Q & A

ANNOUNCEMENTS –Mark Williams has joined forces with Paul Blodgett – renowned Goalkeeper Coach - to form ISSC (International Soccer Science Center).  This innovative approach will revolutionize training for today’s soccer player.  More information to come!
 
Mark Williams will be a clinician at the upcoming National Soccer Coaches Convention in Baltimore, Maryland on January 17th.  He will speak about his philosophy on strength and speed training for soccer.

Also, Mark will be a clinician at the New Jersey Soccer Expo on January 5th discussing Warm-up and Cool downs for soccer.

Building Explosive Strength

This month's newsletter article focuses on building explosive strength for soccer. When athletes reach a certain level of strength or I feel we need to work on speed strength, I will implement box jumps into their program. The athlete below has been training with me for over a year and the results speak for themselves. She not only performs well on her box jumps (she is doing a set of 3 reps onto a 30 inch box!), but excels on the field as well. After a warm-up of lower height box jumps for 2 to 3 sets of 3 to 5 reps she will finish the session with 3 sets of 3 reps onto a 30 inch box. I'm confident she will be able to jump onto a 36-inch box soon with some weighted jump combinations. I use dumbbells in my jump training as this tricks the body into feeling heavier and invokes a greater neural response. I am currently training a professional goalkeeper who recently used 40-pound dumbbells in each hand to do a set of 3 reps onto 30-inch box. Now you might not think this is high but go ahead and try it with 80 pounds attached to you! Box jumping is a great method to build explosive strength but you need to do your due diligence first and get yourself up to a level of strength that will enable to get something out of it. I think box jump variations are an incredible addition to any athlete's regiment when they lack explosiveness on the field.

Question and Answer Section:

You can ask Mark any question dealing with Strength and Conditioning for Soccer players and he will address two or three questions each month.

Mark now has his strength training manual Williams Soccer Strength Method available on his website!