so I stay to watch, but his speed coach is just a few blocks from my house so my kid bikes there. His trainer has an impeccable reputation and my kid really liked working with him and it was working, so I just paid the dude and let him handle it.

First, the trainer does an assessment for imbalances. Right footed player is normally stronger in his left foot, but has better control on his right foot, for example. He determined that as my son grew, he had not strengthened enough his lower leg muscles to support his weight on the balls of his feet, and he was over striding and not pushing off, shortening his follow through.

The trainer made him do a bunch of exercises to balance him and strengthen the muscles he needed to get on the balls of his feet, and fix his stride mechanics. I have no idea what those exercises were. All I know is, I spent all of last season yelling at my kid "Get on the balls of your feet and run knees high!" It was a waste of breath. I could see the problem but I had no idea how to fix it.

My advice is, soccer is the beautiful game. Good players should move beautifully when they are playing. If your kid is serious about getting better, and there's something that looks off, you should get the coaching to fix it. Even if your kid is moving ugly and playing well, to me, it just means the kid is too physically mature or talented for the level of competition. Against higher level competition inefficient movement will not cut it.

My son was doing fine in flight 1 but when he went academy he really struggled because he was not moving right. It took nearly a season to fix his mechanics but by the end of the season he was blowing by quality academy level defenders.
 
I asked my kid what he did in speed training and why it worked for him. I normally have to drive him far for practices so I stay to watch, but his speed coach is just a few blocks from my house so my kid bikes there. His trainer has an impeccable reputation and my kid really liked working with him and it was working, so I just paid the dude and let him handle it.

JJP, can you message me where your trainer was located and if he/she has a website? Edit--wait, I can't tell if there's a way to do messages on here.... :-/ Is there a way to give the details of your speed coach without revealing which neighborhood you live in? My kid has an, uh interesting running form.
 
Be very careful with who you use. In SoCal we have a lot of pretenders who make a lot of money off of ulittle parents with their “programs”.
One of the best programs I have seen is in Laguna and run by an actual PT who focuses on injury prevention.
Another great program is a guy who is a kinesthiologist and also does mechanics. The sessions seem “boring” as they are mainly band work, stretching, and mechanics.
The people who pound your kids knees in a parking lot are questionable. Avoid.
I encourage you to look at their instagrams and social media, google them to get a feel for “who they are” before you sign up. You can tell a lot about these guys by their social media.
 
Be very careful with who you use. In SoCal we have a lot of pretenders who make a lot of money off of ulittle parents with their “programs”.
One of the best programs I have seen is in Laguna and run by an actual PT who focuses on injury prevention.
Another great program is a guy who is a kinesthiologist and also does mechanics. The sessions seem “boring” as they are mainly band work, stretching, and mechanics.
The people who pound your kids knees in a parking lot are questionable. Avoid.
I encourage you to look at their instagrams and social media, google them to get a feel for “who they are” before you sign up. You can tell a lot about these guys by their social media.
Couldnt agree more.....we looked for months, then was pointed in the right direction by someone that has mentor'd my kid for almost 5 years 100% responsible for making him the player he is today....I searched high and low, talked , even met with several different candidates but in the end , I asked for help and someone I trust got us the ideal candidate. He works on exactly what MY kid needs.
Prior to finding him I felt like the prior candidates just wanted to fill in spaces, maybe they were better , maybe worst , all Im saying is take your time , its like hiring , you have to go thru a few to find that one that works.
 
If they do not do a baseline assessment of your child then it’s not he right place. That gets about 50 percent out right off the bat.
 
Couldnt agree more.....we looked for months, then was pointed in the right direction by someone that has mentor'd my kid for almost 5 years 100% responsible for making him the player he is today....I searched high and low, talked , even met with several different candidates but in the end , I asked for help and someone I trust got us the ideal candidate. He works on exactly what MY kid needs.
Prior to finding him I felt like the prior candidates just wanted to fill in spaces, maybe they were better , maybe worst , all Im saying is take your time , its like hiring , you have to go thru a few to find that one that works.

Chris D would you mind sharing the person who you used?
 
I just recently visited champions quest in Los Alamitos (OC). Seems expensive but legit. Any thoughts on them?
 
If your kid is playing almost every weekend and training 3-4 days per week with their club and then you adding some outside "Speed and agility trainer" they are being way way over trained! These are little growing bodies and can only handle so much.

Have any of you actually researched or studied over training? Or are we just repeating somthing you thought sounded hip & intelligent?

If emphasis is placed on nutrition/sleep in between work outs, over training turns into a myth.

Remember the days of old? Grabbing a ball in the morning and playing all day till it got dark, every day, all summer? Throw in some swimming days and foot races with your friends... Etc.... Etc.....

Was that over training? It's a lot more then some of these kids are doing now inside and out of their clubs.

Organized sports have become the new "play" because kids don't go outside to play with their friends.
 
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