Soccer

Yes, a team's formation style can affect the individual performance of its players in terms of physical performance and outputs.
 
Transcript: "Does a team's formation style affect the individual performance of its players? So in terms of their physical performance and their physical outputs, yes. If you're playing with five at the back and you have the wingbacks, they're going to cover a much greater amount of high speed running compared to if they were playing in a back full."

To improve the strength and endurance of soccer players, recommend a combination of lower body strength exercises, one strength session per week, with low volume and high intensity in season and higher volume with low intensity off-season. Also recommend use of longer endurance runs and higher intensity work for off season.
 
Transcript: "What strategies do you recommend to improve the strength and endurance of soccer players? So for strength we tend to use a combination of lower body strength exercises typically a quad dominant lift, a knee dominant hamstring exercise, a hip dominant hamstring exercise and a groin exercise and the calf and tabam as well. That kind of covers the most commonly injured areas in football and general rules for strength training would be at least one strength session per week ideally on match day minus three or four and if it's in season you want to keep the volume low but the intensity high and if it's in the offseason or preseason then you can go a little bit higher with the volume and a little bit lower with the intensity. In terms of endurance in season for the most part players are going to get exposed to enough endurance training through the actual football training whether that's small sided games or other possession games or tactical drills so there's not really as much of a need to to train that in season. In the offseason it may be more important to use a combination of longer endurance runs and some shorter and higher intensity work as well."

If you don't have access to a gym, you can still get a strength session in with exercises such as reverse Nordic, single leg squats, split squats, Nordic, slide outs, long lever bridges, single leg audios, Copenhagen holds, Bulgarian Squats, calf raises, and weighted step-ups.
 
Transcript: "So if you don't have access to a gym but do want to get a strength session in, I would recommend doing something like this. I'd still aim for a quad dominant lift, a hamstring, a hip dominant lift, a knee dominant lift, a groin and a calf slash taban exercise. Quad dominant lift could be something like a reverse nordic or a single leg squat or a rear foot elevated split squat. Knee dominant hamstring could be something like a nordic or a slide out if you've got a slippery floor. Hip dominant lift may be something like a long lever bridge or a single leg RDL. Your groin, you've got the Copenhagen holds which are great or a bull squeeze or something like that. And calf and taban, you could do calf raises standing on a step or wall taban raises. Those are all great options to still get a session in without actually being in the gym."

Carbohydrate periodization is recommended for athletes, where the amount of carbs consumed should change based on the activity of that day. For a 75-kilogram athlete, this would look like eating 8 grams per kilo (600 grams) on match days minus 1 and plus 1, 6 grams per kilo (450 grams) on hard training days, 4 grams per kilo (300 grams) on light training days, and 3 grams per kilo (225 grams) on rest days.
 
Transcript: "So this is known as carbohydrate periodization. And yes, the amount you eat-- the amount of carbs you eat should change based on what you're doing that day. So for a game day, I typically class it as match day minus 1, match day, and match day plus 1. That's going to be your highest carbohydrate consumption. A hard practice, obviously, is going to be more than a light practice, which is also going to be more than a rest day. So for example, for a 75-kilogram athlete, I would suggest on a game day eating around 8 grams per kilo of body weight. So that's going to be around 600 grams of carbs. On a hard training day or hard practice day, it's going to be around 6 grams per kilo of body weight, which is around 450 grams of carbs. A light training day is going to be a little bit less, around 4 grams per kilo of body weight, which is going to be around 300 grams of carbs. And an off day, your lowest day, that's going to be around 3 grams per kilo of body weight, which is around 250-- 225 grams of carbs."

The biggest challenge for professional soccer players in the UK is managing recovery in between fixtures. This can be managed through using various recovery modalities, equipment, and protocols. Additionally, getting quality sleep on a consistent basis is key in order to optimize recovery.
 
Transcript: "What are the biggest challenges for professional soccer players in the UK? I'd say with this one it's probably the amount of fixtures that players face. So off the back of that the biggest challenge is recovery for players. Being recovered well enough for the next game. I think it's safe to say that players aren't going to recover to 100% especially for a really busy season but you're trying to get as close to that as possible. They're going to deal with injuries throughout the season as well. So managing those injuries throughout the year is going to be really important. But if we go back to the recovery aspect, there's obviously a lot of different recovery modalities that you can use and techniques and protocols. Some great bits of equipment and kit that are available. Players will have probably their own approaches in terms of recovery as well. Anyone that's not heard of HITRO and seen the work that they're doing around blood flow restriction check those guys out. They're doing some really good work in recovery. I think the free one that we could all utilise better is sleep. Just very quickly the research points towards consistency with sleep. Consistency in terms of bedtimes and wake times. So I know night games can impact it but what the research says is if you get to bed late, try and get up at the same time and utilise naps and sleep throughout the day. So yeah, I'd say sleep is the biggest way of coming and conquering that challenge of fixtured congestion."

To reduce the chances of injuries, focus on getting strong, particularly in areas where players are weak and suffer. Keep up a consistent mobility routine with exercises to work on areas of restriction. Focus on strengthening hamstrings and hips.
 
Transcript: "What tips do you have for soccer players to stay injury free? Injuries, unfortunately, are part of the game to a point, but to reduce the chances of this as much as possible, I'd say a couple of things we can work on. Getting as strong as possible, increasing strength, especially in certain areas that players tend to be weak and suffer the most injuries. Hamstrings jump out as one of the key ones, and then working on mobility. Keeping up mobility throughout a season. You're going to be stiff, you're going to be sore throughout points of the season, but keeping consistency with a mobility routine and some exercise that you can lean towards that work on maybe areas that you face restriction in. A lot of players will suffer around the hips, again with the hamstrings, so there's a couple of areas to work on. For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov"