Fitness a marathon

Opinions / Analysis

The average yardage a professional soccer player covers is 10 to 18 kilometres in a single 90 minute game.

Let us not forget that distance is not covered at a jogging pace or a low intensity setting. The player would be covering that ground in full out sprints and high intensity battles for field position.

The question then begs itself, “how can an amateur player get their fitness level to that of a professional”? Many training and fitness experts have found that there are some commonalities among all methods to professional fitness. One method is almost common sense in nature, that nutrition is a key component of fitness.

The athlete must eat right in order to get the right results when training to become a better athlete. Obviously then, junk foods, fast foods, processed foods and foods that you would microwave as a meal would probably be least effective in generating good support for your training regimen.

When it comes to the diet of an athlete keep it simple, drink lots of water, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and meats with whole grains and milk to get the most output out of your body. Stay away from carbonated drinks and greasy foods. Also, try not to indulge or binge eat when feeling in need of a pick me up, if you are going to over eat then do so healthily by eating a big salad or overdosing on lemon water. Most times when feeling fatigued, it is an early sign of dehydration so ensure you take in enough water to keep your body in the right state.

Now when it comes to the working out side of the fitness approach, one method has remained true to be most effective in increasing stamina, speed and overall maximum performance in game environment. This method is called max interval training. This method of training relies on the athlete working out for long, high intensity periods of activity with short breaks between intervals. An example of a specific soccer drill would be “doggies”, the drill where cones are set up at distances of 10 meters, 20 meters and 30 meters, and the athlete runs a full out sprint back and forth from each cone.

The method would imply for the athlete to run as hard as possible for the drill then take a short 30 second break and go again and then again, completing a set of at least 6 to finish the drill. What this does for the athlete is pushes the boundaries of their previously known limit of endurance. When applied to game situation, this type of training allows the athlete to last longer at optimal performance, instead of becoming fatigued within an hour as do most average amateur players. Running in general is a key aspect of the game, therefore running a minimum of 15-25km a week would be a good way to start on your road to peak fitness. Due to the fact the game runs 90 minutes, an athlete that is looking to take the game of soccer seriously as a career would want to be able to run that complete 90 minutes and not feel completely expended of energy and physical ability. Thus, to ensure that an athlete has this kind of extreme physical fitness, the athlete must take a holistic approach to their training, that being diet, training and lifestyle consciousness to allow the individual to achieve maximum fitness potential and in doing so, the utmost probability at becoming a professional in the beautiful game.

**Reginald Sidal junior is a third year masters student at the Simon Fraser University. He’s studying a joint thesis in criminology and physiology. He also has a doctorates degree in sports medicine.