How to improve your fitness without a football.

It is more important than ever that footballers can maintain and build a level of fitness that can help them keep up a peak performance for more than 90 minutes on the pitch. During a game situation there may be long spells when you will not be in possession whilst you mark opponents, trackback, play offside, make a run or squeeze into space with your pace, speed and agility. By working on your fitness, even when you aren’t playing football, it can help you gain the advantage on the pitch. Read on to discover our tips on improving football fitness training without a ball.

Check out some of these training drills you can follow, or take inspiration from, to improve your capability on the pitch without the ball.

It’s good to have cones or hurdles when doing training drills at home or on the training pitch. Alternatively, you can use household items in place of cones and hurdles such as jumpers, bibs, scarves, and sticks.

Drills Pattern 1 – Knee Lifts

Arrange two hurdles side by side with one cone on the left and one to the right of your two hurdles. Start by standing on your left foot on the left corner and then jump over from the left cone, over the two hurdles and then land on your right cone. Repeat the drill, starting on opposing sides.

Drills Pattern 2 – Cones and Hurdle Course

As a warmup, you should arrange your cones out one in front of the other with roughly half a metre between. Your hurdles should then be laid out in front spaced at roughly one metre between each hurdle. Weave between your cones at a jogging pace using side steps and then jump over your hurdles running back to the start to repeat.

Drills Pattern 3 – Cone Callout

Mark your cones in different colours or individually label your cones A, B, C and D. The player stands at the centre of the four cones whilst another player calls out individually marked cones. The player then has to touch the cone as quickly as they can and return to the centre of the four cones. Repeat this drill with and without the ball.