Work on your pre-season at the beach

You don’t have to be on a football pitch to start your pre-season – players and coaches alike can be a bit creative at the beach and set themselves some targets for the holidays. So put sunbathing on hold get yourself in shape for the coming season!

How to do it

Grab hold of a few parasols that no one is using and set yourself or set your players a little running and dribbling session. Football involves sprinting over short distances. The sand’s resistance as well as any inclines from the natural ups and downs of the beach will increase your speed over the surface.

Technique

Keep your knees high and drive with your arms. The more time you’re in the air the less time you’re in contact with the sand – which slows you down. And remember if you get too hot get into the sea and do some walking against the water’s resistance.

You need to mark out five yards between each parasol and work out a routine.

1. Start your session by running to the first parasol then running backwards back to the start.

2. Now sprint to the far parasol and run backwards back to the start – you can run as fast as you can both forwards and backwards as falling over will not hurt in the sand

3. For the second quick session you need a ball – dribble to the first parasol and dribble around it

4. Then dribble to the last parasol and with as few touches of the ball as possible try sprinting with it back to the start

5. In the final part sprinting without the ball around the middle parasol and to the end and back is a great finish to get your lungs working overtime