Fitball Factory combines soccer and gym moves for ultimate exercise

Sport360 staff 10:44 14/06/2018
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  • Fitball: A unique concept combining football and the gym

    Fitball Factory is a workout concept providing group-training classes that combine football drills with strength and cardio interval training. These workouts are designed to improve technical aspects of your game and get you in to shape, whether your goals are football or fitness related. In the first of a series of articles founder Kameron Jaff explains how it works.

    The warm up

    Here we combine circuit classes and football, so to get the body warmed up you’ll have a ball at your feet but will also do sets of dynamic stretching. This not only stops your touch from getting rusty but also warms the muscles that you’d use in the gym. Generally there’ll be a technical move added in, such as some step-overs or Cruyff turns. The warm up lasts between 10-15 minutes and we usually drink Red Bull in the afternoon, to feel energised ahead of the work out.

    The skills

    The ball control we did in the warm up is incorporated into the first exercise, so if we’ve been practising dribbling or step-overs, that’ll be the first thing we focus on in the first exercise, to improve having the ball at your feet. Then we’ll work on some cardio. An example exercise is players are in pairs, with cones on the floor in the shape of a box. The cones are colour-coded and you have to run to each cone depending on which colour is shouted out by your partner. Then we get the ball involved to make it harder, so you have to control the ball while on the move. There’s no standing still, when you’re not running you’ll be doing calisthenic exercises like burpees, squats and press ups to keep the heart rate up.

    The workout

    The next exercise focuses less on football and includes things you’d usually find in the gym and not on a football pitch, like battle ropes, dumbbells and weighted sleds to complete a strength and conditioning workout. In between all the strength training we’ll do a little football exercise, like juggling the ball, shooting, dribbling between cones, something like that, just to keep the body moving. This section of the session lasts around 25 minutes.

    The game

    We use a five-a-side pitch and what we do is split into three teams, two of which are on the pitch playing a match and the other team is outside working out. This ensures the players aren’t just stood waiting around when they’re not on the pitch. They’ll do a circuit including burpees, push-ups, mountain climbers and squats. Everyone wants to play football but we try and keep the heart rate up for the duration of the session for everyone, even for those not on in the match.

    You can find out more about FitBall at www.fitballfactory.me and Instagram @fitballfactory

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