Soccer Conditioning & Fitness via Warm-Up Drills, Small-Sided Games, & Cool-Down Drills

with Jay Entlich,
Columbus State University Women's Head Coach;
2024 Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year (9x total);
2024 Peach Belt Conference Regular Season Champions (15x total);
2024 Peach Belt Conference Tournament Champions (10x total);
2022 Final Four appearance;
2018 USCA Southeast Region Staff of the Year;
2015 NCAA Division II National Runner-Up;2x USCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year (2005, 2008);
Carolina Courage (Women's United Soccer Association) Head Coach in 2003;
University of Tampa Head Coach from 2000 to 2002;
2001 Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year;
played college soccer for Virginia Tech;
United States Soccer Federation "A" license

Fitness is critical to success in soccer. However, between teaching technique and tactics, it's often difficult to find the time to get athletes into shape. That's where on-the-ball fitness training can be most effective.

In this video, Jay Entlich presents drills and training progressions that will enable your athletes to build fitness while also developing technique and tactical awareness. Coach Entlich's activities condition players to deal with soccer-specific situations on the basis of what's required in a given match. In a match, players are required to jump and sprint for a particular purpose, such as to create separation from a defender or to clear a ball off the goal line. Entlich provides in-depth explanations on the field to show different ideas on how to disguise fitness and give your players a more productive training session.

Warm-Up Activities

During the warm-up segment, Entlich demonstrates five progressions using two players and one ball to help athletes loosen up while building foot skills. One athlete runs and volleys passes back to a server for a minute before switching to serve for recovery. After demonstrating the segment with field players, Entlich shows how the drill can easily be adapted to working with goalkeepers using position-specific drills, such as jumping and catching, to low diving.

The emphasis in these drills is to get players to develop a foundation of fitness both anaerobically and aerobically based on the distance and time of the events chosen by coaches.

Small-Sided Games

In this segment, Entlich uses 3v3 and 4v4 games that can be adapted for a variety of situations to teach transition and improve pace of play while quickly building fitness. Through a series of five games, players are required to quickly recognize opportunities and work hard in attack and recover in order to be successful as a team.

On the Ball Cool Down Drills

A well-designed cool down is an important way to close out a practice and help the body recover and prepare for the next session. In the final segment, Entlich demonstrates how you can incorporate ball work into activities like straddle hops, planks, or even push-ups to create competition while keeping contact on the ball even at the end of the practice.

This video is full of creative ways that progress the "fitness with a ball" concept from warm-ups through cool down. These drills will help you develop a highly-efficient and effective practice that will push your players to perform at their best without having to "run." Perform better later in the game by incorporating these drills from Coach Entlich!

79 minutes. 2017.