How to Prepare For Your First Year of College Soccer

August 2, 2021
By Hannah Cantrell

As the fall approaches, many are looking forward to the return of college sports. For incoming freshman athletes, it means gearing up for their first year of college soccer.

Going into the pre-season for college soccer, it is essential to be in your top-notch shape. Coaches will take this time to evaluate your fitness and ability among the other rookies and the returning players. This means you’ll need to improve yourself in every sense of the game and aspects off of the field. Here are the key objectives to focus on to put yourself in the best position going into your first season.

Be the Fittest You Can Be

Fitness is the most important thing to focus on leading into your freshman year of college soccer. Not only will you play better because of being in your best shape, but you’ll earn the respect of your teammates and coaches for keeping up during the pre-season. In addition, even if you haven’t gained technical or tactical expertise yet, you’ll show up being ready to meet the physical demands of college soccer.

To improve your fitness, work on cardiovascular endurance, interval and high-intensity training, and strength and agility. You’ll want to enter your freshman season with very strong endurance so you can keep up with all of the fitness demands. Doing interval and high-intensity training will improve your game fitness. Working on your strength and agility helps you become quicker, stronger, and more powerful on the ball.

Improve Your Nutrition

Another aspect to work on leading into your freshman season is nutrition. Nutrition goes hand in hand with fitness as it will fuel your training sessions. Research and try out different foods and eating habits to find what works best for you and your body. Practicing a nutritious diet with lots of carbohydrates and protein will help you get into and maintain your best shape.

Work on Your Mental Resilience

College soccer undoubtedly has extremely difficult physical demands, but it also has mental demands. It can be hard to find a routine with long practices coupled with college academics. College soccer can put stress on athletes, and it’s important to find ways to cope with stress and set a routine so you can succeed on the field and in your classes.

Additionally, college soccer can shock many incoming players because they didn’t prepare enough physically or mentally. Working on becoming resilient is key, as your freshman year can be a bit shocking if you aren’t doing as well as you thought you would. It’s also important to have good communication skills to communicate with your coaches to see what you can improve on if you aren’t doing as well as you’d like.

Be Humble

In addition to having a resilient mindset, another mental tip for preparing for your first year of college soccer is to humble yourself. Going into your freshman year of college soccer means you have a clean slate. No one knows your ability yet, which means you have to prove yourself every single day.

Rest and Recover

With all the physical preparation you’ll be undertaking, it’s important to remember that rest and recovery are essential too. So, work on building your schedule with time to rest and enough time to sleep every night. Getting enough rest will help you have more energy during the day to push yourself into better and better fitness.

Overall, it is no small feat to play college soccer. Entering your freshman season is an exciting accomplishment, but there is certainly more work to come. Taking the time to prepare yourself physically and mentally to your very best will make the transition to college soccer a lot smoother. The discipline you cultivate in yourself will take you far in your college soccer career.

Featured image via Unsplash