What should teenage footy players actually focus on in their training?

*Important note first – yes I realise that ‘teenager’ can be quite a broad category. Just as research on social demographics often categorises spending habits and feelings of age categories like ‘20-35 year olds’ (as if a 20 year old has anything at all in common with a 35 year old), the specific physical approach and abilities (and of course lifestyle) of a 13 year old will be very different to that of a 19 year old. That said, the principles covered here apply across the board, while the specific execution may look different. So please bear this in mind.

Teenage footballers become very motivated to do extra training to become stronger, faster, fitter, more powerful and more durable. The difficulty is knowing what those words actually mean or what they translate to in practice. There are hundreds of exercises, drills and training methods available. Social media provides a constant stream of professional players performing advanced gym sessions, sprint drills and conditioning workouts.

But good physical preparation is not about collecting as many exercises as possible. It is about identifying the physical qualities that matter most, developing them at the appropriate level and then organising them into a realistic weekly program (detailed periodisation is less important the younger they are – lets focus on getting a quality session layout and then a quality weekly layout and approach right, before thinking about annual plans.

So firstly, lets cover 6 big rocks or areas of focus, and then layout practically what this can look like.

1. Full-Body Strength

Strength is one of the major foundations of athletic development and the the ‘lowest hanging fruit’, in that improvements here will contribute strongly towards a number of other key areas. A stronger footballer has greater potential to:

• Accelerate more forcefully
• Jump higher
• Change direction more effectively
• Hold position in contests
• Tackle and absorb contact
• Produce more power
• Tolerate greater training and playing loads

However, teenage players do not need to train like bodybuilders or chase maximal lifts. The goal is to progressively develop strength throughout the entire body. A balanced strength program should include (with a common example):

• A squat or knee-dominant movement (example Squat)
• A hip-hinge or posterior-chain movement (Romanian deadlift)
• A single-leg exercise (Lunge, Single Leg Romanian Deadlift)
• An upper-body push (Single Arm Landmine Press)
• An upper-body pull (Bodyweight Row)
• Trunk strength (Deadbug, woodchop)
• Calf, groin and hamstring work (as common injury sites)

2. Acceleration and Maximum Speed

Covered in more detail elsewhere but footballers rarely sprint for 100 metres in a straight line. Most decisive running efforts involve short bursts:

• Leading towards the ball
• Breaking away from an opponent
• Closing space defensively
• Accelerating from a stoppage
• Chasing
• Creating separation
• Reacting to a turnover

This makes acceleration particularly important. Teenage players should regularly practise producing force quickly over the first few steps.

This is a perfect time to make a real quick point, the younger they are, the more they should be focusing here (acceleration and speed, rather than what is commonly called ‘fitness’ or general aerobic training.) Speed is harder to develop – it takes time, and the older they get, the harder to is to develop. ‘Fitness’ by comparison, whilst they need to ‘work hard’ to develop it, as a physical quality, it is easier to do.

Useful acceleration work includes variations of just that – accelerating. Funny that, don’t over-complicate it:

• Falling starts
• Split-stance starts
• Competitive chase drills
• Five-to-20-metre sprints
• Different facing starts
• Stationary starts building into moving starts

Maximum-speed running also still matters - players need exposure to upright sprinting and higher velocities, particularly as they mature and become stronger. Longer sprints, flying sprints and progressive build-up runs can help develop this quality.

Good speed training usually involves:

• Short, high-quality efforts (10-30m of absolute top-end speed)
• Full or generous recovery (for a 4-5 second sprint, a full 45 second recovery)
• Low-to-moderate total volume (4-5 x rolling 20-30 meters is plenty!!)
• An emphasis on technique and intent
• Stopping when speed clearly deteriorates

3. Deceleration and Change of Direction

Being fast is very valuable, but being able to stop, control the body and move rapidly in another direction is just as important, as footy involves constant braking and re-acceleration.

