The right tactics and the correct American football training methods can improve speed, strength, and agility. These are the three essential factors to succeed in this game.
Coaches often get complacent in their training, while poor understanding and lack of judgment can lead to improper practice for a budding football enthusiast. Every sport has different training requirement and needs a variation to flourish.
What is applicable for hockey, might not be the requirement for football. Speed, strength, and agility are the core of football training.
Table of Contents
Why you need strength training for football?
Strength training is an integral part of American football training. Players are aware of it and focus on the same. The requirement for large and strong players makes strength training extremely critical.
Such training advice should not be followed from bodybuilding journals but should be a part of their college training programs. Due to a large number of trainees and a lesser number of trainers, college programs are more simplistic in nature. They are basic training methods that you need to know, but usually less effective.
Sometimes athletes feel that bodybuilding can help them gain more muscle size. In reality, it pushes the speed down and makes them less mobile.
Split Training vs Whole Body Training
The most common approach of bodybuilding protocol is training one particular muscle group, each day, at the gym. This is the right method to approach for bodybuilders, however, footballers should avoid this process. This process makes it difficult to combine training with other essential elements which are needed to succeed in football.
Bodybuilders prefer to work on their quadriceps and hamstrings on different days. But for a footballer, that would leave him with little energy to practice other important facets of training such as sprinting and drills. This would lead to muscular fatigue which a footballer cannot afford.
Split training leaves the nervous system in the stress of performing in high pressure. A high-intensity work out might lead to an inability of performing other important drills at the field.
The way to approach can be two – either through a lower and upper body split or complete body training process. Both options come with their set of pros and cons.
If you split the body into two halves that would entail, training twice a week and rest 5 days can be left for other American football training.
You need to work on the legs on only two days and keep the rest of the time for football practice and other muscular exercises. Leg training needs you to give sufficient recovery time.
American football training schedule
Check out the weekly schedule of American football training for beginners:
Monday
- 2 Step Ups x 8
- 4 Squats x 4 – 6 repetitions
- 2 Pullthroughs x 8
- 4 Romanian Deadlifts x 4 – 6 repetitions
- 2 Ab Rollouts x 8
Tuesday
- 2 Shoulder Press x 6
- 4 Incline Bench Press x 4
- 2 Pull-ups x 6
- 3 Hang Cleans x 6
- 2 Tricep Extensions x 8
- 2 Barbell Curls x 8
Thursday
- 2 One Legged Squats x 6
- 5 Power Cleans x 3
- 2 Glute Ham Raise x 8
- 3 Snatch Grip Deadlifts x 5
- 2 Hanging Leg Raises x 10
Friday
- 2 Incline Dumbbell Press x 8
- 3 Close Grip Bench Press x 5
- 2 Seated Row Machine x 8
- 3 Pull-ups x 5
- 2 Tricep Extensions x 12
- 2 Dumbbell Curls x 12
Speed Training
Speed training is very important in the case of football. It might not be as crucial training that is needed in case of Olympic sprinters, but nevertheless, it needs high intensity and is a must do for all footballers. Body mechanics of footballers are different to a sprinter, but there is an overlap when it comes to training for both. A football speed training focusses on acceleration and agility techniques.
Training schedule during off-Season
Even during the off-season, professional footballers need to keep training. It ensures that they are in the best form and good shape. Check out how the training routine changes during this time:
Mondays
- Regular warm-up of 5 minute
- Mobility exercises of 10 minutes
- Running drills if 10 minutes
- Start work on 6 x 10 meters (Start from a 2 or 3-point stance and try to reach a maximal of the 10-meter sprint)
- Acceleration work on 20 meters x 6 (Start from a 2 or 3-point stance and try to reach a maximal of the 20-meter sprint)
- Acceleration Work 30 meters x 2 (Run for 30 meters from stand to start)
- Take a rest times between sprints of 2 minutes for 10-meter work, 3 to 4 minutes for 20-meter work, and 4 to 5 minutes for 30-meter work so the muscles are rested properly.
You need to do sprints on a day when the weights pushed are heavy. The sprints and weight can be done on different schedules, morning or evening.
Tuesdays
- Regular warm-up of 5 minutes
- Mobility exercises for 10 minutes
- Running drills for 10 minutes
- Tempo Work 8 x 100 meters at about 70% speed
This training is characterized by running a certain distance at almost maximal speed and then break it with brisk walking in the next lap. It helps in recovering fast.
Wednesdays
- Wednesday you need to give your body rest to recover.
Thursdays
- Regular warm-up of 5 minutes
- Mobility exercises for 10 minutes
- Running drills for 10 minutes
- Start work on 6 x 10 meters (Start from a 2 or 3-point stance and try to reach a maximal of the 10-meter sprint)
- Acceleration work on 20 meters x 3
- Acceleration work on 30 meters x 3
- Top Speed of about 50 meters x 3
This session is a combination of low load and explosive weight training. This day you need to practice maximum speed keeping acceleration in mind.
Fridays
- Tempo Work – 10 x 100 meter
- Repeat Tuesday’s routine
Saturdays
- Regular warm-up of 5 minutes
- Mobility exercises for 10 minutes
- Running drills for 10 minutes
- Start work on 10 meters x 4 (Start from a 2 or 3-point stance and try to reach a maximal of the 10-meter sprint)
- Acceleration 20 meters x 3
- Acceleration 30 meters x 2
- Top Speed 50 meters x 2
- Top Speed 60 meters x 2
Saturday has no weight training, so it is the best day to do speed training with a fresh approach. It doesn’t come with the strenuous heavy weight training conducted on Mondays and Tuesdays, so you can concentrate more on speed.
Final thoughts
The above gave you the basic American football drills for beginners and you can now look for coaching near you. Make sure you choose a professional coaching option where they not only help you understand the game but strengthen you enough to play it.