strength & conditioning

Futsal specific
Alan Sinovi
Strength and conditioning coach
Futsal club Alumnus Zagreb
 Who am I?
- Bachelors degree at Faculty of Kinesiology in Zagreb
- Strength and conditioning specialist
- Worked as a fitness coach in footbal, futsal,
basketball and handball clubs

Major trophies:
- Croatian champion
with Footbal club
Zadar, boys U-15
(season 2012/13
- Croatian champion
with futsal club
Alumnus, season
Some key facts about futsal:
Analysis of movement demands has shown
that locomotor activities in futsal match
changing every 3.28 seconds

One study reported 8.6 activities per minute

of play with a high-intensity effort every 23
seconds

Futsal players at high competetive level cover

121 (105137)meters per minute

Aerobic capacity (Vo2max) ofprofessional

futsal players is 58-65 ml/kg/min
What all this means?
It means that futsal
player at high
competetive level
must have very well
developed all
important conditioning
segments: speed,
agility, quickness,
aerobic and anaerobic
capacities,
coordination, balance
and strength
Base training hierarchy
Important segments of strength & conditioning
in futsal

1. Work capacity

2. Individual aproach

3. Evaluation/testing

4. Core training

5. Vo2max development

6. Tactical metabolic training

7. Speed, agility and quickness

8. Injury prevention

9. Balance

10.Periodization
1. Work capacity
Work capacity definition by
Vern Gambetta:

-. The ability to tolerate a

high workload

-. The ability to recover

from the workload
sufficiently for the next
training session or
competition

-. The ability to resist

fatigue
Why work capacity is so important?
1. Necessary for enduring the length of each training
session

2. Prepares the athlete for more stressful training sessions

and cycles

3. Enables quick recovery between training sessions

2. Individual approach
Each futsal team is a group of different people, with
different capacities, skills and different weakest links.
So, when you work with a team, you must consider your
team as a group of individuals.
For example, if you are
working on raising the level
of aerobic capacity with all
players following the same
program, you can expect one
of the things:
1. Your fittest players will
raise their fitness level,
but the least fittest
players will overtrain
2. Least fittest players will
improve, but fittest
players will stagnate
 Individual approach

What to do?
- Break players into two or three
smaller groups, depending of their
abilities and your resources
- Designing different programs, e.g.
one program is for players who
must work on agility, second
program is for those who lacks in
 3. Testing/evaluation
Standing broad jump

Sprint 5, 10, 20
meters
Testing/evaluation
4x5 meters agility

300 yard shuttle test

 Testing/evaluation
Beep test

Yo-Yo Intermittent Test (or Yo-Yo Intermittent

Endurance Test)
 Testing/evaluation
FIET - futsal intermittent
endurance test

- developed by Jose CarlosBarbero Alvarez et.

al.
 Testing/evaluation

- players run shuttle-running bouts of 3x15 m

(45m) dictated by audio signals
- after each 45 meters players are allowed to
rest for 10 seconds
- after each 8x45m, players passively rest for
30 seconds before continuing
- starting speed is 9 km/h, speed increments is
0.33 km/h for first 9 bouts, shifting to 0.20
km/h from 10th bout every 45m until
exhausting
-The test ends when player do not reach the
front line in time with beeps for 2 succesive
 4. Core training
-The core plays an important
role in transferring forces from
one end of the body to the
other
- Core strength has a significant
effect on an athletes ability to
develop and transfer forces to
the limbs
-If a player has a weak core,
hell be limited in ability to
maximize his running and
shooting
- Proper core stability allows an
athlete to accelerate,
decelerate, change directions
and quickly adjust to
 Core training
Core training is often neglected, underrated od
misunderstood
- Hundreds of crunches totaly wrong
- Hours in plank position far from enough for
quality core
- THE
CoreCORE:
is the most important link in kinetic chain!
- the spine
- hips and pelvis
- lower limp
- abdominal
structures

MOVEMENTS:
1. Multiplanar
2. Functional
3. Preferably in
standing
position
 Core training
The core can produce, reduce, and resist:
spinal flexion (saggital plane)
extension (saggital plane)
lateral flexion (frontal plane)
rotation (transverse plane)
 Core training
Sample exercises:
 5. Vo2max development

- VO2max: individual's maximal aerobic capacity

- It refers to the maximum amount of oxygen that

an individual can utilize during intense or maximal
exercise

- It is generally considered the best indicator of

cardiorespiratory endurance and aerobic fitness

- Vo2max is highly correlated with repeated sprint

ability and recovery rate
- VO2max values of or above 60 mL/kg/min are
advisable to play futsal at the professional level
 Vo2max development
M 1. Billlat protocol
15/15 or 30/30 interval training: run 15 od
E 30 seconds at 90% of HRmax) followed
by 15 or 30 seconds running at 70% of
T intensity. 12-20 reps in training, once or
H twice a week
2. 4x4 interval training
O 4 intervals of 4 minutes of high intensity
D exercise at 90% of HRmax followed with
3 minutes of active recovery at 70%
S HRmax
Various games where
3.players
small-sided games
must almost
constantly be in the
zone of vo2max
(intensity cca. 90%
HRmax)
 6. Tactical metabolic training