Players must:

• Stop after leading
• Change direction to follow an opponent
• Cut into space
• React to the movement of the ball
• Reposition defensively
• Land and immediately move again
• Absorb force when contesting the ball

Similar to the acceleration and speed – focus on the physical ability to change directions effectively with simple drills;

• 45-degree
• 90-degree
• 180-degree
• Lateral, backwards, forwards

Where the change-of-direction training is so effective is in the intent, rather than just doing an exercise – and focusing on more than simply running around cones as quickly as possible. Players need to learn how to:

• Lower their centre of mass
• Control the final steps before changing direction
• Place the foot effectively
• Keep the knee and hip stable
• Produce force out of the cut
• Re-accelerate efficiently

4. Jumping, Landing and Power

Football requires players to produce force quickly - this is power. Power contributes to:

• Jumping for marks
• Explosive acceleration
• Changing direction
• Tackling
• Breaking contact
• Kicking
• Rapid movement around contests

For teenage players, power training should begin with the ability to land and control force.Before completing large volumes of maximal jumps, players should be able to:

• Land quietly
• Control knee and hip position
• Maintain balance
• Absorb force through the ankle, knee and hip
• Stabilise on one leg
• Repeat landings without losing shape

Early exercises may include:

• Snap-downs
• Box landings
• Jump-and-stick exercises
• Low pogo jumps
• Skipping
• Small lateral hops
• Single-leg landing holds

Once those foundations are established, players can progress towards:

• Countermovement jumps
• Broad jumps
• Bounds
• Hurdle jumps
• Repeated jumps
• Single-leg hops
• Medicine-ball throws
• Rotational throws
• Light jump squats
  
  

Power work should be fast and technically sound.

Importantly - it does not need to involve a huge amount of volume. A small number of high-quality jumps or throws is usually more useful than a large number performed poorly under fatigue (circuit style – if doing this and power and movement quality is a goal – please don’t).

5. Running Capacity and Repeat-Effort Ability

Footballers need more than speed. They need the capacity to repeat high-intensity actions throughout training and games. A strong aerobic system helps players:

• Recover between sprints
• Maintain work rate
• Cover the ground effectively
• Recover between training sessions
• Sustain concentration under fatigue
• Repeat efforts late in games

We mentioned before that focusing on developing speed was more important particularly the youngest they are – and this is true. But that doesn’t mean that this isn’t important too – particularly as they progress through the teenage years. However there are different methods – and this does not mean every young footballer needs to complete endless long-distance running.

Conditioning should include a combination of:

• General aerobic work
• Controlled tempo running
• Interval training (the most flexible, adjustable and generally ‘best’ form)
• High-intensity aerobic efforts
• Repeat sprint exposure
• Football-based conditioning
• Small-sided games

The type of conditioning used (in their own time that is) should depend on what the player is already doing within the team setting, and what their biggest gaps are in terms of areas for improvement.

A player completing several team sessions and a weekend game may not need another large conditioning load. A player early in pre-season with limited football training may need more structured and specific running.

The aim is not to make every session as hard as possible - the aim is to improve the player’s capacity without undermining speed, strength, football training or recovery.

6. Robustness, Movement Quality and Training Tolerance

Teenage footballers are still developing and many are growing rapidly, adjusting to longer limbs, increasing body mass and dealing with changing coordination.

They may also be balancing:

• School football
• Club football
• Representative football
• Academy training
• Other sports
• Gym sessions
• Speed sessions
• School demands
• Casual work
• Inconsistent sleep

This makes robustness and training tolerance extremely important.

This involves a combination of mobility and flexibility work, as well as specific strengthening of commonly injured areas (or specific areas of previous personal weakness or injury.)

So things like hamstrings and calves with isometrics, and specific thoracic spine and shoulder mobility work as well as hip mobility work (teenagers spend way too much time sitting – this comes at a cost).

How do these areas fit into an actual program?

