BLACK Africa fitness coach and 6mo9 Sports Namibia founder Alfred Ndyenge will be providing sporadic exercise tips for footballers keen on improving their physical levels. This week, the focus is on how to improve shooting power, stamina and agility.
Abdominal exercises to improve balance
Football is very much a game of balance. Being able to elude defenders, jump over tackles, and just control your own body can be a difficult challenge. By creating a strong centre of gravity and building stomach muscles, you can increase your balance and general movement control. Creating a strong mid-section will also benefit your shot. With strong abdominal muscles, your shot will be much harder, and travel with a greater velocity. The following sit-up drills will help you create and maintain a solid mid- section.
*Bent Knee Crunches
Lie flat on your back, put your legs perpendicular to the ground, and bend your knees. With your hands lightly supporting your neck, slowly move your head and shoulders up towards the sky. You want to keep your head facing the sky, and not bend into your knees.
*Straight-Leg Crunches,
Set up the exact same way as the bent knee crunches, except this time don’t bend your knees. Your feet should be high in the air. Again, lightly support your neck with your hands, and raise your head and shoulders to the sky.
*Scoops
Sit on the top of a staircase, or somewhere where your feet will dangle just a bit. Rest your hands just behind your buttocks and lean back, raising your knees to your chest. From this position, slowly move your legs, straightening your knees, downward and in a scooping type motion. As your feet are fully extended and scooping, pull your knees back to your chest, and repeat the scooping rotation. This takes a little getting used to, but is very effective. Older athletes may want to put a light two to five pound weight on their feet to increase the difficulty.
*Throw Downs
Grab a partner for this one. Lay down flat on your back. Extend your arms as far above your head as possible, and grab onto the ankles of your standing partner. Raise your legs to a 90 degree angle, perfectly straight in the air. Have your partner try and throw your legs to the ground. You need to use your stomach muscles and keep your legs just inches off the ground, and then raise them back up so that your partner can throw them down again. Repeat this 10 to 25 times, depending on age and strength.
Coaches Input
Coaches should always make sure that proper technique is being used in every form of sit-up activity. You don’t want to have any pulled stomach muscles, tight necks or back problems. To make some of the exercises more exciting, you can have one partner on his/her back while another holds their feet down with their knees. The partner holding the other down can toss a soccer ball to the athlete doing the sit-ups, and he/she can head it during each upward motion.
These are some of the most effective and timeless football exercises that one can use.
Until next time, maintain the fitness!
Coach Alfie.
