"I don't have to run much. What I
have to do is score goals. - Mario
Jardel
Soccer
Endurance – Introduction
In
today's soccer, a player is
required to play at his or her fullest ability for the entirety of the
match,
which can easily spread to around 94-95 minutes, with only a 15 minutes
break
in between the two halves.
Modern technology allows us to record the running
distance of a soccer player in a match and the average comes out to
somewhere
around 10 kilometers (6 miles)...that's 6 miles in
90 minutes, but take into
account that not all of this distance is covered in modest speed and it
also
involves sprints and semi-sprints which take up more energy.
As you can see,
soccer endurance is quite important, but before you'll be
able to cover as much
ground as the pros, you'll need to understand
what areas of
your game endurance
affects.
Soccer
Endurance – Importance
Besides
the obvious benefit of
endurance, of giving you the ability to run for a ball or after a
player
efficiently longer into the game, it also affects other elements of the
game.
For example:
Focus
– The more tired you get, the lower your ability
to focus
will be. Lack of focus translates into inaccurate passes and shots,
lower
jumping ability, less precise tackles, lower off-the-ball awareness as
well as
being unable to calculate the ball's trajectory as fast as
when you're fresh.
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a player, even if you're not extremely talented.
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By working out your endurance through soccer conditioning, you can
obtain a
high focus level further in a game (note that even top professional
soccer
players lose some of their focus in the last 10-15 minutes of a game,
so
there's no "enough" when it comes to
soccer endurance).
Jumping
– If your legs are tired, it clear that you
can't jump as
efficiently as if you were fresh. Endurance training helps you gain
enough
energy to be able to successfully jump for the ball even in the later
stages of
the match.
Dribbling
– Dribbling requires short bursts of speed to be
unleashed, accelerating and decelerating constantly. These take up a lot of
energy and if you don’t have the energy to
sprint quickly
later on in the game,
you won't be able to dribble effectively. Sprint endurance is
required in this
particular case.
Soccer
Endurance – Player Position Requirements
Most soccer
conditioning training
session will have everyone (or everyone but the goalkeepers) work the
same exercises,
but if you're a dedicated soccer player you could work out
some extra endurance
exercises depending on the position you play on.
Goalkeepers
– Endurance is not required for goalkeepers per
say,
but you will need to soccer conditioning in order to make sure your
physical
fitness doesn't hinder your agility (read: lose extra fat).
Defenders
– Defenders need to find a balance between short
and
long-term endurance. Short term endurance can be improved through
sprint
exercises whereas long term endurance can be strengthened by laps.
Midfielders
– Midfielders are under the most pressure when it
comes
to endurance, since they're constantly in the midst of
events, running back and
forth when their team switches through offense and defense. Long term
endurance
is a must, but sprint endurance is important for wingers who must
sprint for a
cross, then immediately sprint back to occupy their defensive positions.
Attackers
– Deep lying strikers won't be running
as much as a
midfielder or defender, but they need to be fresh when their team
requires a
sprint from them. Attackers are also often required to perform pressing
when
the ball is in their offensive third, which requires a combination of
short and
long term endurance.