The tactical metabolic training approach to

conditioning is an extension of the high intensity
intervals and repeated sprint conditioning approaches.
The keys to tactical modeling are parameters from
competetive matches (work/rest ratio from competetive
matches).
This is favourable from a coaching viewpoint as it
allows technical and tactical elements to be executed in
simulated game conditions (Plisk and Gambetta)
 6. Speed, agility and quickness
SAQ Most popular method in the conditioning of
athletes

SPEED - rapidity of movement

AGILITY - rapid whole body movement with change of
velocity or direction in response to a stimulus
QUICKNESS - the ability to read and react to a
situation; it is a multidirectional skill that combines
explosiveness, reactiveness, and acceleration
SAQisisbased
SAQ basedononthe
the
stretch-shortening
stretch-shortening
cycle (SSC).
cycle (SSC). SSC
SSC is
is aa
eccentric contraction
eccentric contraction
followed
followed by an
by an
immediate
immediate concentric
concentric
contraction
contraction
Speed, agility and quickness
BENEFITS OF SPEED, AGILITY AND
QUICKNESS TRAINING:
faster footwork

improved dynamic balance

improved movement

shortening of reaction time

preventing injuries
 Speed, agility and quickness
Framework of Speed, agility and quickness (SAQ)
program:
1. Dynamic flexibility
Dynamic flexibility increase muscular flexibility
through the neuromuscular system and reduce
injury via decreasing reflexive muscle contractions
2. Mechanics of movement (running technique)
Hurdle drills; Knee-lifts, dead leg, multiple hops,
sidesteps, forward and lateral jumps...
3. Innervation
Ladder drills; various linear and lateral exercises
4. Accumulation of potential
This phase brings together the areas of work already
practiced. Short and very explosive drills, and the
emphasis is on quality. Combination runs.
5. Explosion
Short speed bursts, resistance running, contrast
training
6. Expression of potential
7. Injury prevention
 Injury prevention
1. Quality warm-up
Prepares muscles, ligaments and tendons for trainings and
matches
2. Proprioception
Itrefers to the body's ability to sense movement within
joints and joint position
3. Good technique & skills
Player with good skils and technique will be less
prone to injuries
4. Eccentric muscle contractions
eccentric strengthening have big preventive effect
5. Strengthening
Stronger muscles, ligaments and tendons are less
injury prone
6. Work on stability and mobility
Joint by joint approach best secret for
injury prevention
 8. Balance
Balance is the single most important
component of athletic ability because it
underlies all movement (Vern Gambetta)
- Our goal must be to
develop balance in
motion
- it is impossible to
quality reduce and
produce force
without balance
- if the balance is
lost, it leads to
inefficient movement
and wasted energy
- exercises: 90
degree jumps,
leaning tower, hurdle
walk...
 9. Periodization
Periodizationis the systematic planning of
training. The aim is to reach the best possible
performance in the most important
competition of the year
 periodization
GENERAL PREPARATION PERIOD 6 8 weeks

First two-three weeks: general preparation with

60-70% strength and conditioning programs
(testing, prevention, proprioception, aerobic and
muscular endurance, general strength), 30-40%
futsal technique and tactics

Third to fourth or fifth week: futsal specific

strength and conditioning, 50% of conditioning
programmes and 50% od technical and tactical
preparation

Last two to three weeks: emphasis on technical

and tactical programmes (70-80%), conditioning
programmes are strictly specific (SAQ
programmes, small-sided games...)
10. Nutrition and supplements
Dont underestimate power of quality
nutrition!
1. Dont eat simple
carbs and sugars
2. After training first
replace fluids (water
or isotonic drinks)
3. Eat lots of fish,
eventually add some
quality omega-3
supplement
4. Include healthy
fats(olive oil, nuts,
seeds...)
5. Never miss your
meal
6. Avoid fried foods
7. Dont trust
everything you hear
Important things to know

1.Train movements, not

muscles
2.In every training session
create an challenging
environment
3.Involve as many speed
sessions as possible
4.Stress core before
extremities
5.Dont involve single-joint
REFERENCES:
1. Gambetta, Vern: Gambetta Method, a Common
sense guide to functional training for athletic
performance
2. Castagna, C., Barbero Alvarez, J. C.: Physiological
demands of an intermittent Futsal-oriented high-
intensity test
3. Barbero Alvarez, J.C., et. al.: Match demands of
professional Futsal: a case study
4. Barbero Alvarez, J. C. et. al.: Match analysis and
heart rate of futsal players during competition
5. Fitzgibbon, Shane; Getting to the core:
http://irelandstrengthandconditioning.wordpress.c
om/2013/09/27/getting-to-the-core-what-is-core-
training-anyway/
6. Kelso, Tom: Core Strength and the Athlete:
Keeping It in Perspective
7. Junge A, Dvorak J: Injury risk of playing football in
Futsal World Cups
8. Rowbottom, David J.:Periodization of Training
9. Arnd Krger: Periodization or Peaking at the right