Things to Do for Staying Fit for Football
Football needs a lot more than expertise. You need to remain fit to stay in the game and keep your performance level high. Football fitness needs some effort and this article will highlight some of the important “to do’s” for football fitness.
Speed, acceleration, agility, balance and strength are important for maintaining football fitness. And this article will give an in-depth detail for football champions.
Running mechanics, technique and strengthening your legs are three important ways by which you can increase your speed and keep your football fitness. If you lack in good running mechanics, then pay attention to running techniques. Work on it and improve your speed for football. Another important thing is the strength of your legs because speed improves with the force you apply on the ground. And in order to apply good force, you need your legs to be strong.
If we look at it from a scientific side, Stride length and frequency are the two important variables which need to be combined together to give good speed. Stride length is how long a distance you cover with each stride and stride frequency refers to the number of strides. To improve your football fitness, you need to improve on these two variables and here is how you can do it:
One technique which is used to improve strides length and frequency for football fitness is called “Shuttle Sprint”, in which you start off by standing at your required or preferred position. The next step is to run around 15 yards and then backwards. Repeat the process to maintain football fitness.
“Pylometric Circuit” is a drill which can do wonders for your football fitness but do not try to do it without the help of a professional. Do not do it more than once a week and definitely not a few days before you are about to play a big game. This can take some time to get used to with your body and it takes some time to recover from.
Repeated sprints are also useful for improving your speed and acceleration for football fitness. The neuromuscular and metabolic qualities of your muscles need to be strengthened in order to give you a good running stride. You can also use a Powerblast gauntlet to improve your speed. This equipment can really help you in maintaining your speed for football fitness.
Ladder drills are another good way to maintain your football fitness. In the game of football, you need to move your body in many different ways and you need agility to be a good football player. Ladder drills can provide you with different foot and body movements which can serve well in your football game. The movements will come naturally once you go through this drill.
Balance is yet another important element for football fitness and many players try to maintain it by standing on one leg. Although this is a good practice, but we have a lot of other good options today like one-leg punch and jump steps which can improve you balance nicely and maintain football fitness.