Speed is an essential component of attacking play, and it’s a prerequisite for getting past well-organized defense formations to set up goal chances. It depends on good basic running speed, solid technique and the ability to assess game situations in an instant. After discussing the relative importance of these factors, Thomas Nörenberg presents a selection of extremely challenging speed exercises. By pushing your players to their limits, these exercises will help you truly understand what your team is capable of.

An athlete’s ratio of body fat to muscle mass is related to performance. Research has shown that having the correct proportion of muscle mass increases strength, power and agility. However, gaining lean muscle is not just about choosing the right exercise protocol; it’s also a matter of nutritional intake and timing.

The most famous cheat sheet in soccer—the one that helped Jens Lehmann defend the German goal at the 2006 World Cup—was written by Andreas Köpke. Somehow Lehmann seemed to know exactly which corners his opponents were planning to shoot at, which of course was totally unnerving for them. And that, according to our authors, is what it's all about.

Without proper pregame nutrition, you won't get very far. However, it's important to keep your body supplied with plenty of energy during the game as well, and nutrition expert Andre Albrecht explains how to do it in the second and final installment in our series.

Sport-specific nutrition is a never-ending discussion---after all, eating and drinking are essential to life! Most people underestimate the importance of eating well before matches. In this article, we lay out the seven basic building blocks of nutrition and their significance for the game of soccer, then provide some tips for proper pregame nutrition.

Speed in soccer is considerably more complex than running speed. Game action speed and speed of play are especially important, demanding mental, technical and tactical abilities in addition to physical qualities. In this article, Greg Maas gives us plenty of ideas for improving speed of play, with a complete practice session from warm-up to cool-down.

When planning their practices, many coaches only plan the main part of the session and fall back on standard drills for warm-up. This wastes valuable practice time, because a warm-up consisting of drills can never achieve the proper effect. Fortunately, Paul Schomann is here to show us a better way, with passing exercises that prepare players for practice.

Coaches of very young players do more than just organize matches and practice sessions. By joining in the fun, they share their enthusiasm for the game. The activities they plan must be age-appropriate: movement training, unstructured play packaged in exciting stories---these are the tools of the children's coach.

Lots of kids --- and adults --- don't get proper strength training, which puts unnecessary strain on their joints. That's why players should start focused strength training at a young age. Remember, kids want training to be fun, and that includes strength training. When the ball is in play, these exercises become fun games.

This article shows you how to help very young players get more comfortable with the ball. Some of the exercises intentionally deviate from what we ordinarily think of as soccer training, allowing players to use their hands as well as their feet. All exercises are structured to give players plenty of repetitions without becoming boring.

To keep club soccer interesting and motivational, youth coaches have to fill every single practice session with age-appropriate objectives, activities and methods based on their own individual philosophies of youth soccer. In this article, Heike Volker addresses these questions and shows us some simple ways to make shooting training age-appropriate.

Soccer is a player's game, not a coach's game. Youth soccer must always be about player development and enjoyment. It must never be (just) about winning and losing. Our youth players should never play a match afraid of making mistakes. The guidelines in this article will insure that your coaching helps your players.

In this article, the author presents games that train players to fake. Instead of focusing on one particular fake, however, these games teach players how to execute the basic moves of dribbling and observing other players. Match character is provided by active opponents who must be closely watched.

In the previous installments of this series, Hermann Bomers gave us exercises on selected skills (dribbling, ball handling) or abilities (game action speed). This article deals with an aspect of group and team tactics: the wing attack. As you might expect, we don't teach this type of concept to very young players; instead we start with activities appropriate for ages 10 to 14.

A basic prerequisite for winning soccer is the ability to instantly make decisions that move your team closer to its objective. This ability is known as game action speed. In this article, Hermann Bomers focuses on game action speed and presents two practice games for each age level (basic, intermediate and advanced).

This article focuses on two related aspects of practice and match play: training players to maintain possession and teaching them to dribble close to the foot. For both concepts Hermann Bomers provides specialized practice games for each age and ability level.

In this article, Hermann Bomers draws our attention to a common problem in youth soccer training and argues that a good training program must be fundamentally play-oriented. Taking dribbling as his example, he shows us how practice games with special rules can be used at any age level to promote and develop desired skills.