Influence of various preseason training in elite youth soccer players

Abstract

Aim: Endurance capacity of each individual soccer player can notably influence a team's success. The opinion about the necessity of generic endurance specific training in soccer, especially in adolescent athletes, still varies widely. Methods: We examined n = 38 elite premier league youth soccer players from three different age groups and with a different amount of endurance specific training. Two identical graded incremental exercise tests were performed before and after a 5 weeks training intervention. Besides soccer specific training, the different groups absolved either 25-30% (U16 and U19) or < 5% (U17) of generic endurance specific training as well as soccer specific endurance training. After the training intervention the alterations of blood lactate concentration (La-), the individual anaerobic threshold (LT) as well as the 4 mmol/-1 threshold were determined. Results: Running velocity of the U16 and U19 players at individual anaerobic threshold and at the 4 mmol/-1 threshold increased significantly. In contrast, no changes of the LT or 4 mmol/-1 threshold could be detected for the U17 players. Conclusions: The individual endurance capacity of young elite soccer players can be improved significantly, even over a short preseason period, by performing an adequate amount of generic endurance specific training.