bfit4life
02 June, 2008

Ask the coach: Football training

Question

pictureI am interested in starting my football training early and I want to improve my aerobic conditioning in the off-season. What distances should I be running ?

Answer

The belief that football is an aerobic sport is one of the biggest fallacies. The sport is actually anaerobic in duration. Studies show that a player will run over six miles at an average intensity of their maximal heart rate.

Although they cover great distances, the energy demands utilise the anaerobic instead of aerobic energy systems. Players play , for the most part, in short sprints during attacking or defensive play, and it is midfielders who utilise their aerobic energy system the most.

Because of this, you should not be out jogging five miles a day, as the volume of this type of exercise can lead to over-training injuries. Football is not an aerobic sport so you don't need an aerobic base.

You need speed and you need to be able to perform repeated efforts of speed. Ben Johnson's old sprinting coach has said that there is no point in training for speed endurance if you have no speed to endure.

Your sprinting speed will be dictated by your strength and the training of fast-twitch muscle fibres associated with sprinting, kicking and jumping. Jogging trains slow twitch muscle fibres.

Every position in football requires that the player be able to jump as high as possible for head balls.

Research has shown that the more aerobically fit the soccer player is the more their vertical jump will decrease.