DEVELOPING AEROBIC CAPACITY

During a soccer match, a large percentage of time is spent doing low to moderate- intensity activities such
as jogging back into position, or moving into space to stretch the field. To meet these demands, it is
important that players have high levels of aerobic endurance. Indeed, soccer players have very high
measures of VO 2 max -- the maximal amount of oxygen consumed by the body per minute, which is used
as a measure of aerobic endurance or capacity. More importantly, increasing your aerobic capacity also
improves your ability to recover during bursts of high-intensity activities, and prevents a decrease in
technical performance that occurs with fatigue.

Several methods exist that can be used to develop aerobic endurance. These include: i) the continuous
work method; ii) interval training; and iii) Fartlek or variation training.

Soccer coaches have traditionally used the continuous work method (slow long distance running for
example) to develop the aerobic capacity of their players. However, as with all exercises, it is important
that the coach choose a method that meets the demand of the sport. For example, long slow distance
running will improve the endurance capabilities of your players, but can actually decrease force
production capabilities in sprint and other explosive- related actions. Moreover, although soccer players
do a lot of jogging over the course of the game, it is never in a continuous manner. As such, methods such
as interval and Fartlek training that involves performing short periods of high intensity work interspersed
with work periods of lower intensities are more soccer appropriate.

The exercises presented in the sections below target aerobic conditioning but involve soccer-specific
actions and mimic situations likely to occur throughout the course of a game.