In our October edition of the Byte Size Coaching Newsletter we talked about some revolutionary changes to how we might conduct the soccer practice.

Dr Carl Shearer made us aware of some research coming out of Norway from the Oslo Sport Trauma Research Center (Click here for the Link ). It suggests that soccer players need a full 20 minute warm-up before moving into skills and team development - mostly without the ball.

As many practices are limited to 60 minutes due to the shortage of soccer practice facilities that would really cut into valuable practice time.  But if the research is correct (more work is still needed) it would require a paradigm shift in our approach as coaches to the practice session.

Go to this link at FIFA.com where you can see the video and descriptions of the recommended warm-up.  You might find accessing the video of the 11+ program, as it is called on the FIFA site, is a bit labor-intensive.  Normally the FIFA website is very user-friendly.  But it is worth the effort to see what might well become the "standard" warm-up for soccer practice the world over.

My best learning experience in my soccer life was at Liverpool Football Club with the legendary Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.  One of the many, many insightful things I was privileged to gleam over a two year period was the warm-up that was led every practice session by Reuben Bennett, the club trainer.

The Warm-ups were always without a ball and would last anything from 30 to 40 minutes.  Scottish striker, Ian St.John, would joke, "We work harder in our Warm-up than any other team in their whole practice sessions."  But the proof was in the pudding, as they say.  The incidence of injuries at Liverpool was significantly less than most other professional soccer clubs (which can't be said for Liverpool today with their many injuries).

When I looked at FIFA 11+ program it had an uncanny similarity to the old Liverpool warm-up.  Shankly, Paisley and Fagan weren't sports scientists, and all had left school at 14-years of age, but they were intelligent soccer people.  All three had a soccer-savvy that took them way ahead of their competitors.