HOW TO BECOME QUICKER AT TURNING

In football, rotation is a movement which helps you to turn quickly and make speedy changes of direction. The muscles in your legs are largely responsible for the rapid decelerations and accelerations needed to make a quick turn, but training the muscles involved in rotating your torso will help to make those turns even more efficient.

ROTATIONAL EXERCISES Any movements which are commonly used on the pitch should be mimicked in your training to ensure that the muscles directly involved in these key actions are developed in terms of strength and power to make them as efficient and effective as possible. Compared to sports such as tennis, footballers have less emphasis on making rotational work a big part of their training schedule, but it can be a useful to include it

CABLE MACHINE: A good example of a rotational exercise using a cable machine is the wood chop:

• Stand sideways on to a cable machine

• Hold the handle (set at waist height) in both hands at arm’s length in front of you

• Keeping a slight bend in your knees, rotate to the side (away from the machine)

• Control the weight on the way back and repeat the rotation without letting the weights rest

• Aim for 8-10 reps and then repeat the exercise on the other side

This exercise can also be performed with the cable set in a high position and then moved from a high to low position whilst rotating, or it can be set in a low position to then rotate from low to high. An alternative to the cable machine is to use a fixed resistance band. The weight or resistance used should be light enough to allow smooth rotational movement at a controlled pace whilst standing at a distance which always keeps tension on the band.

MEDICINE BALL: Medicine ball exercises can be considered more advanced and more explosive rotational exercises. Any exercise performed using a medicine ball should always be as explosive as possible, with the aim being to throw or move the ball with as much power as possible.

For this reason, it’s important to start with a light ball and to keep the exercises simple. Even athletes such as tennis players who place heavy emphasis on rotational training exercises will keep the weight of a medicine ball light, so most footballers will only need 1kg up to 3kgs to benefit from this type of training.

A good starting point is the half-kneeling medicine ball throw:

• Face a wall, or work with a partner who can catch the ball

• To throw to your left, position yourself with your right knee on the floor and your left foot out in front with a bent knee (just as you would in a halfkneeling hip flexor stretch)

• Hold the medicine ball in both hands, rotate to the right and then throw the ball to the wall or a partner as explosively as possible, keeping your lower half steady as you rotate both ways

• Complete 3 to 5 reps on each side for 2 to 3 sets

To progress from the half-kneeling throw, you would simply move to a standing throw. Place your feet side by side and maintain a slight bend in your knees (athletic position) as you rotate away from the wall and then return in a fast, powerful rotation to throw the ball as hard as you can. The standing throw can then be advanced to a more reactive exercise, but only after working on the above exercises and developing enough power to throw a medicine ball of 2kg to 3kgs forcefully.

• Get a partner to throw the ball at you from the direction you want to throw in (if you want to throw the ball to your left, get someone to throw it at you from the left)

• As you catch it, shift most of your weight onto the other leg (right leg if the ball is coming from the left) and then powerfully return the ball in an explosive throw

In summary, rotation exercises can effectively be split into two categories:

1. Control and Strength: Woodchops fall into this category and as such they can be done towards the end of a gym session when you’re doing trunk stability.

2. Power: Medicine ball exercises fall into this category and as with all power exercises (e.g. plyometric exercises or sprint training) they should be done when you’re fresh, ideally at the start of a session after a warm-up. They could also be done before a football training session if you had a medicine ball available.