MATCHFIT

It’s fair to say that the mention of footwork brings images of speed or agility ladders to mind, but in terms of improving foot speed and coordination for football, hours spent on ladder drills needn’t be the central focus.

Football Footwork

Efficient footwork in football is enhanced when you can more effectively separate the movements of your lower body from those of your upper body. Imagine a player jockeying another player on the pitch. They’re not jumping in for a tackle, they’re just trying to slow them down or guide them to wherever they want to go.

To do this, the upper body needs to hold a strong and stable position and your arms need to provide balance whilst the feet quickly shift into whatever position or angle is required to keep up with the opposing player. Hip mobility is a key component of creating this hinge effect, allowing your lower body to move at speed independently from your upper body.

An excellent exercise that works on hip mobility, balance, lateral speed and footwork quickness and coordination is the carioca drill: • From a standing start, step to the left with your left leg o Cross your right leg over in front of your left leg to continue travelling left o Step to the left with your left leg o Cross your right leg behind your left leg to continue travelling left o Step to the left with your left leg and repeat the pattern o Aim to get up on your toes and pick up the pace o Switch direction to repeat the pattern with your right leg leading the way and left leg crossing over in front and behind

Efficient Movement

Football specific footwork is fast-paced and this means the lower body needs to produce a lot of force in a short period of ground contact time to be able to move around the pitch efficiently.

One way to improve efficiency is to use plyometric exercises. These include static or dynamic jumps that focus on using the minimum amount of ground contact time to jump as high or as far as possible. To transfer into football, these jumps need to mimic the sideways, backwards and forwards movements required in a game, not just vertical leaps from the ground. For example, instead of doing pogo jumps on the spot, jump around to different positions to reflect the 360-degree range of movement needed on the pitch

HURDLES The aim of a plyometric exercise is to improve the ability to move explosively by training ankle stiffness, utilising a mechanism called the stretch shortening cycle which stores elastic energy in the rear of the lower leg. When optimal ankle stiffness can be achieved (not too stiff to limit movement but not too loose to result in lost energy and prolonged ground contact times) you increase your potential to move more explosively. Hurdles are not necessary for this type of work in their truest sense, however using them can increase the intent in each push-off or landing which is crucial for effective plyometrics.

Plyometric exercises using hurdles and conditioning the stretch shortening cycle mechanism include: o Two footed hurdle jumps o Single leg hurdle hops o Multi-directional hops and jump o Hurdle run throughs and many more

Different Sports And Different Positions

Exposing yourself to different sports brings with it a range of different footwork and movement patterns. The more experience you have of different patterns, the more movement literate you become, making it easier to adapt to changing situations in a game of football.

An example of this might be finding yourself with muddled feet when up against an attacker using a new skill to try and get passed you. The bigger your background in terms of playing other sports, the quicker you can adapt to the movements needed in any given situation.

KEY POINT:

Playing different sports can be used as an element of a football warm up at training. Several football teams incorporate other sports into training. Basketball is a popular one and also the England team has been seen playing with a Nerf American football.

The same effect can also be gained through playing in different positions. A striker’s movement patterns are quite different to those of a left back, but there can be times in a game when a striker is in the left back position. This can mean being exposed to different or unknown types of movement, so by putting yourself in different positions in training or in practice games, you gain the experience needed to be able to adapt and deal with changing situations.

Ladder Drills

A broad knowledge of different types of footwork will feed into improvements in the specific footwork patterns needed in your position. If you struggle with movement patterns or find it difficult to coordinate the footwork in drills such as the carioca at speed, then ladder drills can be beneficial as they help to develop a better understanding of where your limbs are as you move.

As with all types of speed work, good movement mechanics are essential when using ladders too. There’s no point in adding speed to a movement which is already being performed inefficiently. This will not only limit your speed potential but result in you moving fast without balance, fluidity and control. Perform all ladders movements at sub-maximal speed first to ensure sound mechanics and then gradually try to increase the speed whilst maintaining that form.

KEY POINT:

In terms of developing your speed of footwork for football, ladders and hurdles are a useful training tool but try to think more towards open play activities which require different types of speedy footwork if possible. If you can build up your footwork encyclopaedia from a young age then you’ll be better prepared to succeed in footballing moments which require fast and more complex footwork patterns. The higher the level you reach, the more athletic and well-rounded the players you’ll be competing against will be