

Posted by

Steve Bottjer ,

March 26, 2015 Email

Steve Bottjer

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@BottjerRNO Read this on your iPhone/iPad or Android device



Looking to improve your fitness in order to improve your performances as a soccer player? Richard Bucciarelli, President of Soccer Fitness Inc., a soccer-specific fitness company located in Toronto, has a mobile phone based solution to enable you to do just that.



Soccer Fitness Gols, the first mobile app offering customized fitness programs built on soccer-specific sports science, is now available for both Android smartphones and iPhones.



According to Bucciarelli, the genesis for the app came from a combined desire to reach more athletes, improve his success with the high level athletes he works with every day and to engage the younger generation of soccer players.



“First of all, all of the higher levels that I have worked with – and that would include the University teams that I have worked with, Women’s U-17 National Team, the TFC Academy and the professional players I have trained – there has always been a home program in addition to the work that I would do on the field or in the gym with the athletes,” Bucciarelli told RedNation. “That’s mainly because of time constraints and because you can’t be with the players all the time. For a long time I would use things like Google Docs and sending out spreadsheets. So one of the reasons I wanted to build my own fitness app was because I knew it would be a better, more efficient electronic way to track a player’s performance on workouts and home programs that I wasn’t supervising.”



“The second reason is from a business standpoint – my business is growing, but I’m also limited by time and in that I have one facility,” he added. “Even with a staff of trainers that is growing, there are thousands of players in Ontario and also those people outside of Ontario that would benefit from the training that I provide and that are potential customers. They can’t all come to see me, so I thought it would be a good way to expand my business and grow in that direction. And the younger generation is obviously even more into the technology (than mine), so that is just the direction that things are going.”



While there are a plethora of fitness apps currently available, Soccer Fitness Gols is unique in that it is based on the science-based training programs that Bucciarelli has been delivering to competitive youth soccer players and high level professional players in and around Toronto, Canada for years.



“The number one benefit is that it is soccer-specific,” Bucciarelli explained. “It draws on all of my experience in soccer-specific sports science, so the programs are all based on the components of fitness that are required for soccer. We have over 200 exercises and whether they are to do with running, strength or speed, they are all soccer-specific in nature, so they will improve performance in soccer. Even the fitness assessments are incorporating tests that I use with my own players, so we have standards and norms. Players can conduct these assessments and do the workouts and track their performance against other soccer players.”



“The other real benefit is with the technology of the app, with the performance monitoring and tracking,” he added. “There is also something called social connectivity, which means you can upload to Twitter, post the workouts that you have done and interact with other like-minded soccer players and fans. I think it does well at tying together the aspects of fitness and being soccer-specific app. There is nothing else like it on the market in terms of a soccer-specific fitness app.”



Don’t worry if you’re not in line for a call-up by Canadian Men’s National Team Head Coach Benito Floro. According to Bucciarelli, the app has been designed to be useful to all players whether they are top level pros, student athletes, aspiring professionals or people playing on Friday evenings for fun.



“The app has different levels, so anyone can use it from a beginner who hasn’t exercised much recently all the way up to a world class high performance athlete,” Bucciarelli said. “Anyone can use it. The exercises and training loads are customized based on the level that you choose. So if you choose the easier level, then you get a workout that is challenging for you but not impossible.”



“We also have customization for every individual, so when you go through a fitness assessment, the app will track your results compared to the standards and norms that we have. Then your training load – distances and reps – will be customized according to you individually. Assessments are built into the program, so as you continue to improve, then the goals and targets will increase.”



While the app already contains customized programs, performance monitoring and a practical workout schedules for individuals, Bucciarelli is not standing still and is already working on new features that will make the app even more useful for players of a sport that is very much a team game.



“We’ve got some new additions in the works for the future,” Bucciarelli explained. “Primarily what we are looking at going into the spring and summer is a coach’s module that coaches can use with players on their teams. For example, if the players on the team all have the app, then there will be the ability for the coach to go in and track the performances of each of the players. They will be able to look at the workouts there players did and then track how they did.”



Learn more and download the app at http://soccerfitnessgols.com.