Understanding the important physical qualities is only the first step. The next challenge is fitting them together. A good weekly program should not try to train every quality as hard as possible in every session. Instead, the week should distribute the work so that:

• High-speed activities are performed while fresh
• Strength sessions are separated where possible
• Hard running is not placed immediately before games
• Football training is counted as part of the total load
• Recovery is built into the week
• The player can maintain quality across sessions

The way that you would approach a week would naturally change depending on what stage of the year it is – and therefore whether it is off-season, pre-season, or in-season. Naturally, if there are games, you can’t do as much or train quite as hard with absolute freedom as you could in off-season or pre-season. Additionally, with existing team sessions on, there is less of a need for specific extra running-based work (and realistically, the only running you may still choose to add in would be purely  low-volume speed work.)

So below is an example for a teenage footballer completing two team-training sessions and a weekend game.

If aiming to add in that speed session in season still that we discussed earlier;

This is the best way to spread such a week, ensuring fully recovered on game day, and getting that extra speed session in – since appropriately programmed speed work will not create fatigue prior to a strength session. However, where preferred or where constraints on availability occur, another option;

This could easily turn into a ‘if this then…….; and result in 25-30 different weekly layouts here. These are examples, of how simply it can fit together, keeping a good balance between stimulus and recovery, spreading the 2 strength sessions across the week, getting the speed stimulus in while fresh, and still prioritising football.

So what about the sessions specifically? Below is an example layout for a 14 year old taken from the free junior curriculum (box at the bottom of this article). A few key points – both sessions are full body, include a mixture of pushing and pulling, double leg and single leg, include jumping and landing, as well as core work and rotation work. Not a biceps curl in sight!......BUT…..if they get the valuable work done, there is certainly nothing wrong with throwing in curls at the end AFTER the important things are done.

You will notice in that table that the second column prescribes a method within that existing block or program to progress an exercise (if it is executed well consistently) without simply adding more load. The default setting we go to (often lazily) becomes 'make it heavier.' However, particularly at younger ages, there are multiple ways to make an exercise more difficult and challenge the movement in a different way without this - with slower reps, and paused reps in positions being a personal favourite - that not only challenge strength, but force a greater level of control and technique in harder positions. 

What about players with more commitments?

Many teenage footballers are involved in more than one program - in some cases more than 1 sport.

A player may have:

• Two club sessions
• School training
• A school game
• Academy training
• A weekend club game
• Social basketball/club basketball
• Gym work
• Additional skills coaching

In this situation, the answer is not to add more on top of everything else - or to try and squeeze in multiple gym sessions as well as a speed session and extra conditioning sessions. I see this a lot within the culture in junior tennis - endless add-ins.

The example needs to be adjusted.

A player already completing four football sessions may need:

• Only one gym session or two small ones
• Very little additional conditioning
• Short speed exposures before training
• Greater emphasis on recovery
• Reduced lower-body gym volume
• Regular communication between coaches

The important question is not:

“What else can I add?”

It is:

“What is already being trained, and what is currently missing?”

For example, football training may provide plenty of change of direction and conditioning, but very little structured strength development.

Another player may spend a lot of time in the gym but receive very little genuine maximal-speed exposure.

The program should fill the gaps rather than duplicate the work already being completed.

An important reminder - A program is more than a list of exercises

A good junior program does not need to be complicated - It does however, need to be organised. Understanding, buy-in and a degree of ownership of some decisions (more so the older teenage years) are underrated and very important. Ideally the player should know:

• What each session is designed to develop
• Where speed work belongs
• How gym sessions complement football
• When conditioning is necessary
• When extra work is unnecessary
• How recovery fits into the week
• What to adjust when football demands increase

The goal is not to complete the largest possible number of sessions - it is to consistently develop the physical qualities that support long-term football performance.

For most teenage players, that means focusing on:

1. Full-body strength
2. Acceleration and maximum speed
3. Deceleration and change of direction
4. Jumping, landing and power
5. Running capacity and repeat-effort ability
6. Robustness and training tolerance

Then those qualities need to be assembled into a week that accounts for football training, games, school, growth and recovery. That is the difference between performing random workouts and following an actual athletic-development program.