Soccer Speed & Agility Practice Plan for 13 to 15 Year Olds

Mechanics and reaction, trained together: the shin angle that turns speed, landings that make it safe, and cues that never announce themselves. The log keeps the honesty.

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Three build-ups to near-full speed. A-skips and lateral shuffles. Hop circuit with silent landings, then loading: five tuck jumps sticking the last, three broad jumps sticking all, five lateral bounds per side stuck two seconds each. The warmup ends when the landings are quiet.

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Cuts at three chalk-marked angles: shallow 45, sharp 90, full 180 (the check-back), five reps each side at building speed. The graded mechanics: plant foot lands OUTSIDE the new direction, shin angled into the turn like a ski edge, hips drop through the plant, first step out short and flat. Film two reps per angle on a phone; the shin angle is visible in one frame and coaches itself.

The knee-control block, full attention: five single-leg lateral bounds per side, stuck, knee over toes; five single-leg forward hop-and-sticks per side; three fall-and-catch reps per side (lean off one leg until balance breaks, catch in a controlled single-leg landing). Chalk and date best distances. This block is the insurance premium, and it gets paid every session.

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In a five-yard lane, react instantly to pointed calls: left, right, back, "up" (header jump, land soft), "GO" (sprint through the line). Twenty-second bursts, full rests, six rounds, calls honestly random. Solo: a recorded voice memo of shuffled commands with random gaps.

The shuttle with the first direction called AT the start signal, not before. Four timed runs, logged separately from planned shuttles (reactive times run slower; that is expected and honest). This version is the one that transfers, because it is the only version games play.

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Continuous soccer-shape conditioning: sprint down, backpedal back (hips low, weight forward), hip-turn added at each end after round one. Ladder: 20 on, 20 off, 30 on, 30 off, 40 on, 40 off, back down. Lengths counted and logged; backpedal posture graded, honest asterisks on collapsed rounds. The last round's body is the one that plays stoppage time.

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Two full chains at match effort: build-up, two-step brake, live-called cut, sharp 90 both ways, reactive shuttle turn, backpedal, hip-turn, sprint through. Then the ritual close: three perfect single-leg stick landings per side, quiet, and the log read aloud: bounds, both shuttle times, pyramid lengths.

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What to watch today: the knee on every single-leg landing, tracking straight over the toes versus caving inward. Everything else here has a stopwatch; that one has a picture, and ten seconds of phone film a week keeps you sure which picture you have. Caving knees mean rebuild slower; straight tracking means load up.