Pre-Season Fitness Drill #1: The Dirty Dozen / Sickly Six
This is a great Pre-Season Fitness Drill, as it not only tests your players, but levels the playing field and gives great competition.
Split your squad into groups, based on your perception of speed and fitness, slowest in first group, fastest in last group.
Have a coach assigned to each group and to run a stopwatch and record times (we’ll get to why later)
Everyone will do 12 runs, or you feel this is too many, half it and it becomes the Sickly Six
The Full length of the pitch and back equals 1 run.
After each run, there will be 10 reps of an exercise of your choice, with the exercise changing every time.
Below are some examples
| 1. | 10 x Star Jumps | 7. | 10 x Squat Thrusts |
| 2. | 10 x Sit Ups | 8. | 10 x High Knees |
| 3. | 10 x Press ups | 9. | 10 x Squat Jumps |
| 4. | 1 x 60 second plank | 10. | 10 x Tuck Jumps |
| 5. | 10 x Squats | 11. | 1 x 60 second plank |
| 6. | 10 x Lunges | 12. | 10 x Burpees |
Stagger the start times between the groups on Week 1.
Record everyones finish time.
On Week 2, if Player A finishes last, and 7 minutes behind player B who finishes 1st in Week 1, then Player A gets a 7 minute head start on player B in Week 2.
Work everyones start times backwards from the fastest player on Week 1.
Record everyones times again, and adjust for Week 3 etc.
The idea being that if everyones start times are staggered, is that it creates an “equal race” so in theory, everyone should finish pretty much at the same time.
Pre-Season Fitness Drill #2: S. M. L (Short, Medium, Long)
Another great Pre-Season Fitness Drill that gets the kids involved in how good or bad the drill can be,.
Set the pitch up with 3 markers.
S (Short) = Quarter length of the pitch
M (Medium) = Halfway Line
L (Long) = Full Length of the pitch
Mark 3 pieces of Paper, one with S, one with M, one with L and put them into a bag.
Let each player come up and select a piece of paper and build the drill. (The kids love this as it builds the tension of what they may pick and makes it fun)
| 1. | Player A selects M (Medium) |
| 2. | Player B selects S (Short) |
| 3. | Player C selects L (Long) |
| 4. | Player D selects L (Long) |
Drill becomes: M, S, L, L etc – until every player has had a pick and the drill is complete.
All players set off together on each run. The next run starts as soon as the last player finishes each run.
Can be brutal if the draw goes against you but great fun too
Pre-Season Fitness Drill #3: Super Shuttle Sprints
The Final Pre-Season Fitness Drill is all about recovery time fitness.
We’ve covered endurance in the 2 drills above, this is all about recovery time before the next set.
Set 3 markers.. whatever distance you like.
Split your squad equally, so everything balances out.
Each players goes once per set.
3-5 sets
Absolute leg and lung blower but will build great fitness.
Time each time per set, keep the same teams for next week and challenge them to beat it.
Pre-Season Summary
In total these drills should only take around 20-30 minutes per session. A lot of coaches don’t like doing fitness Pre-Season, especially for the younger ages.
However we have tried both, and find that it really does help the players during games once the season starts.
Because they are fitter, they make better decisions, especially later the in games and come stronger when others fade.
Give it a try and let us know below what you think..
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