Why pro teams choose the sand for pre-season training?

Gabriel Macaya is an Argentine professional soccer fitness coach. His career spans famous Argentine soccer clubs like River Plate and Boca Juniors, and the Paraguay National Soccer Team. Asked about the benefits of sand training for pro soccer teams, Gabriel stated: 

“From the physical training point of view, teams that choose the sand to do pre-seasons are looking to increase and enhance their strength and strength resistance. Sprints and strength-power exercises in the sand contribute to preventing injuries in tendons and muscles. On the other hand, coaches usually work on small games training for sport-specific conditioning sessions. An unstable surface like the sand certainly presents ball control difficulties.” 

Playing soccer on the beach is physically demanding and quite intense. Balls come at high speeds from all different areas with little room for error, so your first touch to control a ball will be tested more often.

Even pro beach soccer player Brain Easler – who is totally familiar with this surface – emphasizes how physically demanding is training in the sand.

“Everything from your stomach all the way down to your calves works very hard. You will be surprised where you can hurt sometimes, given that you use your legs in ways that you cannot on a flat surface”, stated Brian.