On (most) Mondays, we revisit one of the listener questions we’ve answered in a previous episode. It’s been edited for clarity & brevity here.

QUESTION

from Johannes:

My 10-year-old son is a dedicated soccer player. With the school year ending, we will be on a 5-week summer trip to Europe.

I want to use this holiday as a "pre-season" training period to help him get stronger and better prepared for more physical matches.

He is on the lighter side for his age, with some peers being 10-15kg heavier. How should I approach this pre-season training?

ANSWER

BEN: You can't, and you shouldn't.

The goal isn't to make him beefier in those five weeks - people develop at different speeds. What you can do is help him build a little strength, but at that age, size isn't something you can control.

Now, if we were talking about 18 and 19-year-olds, we could discuss how to increase size. But pre-puberty, you can't control size with training. Instead, focus on making him stronger. It might sound like I'm saying the same thing, but strength and size, while correlated, aren't the same - especially at that age.

Let me give you an example:

My son, Bode, is a 12-year-old soccer player who's undersized. Many kids on his team are 5, 10, 15, even 20 pounds heavier. But he's one of the stronger kids — probably the strongest, pound-for-pound, on the team.

You can make kids stronger through simple exercises. All you need is basic bodyweight stuff.

It's surprising how much upper body strength is required in soccer something I didn't appreciate until I started watching more high-level matches. Soccer is much more physical than people realize. It's like basketball in terms of body positioning, grabbing, and pushing.

So, focus on simple exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. Keep doing those. If you want to use light weights while traveling, a pair of 10-pound dumbbells would be great.

If you're going to use weights, I'd suggest thrusters.

Hold the dumbbells in a hammer grip — palms facing each other — at your shoulders. One head of each dumbbell rests on your shoulders, the other head points straight ahead.

This is the front rack dumbbell position.

Squat down to full depth, then stand and press overhead. Do three sets of ten. He'll get much stronger.

However, all that said, what I'd actually recommend focusing on during these five weeks is speed.

Strength and size will come over time. They're not the biggest differentiators at this age. Even with kids 10 to 15 kilos heavier, if you can outrun them, you've got an advantage. The best way to improve speed is through short-duration, moderate hill sprints.

Find a moderate hill — not a mountain — where he can use normal running mechanics. It should look like he's running normally, not struggling up a steep incline. Running up stairs, for example, alters your normal running form too much.

Do short sprints up a slight incline. Aim for bursts lasting between four to eight seconds. Keep it short — just blast and burst. This would be my top focus, followed by conditioning.

Building speed will help him beat others to the ball, negating any size advantage. Conditioning ensures he can maintain this throughout the game.

Here's a simple program:

Have him do four to eight-second sprints, four to eight reps, with plenty of rest between. These should be all-out efforts.

Afterward, stretch and do some "gassers." As a soccer player, he knows these — run to the 18-yard line and back, then to half-field and back.

Do four to six of these with about 30 seconds of rest between each.

Chasing Excellence

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