Team Doctors, Treatment and Training Center

Soccer Training with Frank Klopas, Chicago Fire

June 1989

By Dr James Stoxen DC

     The Chicago Fire soccer team, champion of Major League Soccer in the team's first season, truly represents a crossroads. Not only does the squad comprised of both veteran players (many from Western Europe) in their 30's and many youthful players fresh out of the U.S. college system, but the team also represents the range of preferred workout methods.

     Because the Fire was an expansion team in 1998, MLS' third season overall, team trainer Rich Moons (B.S., C.A.T.) was not able to institute a standard workout regimen for all players. "Half the guys we had in camp at the start of season were not with us at the end," Monis says. "And being an expansion team, we weren't dealt the best hand at the beginning; we had to do trades and make acquisitions from other countries, and not everything falls into place quickly. Plus, with players from different backgrounds, especially Europe, they had been exposed to different training methods.

     "Tough on the Moons, interesting for other trainers, workout enthusiasts and soccer players who want to know about the variety of workouts done by Fire players. To that end, we will present a detailed description of the training Monis advocates for the Fire during their eight-week preseason; some of the strategies the Fire employ to keep players in top form during the season; and a special workout done by forward Frank Klopas, a Chicago-born Polish-American who has played professionally both in Greece (seven seasons) and the U.S. (including stints on the 1994 World Cup team and the 1988 Olympic team), and thus has seen the workout styles preferred on both continents.

     His own off-season workout is an innovative blend of both-along with some cutting-edge improvements. Monis' Fire Workout! Strength Training" I definitely am an advocate of weights," Monis says. "We convinced a few players this year, too, which was tough because they're set in their ways, and with our success they were hesitant to switch in midseason, but some have done it. I feel the guys who frequent the weight room don't get injured as much."

     In the preseason, Monis has players lift four times a week, focusing on the legs two days and a distinct upper-body workout each of the other two days. Stomach and lower-back work is done every day. Monis says the upper-body work, which includes the abs and back work, improves the players' balance, jumping ability (via the ability to generate more upward momentum), ability to fight off opponents and endurance; the lower-body work also improves balance and endurance, but combines with the players' plyometric work to improve speed and explosiveness.

     The Fire's off-season regimen consists of to three sets of four or six reps, using heavier weights, designed to build muscle mass. On lower-body days, players do leg presses, leg curls, and heel and toe raises. Squats may substitute for leg presses when preferred, and Monis recommends hip-strengthening exercises on a multi-hip machine, especially the hip extension to counterbalance the extreme muscularity of the hip flexors. On upper-body days, players target either shoulders and back via military press, lat pulldown and seated row, or the chest via bench press or push-ups.

      Players perform stomach and back exercises daily. In addition to at least one set each of 50 curls (straight, left cross-over and right cross-over), many players now perform "sit-ups with a plyo back," in which they essentially "play catch" with 10-pound medicine ball, doing a partial sit-up with the ball and throwing it against a mini-tramp stationed three feet in front of them. As the ball returns, they catch it and begin drawing it to their body, smoothly returning to nearly a lying position before repeating the exercise, up to 50 times. "It forces a contraction of the abs, but it also forces you to use a lot of the stabilizer muscles in the back, like the lattes and obliques," Monis says. It incorporates hip-flexor work, as well, something Monis feels his athletes can't overdo-unlike casual athletes, who are cautioned not to over strengthen the hip flexors at the expense of the hamstrings and glutes.

     Monis has his athletes focus on the lower abs by doing a partial crunch-lifting the rear end a few inches off the ground-while holding a medicine ball between their ankles with their legs completely vertical. To strengthen the back, players do back hyperextensions (one or two sets of 50) on a hyperextension chair, or, for convenience, lying hyperextensions (with hands on back of head) on the practice field. In-season, Monis pares down the workout to once or twice a week, quickly covering all the exercises with one set of 12 to 15 reps, to fatigue.

