Sports: Soccer

Why should PowerCranks™ help Soccer players?

The physical aspect of running during a soccer game is pretty straightforward, how can an invention like PowerCranks help?

Soccer players demand a combination of game run endurance and powerful, explosive high speed efforts. Due to the unique nature of soccer, players depend on their legs more than any other team sport athlete. Your legs get you into position, they help you reach the ball first, they take a terrific pounding stopping, and your legs create strong kicks and explosive leaps over your competitors to head the ball.

Track and field Sprinter Aaron Thigpen took 0.2 seconds off the American age group record for the 100 meter dash after 4 months on the PowerCranks™. Read coach Thigpen's online review of PowerCranks™ here. and see our in-depth video interview of Aaron talking about his 3 years of experience training athletes for top speed running & rehab with PowerCranks™. smaller file (5mb) / High quality (15mb!)

Anything that can improve your legs, and your ability to utilize them, is an absolute necessity.

Powercranks:

• Train the hamstrings, hip flexors, and the many stabilizer muscles that control the legs and help drive them forward after the foot leaves the ground during running. This improves top speed. PowerCranks™ also improve the power/aerobic ability of the hip flexors, increasing the ability to play accelerate over and over.

• If you increase the athletes acceleration driving the legs forward, you increase running speed, increasing speed increases the chance of making it to the ball first.

• PowerCranks™ modify the character of the primary hip flexors from powerful muscles with little aerobic capacity to powerful muscles with substantial aerobic capacity (similar to the quadriceps) improving more than speed, it improves your ability to go fast, over and over.

• An aerobic muscle has improved blood flow and more mitochondria than found in anaerobic muscles. By improving blood flow and muscle mitochondria concentration in the hip flexors allows improved recovery rates. This improved capacity allows more frequent or sustained anaerobic bursts without degradation in effort as the contest drags on.

• Soccer players need game long endurance, They need the ability to make a maximal sprint and recover quickly to get into position for the next play. Powercrank training on a stationary bike is superior to many other forms of training in creating this capacity, since it trains the muscles and neuromuscular systems specifically for running with a minimum of intramuscular trauma. Running sprints still have an essential place, but a larger volume of training, creating great benefits to on field performance, can be accomplished on PowerCranks™.

• PowerCranks™ are a terrific rehabilitation tool to come back from the leg & knee injuries that challenge even the best players, read our rehab section to find out more.

• If top track and field sprinters have found PowerCranks™ give them an advantage in their competitions, why not bring that same advantage to your athletes?. With the athleticism of today's game, blazing speed can be just the edge your team needs.

1. Ride in a more open position in the very beginning then move to riding with the hands on the handlebars
   At first, most users will find it very difficult to consistently raise the legs over top dead center of the pedaling arc, especially while in the fully crouched position. Riding more upright makes it easier to learn the basic coordination and develop some basic endurance. But, soccer running is always brief bursts of speed, and this involves running somewhat bent over. Therefore, once you have the basic coordination all other riding should be done slightly bent over as this better reproduces your position when accelerating on the field. This is explained better by Aaron Thigpen in his video mentioned above.
   
   
2. Work on endurance first
   It is usually most effective to learn a new motion practicing it repeatedly at slower velocities before attempting to try it at maximum speed. Pedaling on PowerCranks™ is no exception. Soccer players are not marathoners so there is no need for 2 hour endurance. But, one needs to develop some aerobic capacity to facilitate quicker recovery after anaerobic efforts. Develop the ability to ride constantly for 15-20 minutes before working on other drills below.
   
   
3. Work on leg turnover rate.
   Since this sport involves burst activity, i.e., short periods of maximum effort with long periods of recovery (the only exception being catchers & pitchers, who need physical endurance) once soccer players have adapted to the new motion, they should work on riding at the highest cadence possible for short periods then recovering at low cadence and repeat. PowerCranks™ are an excellent cross training tool. The increased strength and endurance that occurs in the hip flexor muscles allows for increased forward acceleration of the leg, without going anaerobic, with resulting increased leg turnover rate and/or stride length. Increased running speed and leg control is the natural end result. Soccer is a burst activity sport, involving short but frequent bursts of activity with varying periods of reduced activity allowing recovery. Therefore, training requirements for top speed running are most like those of a track and field sprinter. While not confirmed, we anticipate burst activity athletes can benefit greatly from only riding PowerCranks™ for about 30 - 45 minutes 3 or 4 days a week.
   
   
4. Work on independent coordination skills.
   Since this sport requires substantial leg control to change direction, speed, and kicking the ball indiependent leg control is important. Therefore, pedaling forwards with one leg and backwards with the other and changing randomly is a usefull drill to develop better independent control over the legs.
   
   
5. Be Determined!
   PowerCranks™ are a whole new way of using your legs, unlike a bicycle racer or triathlete who has spent years building up cycling specific strength, this motion might be new and frustrating to some athletes, especially ones who have been used to excelling at everything they do right away. The first few weeks on PowerCranks™ can be a challenge, as even elite cyclists have been humbled by PowerCranks™, and take some time before they master them. Be determined and patient, and your players will be faster, quicker, suffer fewer injuries, and those moments where the game hangs on making or breaking that tackle, and avoiding mental errors due to exaustion, will more often be determined in your favor. If a player had never lifted weights before, and was introduced to professional caliber weight room training, how long would it take before their maximum strength could be realized? PowerCranks™ do not require that type of time investment, but the result is just as dramatic.