Planning training in amateur soccer

Abstract

This work revealed, analyzed and characterized the training planning of the men's soccer clubs of the Platense Amateur League of the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 2013 and 2019. The little scientific knowledge about soccer training in this specific context is an inconvenience for the organization of the training process, which often leads to adapting the high performance model to a totally different environment with fewer resources. Faced with this challenge, we opted to address the research problem from a quantitative and descriptive research technique, specific for data collection. A self-made questionnaire was designed to be applied in personal interviews to the physical trainers of the first team of several amateur men's soccer clubs in La Plata. Through these structured, standardized and closed questionnaires, information was collected that allowed us to conclude the following: club planning tends to be vulnerable, variable and consequently improvised, as a result of the great inconveniences and limitations of the amateur environment; the periodization, the methods, the means and the training tasks are in accordance with the sports specialty; the pre-seasons described were short and insufficient, for the optimal development of the physical condition of the players; the transition stages could not be worked out correctly as a result of the difficulties of the environment; training control by physical trainers was poor; and, finally, the good consistency of the players was associated with the achievement of high positions in the championship standings.