     2. Plyometrics Continuous-action sports, like soccer and basketball, have embraced plyometrics more strongly than other team sports in America, like football and baseball. Monis says plyometric drills appeal to his European players in a way weights do not. "European training is more sport-specific; they're on the field doing their training," he says. In Klopas' experience, weights were used only during a three-week foundation-building period in the pre-season. "Twice a week we did circuit-training. We'd use light weight sand super-fast reps, two sets for 30 seconds, just to build muscle endurance," Klopas says. Which philosophy is more effective? "It's hard to say," Monis says diplomatically. "The European players we did have this year, age can be a factor; they're 32 and over and at that age they'll get their share of hamstring and groin pulls."

      At the core of the Fire's plyo work are box jumps and a range of lower-body exercises performed on a Turbo Ramp. In the preseason, players do box jumps no more than three times a week, starting at a height of 20 inches and doing three sets of 25 reps. Players reach a maximum of 25 to 30 inches and four sets of 25 by the end of training camp. Supplementing box jumps is the Turbo Ramp work. The Turbo Ramp is a free-rolling padded platform linked to a base via rubber tubing. Players perform "plyo jumps," from supine or side-lying position, using both legs, one leg repeatedly, or each leg alternately. Monis has players perform the jumps with arms above head and the head slightly forward, to simulate the "jump position," and will incorporate elastic bands attached to players' ankle; players make a kicking motion against the resistance at the top of each jump. Players can also assume a three-point "sprinter's" stance to work a single leg. Generally, players do three sets of 12 to 15 reps, to fatigue."

     Overall, this is an excellent closed-chain exercise, working the ankles, calves, knees, quads and hips, and even firing the abs," Monis says. The bands provide the benefit of an increasing resistance as the player pushes off, but the inclined base "de-loads" the player's weight for a softerreturn.

     3. Warm-up/stretching Fire players begin the warm-up with a 10-to-15-minute slow jog to which they add soccer-specific movements, like lateral shuffles, kariokas, heel-to-butt strides, knees-to-waist strides, skipping and back pedaling. After this comes muscle stretches. The Fire's repertoire is fairly standard: calf stretches; hamstrings (done by sitting on the floor with one leg stretched out in front and the other tucked near the groin; no more"hurdler's stretches"); quadriceps (done standing, with the stretched leg pulled up to the buttock); the groin, by sitting with both feet tucked in and gently leaning forward; the back (by sitting with one leg bent and placed over the other leg, and the body turned toward that leg, hooking the arm for leverage); shoulders (done by reaching each arm over the head and toward the other shoulder).

     4. Aerobic work Bradley expects his players to come into camp in good aerobic condition; as a necessary for the numerous sustained bursts of a soccer match, including anaerobic stints. The team will do some two-mile jogs during preseason, but much of the cardio work consists of "ladder drills," using the ubiquitous rope ladder, which players run through using a variety of step patterns-each square; two steps in each square; crossovers; lateral-facing cross-overs, etc.

     To simulate the variety of movements a player will make in a short period of time, Bradley will have Fire players run through the ladder, break into a 15-yard sprint using one of the soccer-specific steps described above, and finish immediately with a 15-yard all-out sprint. In contrast to the targeted aerobic work Bradley incorporates into preseason, Klopas describes the intense regimen European teams use, during the three-week conditioning period, to quickly bring all players into decent shape.

     The first week begins with a single two-mile run and works up to seven miles on Day 7. Each day, the miles are accumulated in runs of two or three miles each. During the second and third week, distance runs slowly are replaced by timed sprints, starting at 200 meters and gradually working up to 800 meters. This way, leg-tendon strength is developed along with aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

Klopas In The Offseason

"In the off-season I will work harder than during the season," says the Fire's 32-year-old forward, who tallied six goals and four assists while appearing in 27 of the Fire's 31 regular-season games this year. "I want to take a rest, but at the end of the season I'm so fit, I can't stop." This offseason Klopas planned an eight-week off-season program at a Frappier Acceleration Sports Training Center in Darien, IL.

