Strength training and youth football: the functional approach of the Atalanta youth team

Speed, Endurance, Power, Intensity: the physical-athletic component is becoming an increasingly dominant factor in modern football. At a professional level, matches are played at a frenetic pace, which often sees the team that manages to maintain lucidity and freshness for the longest time prevail over the 90 minutes. But what effect has this trend had on those who have yet to make it to professional football? The same transformations also concerned training in youth football?

"The physical factor in modern football is undoubtedly fundamental – he declared in this regard Alberto Pasini, Spring Athletic Trainer and Head of the Trainers of Atalanta Youth Sector –, much more than a few years ago, but we are convinced that football is a predominantly technical-tactical sport, therefore above all linked to the skills of the players from a technical point of view. The goal of a youth sector must be the improvement of the players, so no, in our opinion, the physical aspect must not overlap or take away space from the technical-tactical aspect. So what we try to do is integrate the two as much as possible, developing them at the same time especially for the younger categories".

This integrated approach has always characterized the Atalanta Youth Sector, now established as one of the best realities in the country and beyond, which leads its young people with great continuity to earn a place in the Nerazzurri First Team and in the various nationalities. “That of focusing on technical improvement, and therefore on quality rather than quantity – continued Pasini –, is a trend historically adopted by this club, which translates into a certain type of game, adopted by all coaches, and a particular attention to the selection of quality players. In all of this, therefore, the physical factor is important, but not predominant".

Athletic training as a transmission of work culture

Il physical workHowever, in addition to the direct benefits in terms of preparation, it also takes on another meaning in the youth sectors, namely the transmission to young athletes of a propensity for work, effort and sacrifice"On an almost philosophical level, we make the kids work "dry" in the gym also for this reason: our goal is to train them as future professional footballers, and in certain contexts football is not only fun, but also and above all effort. We therefore aim to create in them the conditions to be ready for the football of the greats, and in our opinion this also passes from the transmission of a work culture which we consider essential. The response of the players varies according to their individual background (there are young people who come from all kinds of geographical and socio-cultural backgrounds) but in general there is a good inclination here at Atalanta. In this, the fact that many young people go through the whole process from Pulcini to Primavera with us also helps us a lot and for them struggling, working and having the right attitude during training is normal".

Strength training in youth football

The introduction of strength training in youth football therefore takes place gradually, as specifically confirmed by the Head of the Strength Area of ​​the Atalanta Youth Sector Roberto Cala"Initially, from the basic activity up to the beginning of the competitive one, we try to work on general bodyweight strength and especially on body awareness, and this takes place in a decontextualized way, i.e. not bound to a specific place such as the gym. The goal is to know how to use the body. It is an approach that falls within the so-called functional workout, and which differs from the analytical one of the 90s, which was borrowed from disciplines such as bodybuilding and led the athlete to a dead end. At Atalanta we are currently trying to bring more and more kids from the Under 16 age range to the gym and our goal is to create a redundancy of stimuli at various moments of preparation and for various types of purposes: preventive (reduction of accidents), increased strength capabilities under various expressions and also more analytical aspects, who, although they no longer have the central role they had in the past, can still be taken into consideration to build players at the same time performance in competition and able to develop in the long run a physical structure suited to modern football".

Preparation in youth football: from the "sensitive phases" to motor skills

La periodization it is therefore essential for structuring correct athletic and physical preparation in youth football and in this sense Atalanta competes with the best international players: “The English Premier League club academies have long since developed a periodization of work that is no longer based on the so-called sensitive stages (i.e. time windows that theoretically lead to the development of certain skills) but on motor skills. It is therefore not a question of a sectoral work on the muscles, but of creating a long-term development that aims at the globality of movements, albeit contextualized in specific situations or purposes”. Specifically, in the context of the brand new gym dedicated entirely to the Nerazzurri youth sector within the Bortolotti Sports Center in Zingonia, the young players are brought to overload your body with bodyweight exercises like tractions e pushups, deadlift, lunge and squat, conditioning at the same time also the coordination aspects through bipodalic (double support) or monopodalic (single support) exercises. It is important, however, that it is not the players who have to adapt to a rigid system, rather the opposite.

Different motor skills would in fact deserve different work programs and different approaches, which is however difficult to apply to a context such as that of a Youth Sector: “Specifically, create personalized programs for each player it becomes very difficult: just think that there are only 6 teams in the competitive bracket here at Atalanta, each of which has 20-25 young players. However, what we try to do is outline the profiles with particular needs: the individualized work must take into consideration both the structural characteristics and the globality of the entire methodological path of the player. The gym in this sense it becomes important, because through the complementary work allows you to balance and rebalance the aspects not touched or excessively strained in training or in the game. In this way the players are also made aware of the fact that what they do on Sunday and during training can be managed and optimized through specific work".