     Between these three-to-four-times-a-week sessions, he does a streamlined workout at a local upscale health club. His health club workout combines European-style long-distance runs (for Klopas, the entire six to seven miles done at onetime), along with crunches (up to 1,000 per day) and squats, which he does in three timed sets. The first 45-second set is with 100 pounds, done at a moderately rapid pace focusing on proper form. The second set, also 45seconds, is done with 170 to 200 pounds, as quickly as proper form will allow. The third set is a repeat of the first. Frappier Acceleration Program Klopas is convinced the health and season-long stamina he enjoyed in 1998 was due in part to the four weeks he spent under the tutelage of Jim Martensen, ATC/L, C.A.T., the site coordinator and program director at the Frappier Acceleration center in Darien, IL.

     This winter, Monis has an eight-week stint planned. Frappier's training methods involve specialized treadmill work, specialized exertion against elastic bands called Sprint cords, plyometrics, and some traditional weight work.

     The Fargo N.D.-based company operates 38 such workout centers. The Standard Industries Generation II Super Treadmill is the centerpiece of the program. It has unmatched specifications: it can incline to 40 percent and decline to 10 percent, and can reach speeds of 28 mph. The deck is padded to absorb 30 to 60 percent of the force at the knee. These specifications are designed to facilitate "over speed training"-encouraging the body to encounter speeds, ranges of motion and intensities it's not accustomed to, and to become faster and with more endurance.

     Twice or three times a week, Klopas does a series of intense, four-to-20-second sprints against various inclines at high rates of speed, which forces him to increase stride length and frequency-the mechanical keys to increased speed. The sprints are kept short to stress increase lactate tolerance and clearance (anaerobic tolerance), necessary for longer high-intensity sprinting. Martensen constantly monitors Klopas' body positioning-body upright, shoulders back, arms pumping to a height equal to the nose-and the incline itself insures that certain key muscles are trained.

     Specifically, all running is done on the toes, with the feet in a "dorsiflexion" position that targets the muscles of the calf while they're stretched, which leads to a more explosive contraction of the muscle. The hip flexors are similarly targeted during the push-off stage. The over all result is greater sprint speed for a longer duration.

     The second feature of the Frappier system is the Sprint cords, which are used in myriad ways. Attached to Klopas' thighs and calves, they promote properly timed firing of the hip flexors and quadriceps, while increasing the extension of the hips and the explosiveness of the quads. In addition, the backward pull of the cords forces the abdominals to compensate if the hips are to stay under the body and not slip backward.

     Klopas will do a variety of sprints: straight sprints, bounding (long, high strides), "high-knees," "quick feet." After six or eight weeks of this training, according to Martensen, a "motor engram" is created-specific neuromuscular habits that ensure more longer, quicker and more powerful strides. The principle is carried over to soccer-specific activities as well: With a cord on either leg, Klopas fires shot after shot into a net at the Darien Sportsplex's indoor soccer field downstairs from the Frappier facility.

      The third key feature of the Frappier Acceleration program is the use of six-foot-square plyo platforms. These absorb and give back 37 percent of the exerciser's force, to cushion the landing and encourage muscle fiber recruitment in the take-off. When combined with Sprint cords, the platforms generate an average three-inch gain in vertical leap over a six-week period.

     Klopas does a variety of patterns, 10 jumps each set, with the most frequent being a lateral jump back and forth over eight-inch-high foam blocks, which are stacked in groups of two or four. Martensen coaches Klopas to keep his hips under control and "hanging" directly above the blocks. One of the plyo squares has a modified hop-scotch pattern on it; Klopas aims to land on the numbers as he works his way from one end of the platform to the other and back. In addition to raw vertical leap, plyo platforms develop Klopas' "proprioception," his awareness of the location of his body in space-important for timing and executing accurate headers in soccer.

     The fourth element of the Frappier program are three relatively traditional weight machines modified to maximize muscle gains in the body areas complementary to the other Frappier elements. the Plyo Press is a squat machine with a cam that takes 20 percent of the load away at the lowest point in the exercise and adds 20 percent to the end phase, where most of the explosion is generated in a jump.

     Not surprisingly, Klopas is more attached to this machine than the two others:

1. The Pro Implosion chest press device that can be adjusted from chest press to military press in10-degree increments and has independent weight stacks for each arm. It simulates free-weight work, but because the range of motion is somewhat controlled; athletes can even do a kind of plyometric, explosive lift.