I chose to compose this short article after evaluating an old set of slides of a presentation I provided to the English FA few years back entitled: “Preparing for performance: league vs. tournament”. I have been reading/listening to few individuals speaking as well as composing books about training in team sports as well as I would like to add my views on this issue. There are numerous stamina as well as conditioning coaches and/or physical fitness specialists working with team sports in Europe (in specific Football [or soccer as our American colleagues like to define this sport]) who insurance claim some amazing training paradigms and/or explain remarkable impacts of their training regimes. It is absolutely a excellent sales pitch, nevertheless the truth many of the times is not as depicted. just looking extremely just at the competition routine of an elite European Football Club we can comprehend that these athletes have extremely bit time to train, hence, extremely bit possibilities to get quicker as well as stronger.
So, what I will compose about in this short short article is:
•Planning issues
•How to establish reasonable goals
•Establish training Priorities
•Individualise training
•Acute vs. Chronic impacts of stamina & Conditioning sessions
•Monitoring training impacts is the only method to decrease mistakes
Let’s address the very first one: planning training in an elite football team [playing the European season]
Many people still like to checked out Eastern European literature on periodization and/or American books on this topic. all of the above publications explain a pedagogical process develop on observations conducted on athletes contending in private sports as well as mainly in endurance-type of sports where comprehending training packing as well as tapering is of absolute importance. We might suggest on the scientific merit of such observations as well as on the truth that perhaps many of the athletes under observations were utilizing all kind of unlawful “help”, however this is not the objective of this short article so, will not talk about it here.
What we can suggest is that all of the above publications tend to divide the planning of training in fairly long phases (Anatomical adaptation phase [few weeks], Pre competition/hypertrophy phase [few much more weeks} as well as the listing goes on). In reality, if we look at the official routines of elite football teams in Europe, we realise that such process cannot be truly used to footballers. expert teams in truth tend to begin training few weeks after ending the previous season, as well as begin contending extremely early with restricted amounts of time to really train the players difficult sufficient to create meaningful adaptations. I am not stating that footballers don’t work difficult and/or don’t improve. What I am trying to state is that the workload is not huge sufficient to create large modifications in performance be it endurance capability and/or stamina as well as power abilities.
But, let’s look at some genuine info as well as add some material for discussion.
Here is the training as well as activities routine of FC Barcelona as reported by their site in 2006:
1st training session: 17th of July
July 2006
Denmark –> 28 Jul Pre-season friendly AGF – FC Barcelona (11 days after 1st training session-)
August 2006
Mexico 04 Aug Pre-season friendly Tigres – FC Barcelona
Mexico 07 Aug Pre-season friendly Chivas-FC Barcelona
USA 10 Aug Pre-season friendly Club America – FC Barcelona
USA 13 Aug Pre-season friendly new York Red Bulls – FC Barcelona
Spain 17 Aug Spanish Supercup Espanol – FC Barcelona
Spain 21 Aug Spanish Supercup FC Barcelona- Espanol
Spain 23 Aug Gamper Tropy FC Barcelona- Bayern Munich
Spain 25 Aug European Supercup FC Barcelona – Seville
So, if we look at this schedule, take into consideration travelling times as well as recuperate from travel as well as competitions, from the 17th of July to the 25th of August 2006, potentially the footballers of FC Barcelona carried out roughly 20 training sessions.
If they were to lift weights to get stronger/more powerful/faster, as well as had a frequency of 3 sessions per week with some healing in between (at least 1 day) as it typically occurs, they would have carried out somewhere around 6 stamina training sessions. Now, if the very first session is utilized for testing as well as establishing 1RM as well as some progression of tons occurs, probably…they are lucky if they might carry out 4 major stamina sessions. So, where does periodization fits here?
There is no time for Anatomical Adaptations (as defined by some periodization gurus) as well as no time for hypertrophy…How much can athletes acquire from such an stressful routine of training, contending as well as travelling before the season really start? (even if probably Spanish Supercup is the very first trophy to win).
This is not an isolated example, the visitors just requirement to search sites of huge clubs to see their routine as well as do the math. Let’s look at national teams now…again from the site (official information).
Italy won the world cup with the complying with preparation schedule:
22 may 1st training session (players are just at the end of a long season)
31st may Switzerland vs Italy (friendly in Switzerland)
2nd June Italy vs Ukraine (friendly game in Italy)
12th June Italy Vs Ghana (1st game of world CUP)
Assuming they trained twice a day each day:
20 days: ~38 sessions: 9 stamina sessions?
Preparing the world cup with players coming from a long season in 20 days…how much training can you really do as well as exactly how much enhancements can you see? ought to the focus be on preserving performance as well as be able to repeat it over the competition (World cup in this case)?
What I am trying to demonstrate right here is that there are far as well numerous individuals lecturing around the world as well as working with football teams that talk a great deal about periodization, however really they have no data and/or meaningful info to share to support what they are saying. many of all, because of the duration of the preparation phase as well as the intensity as well as qualities of training regimes they impose, it is practically impossible (in my view) for them to make large enhancements in any type of area of performance. Unless of program footballers are so de-conditioned that they can enhance quickly (which is likewise something I am result in believe sometimes). I would likewise like to point out that I am generalising here, of program there are some excellent sports scientists available working with expert teams that do a excellent job, however there are far as well numerous selling hot air.
Training planning is about establishing reasonable goals
Before starting planning a training programme for team sports it is essential to response the complying with questions:
– exactly how much time do I have?
– exactly how numerous training sessions can I carry out with the players?
– What ought to be the focus?
•Improve aerobic capacity?
•Improve strength?
•Improve speed/acceleration?
•Improve flexibility?
•Prevent Injuries?
In few words, what can I accomplish with the amount of time as well as sessions I have available?
Here are two common examples from a club as well as a national team:
Let’s look at the common regular distribution of workloads of two expert team sport teams I dealt with in the past. I suggest as S&C sessions only sessions in which the workload is purely aimed at improving performance capability with restricted technical as well as tactical aspects. whatever suggested with “practice” has a strong technical as well as tactical requirement. Each training session lasted 2hours.
The above example is common of weeks in the competitive season. As you can see, 16% as well as 22% of overall training time was dedicated to improving physiological elements of performance, with many of the time spent performing technical as well as tactical drills. What does this mean?
If a team looks “not in shape”,as some journalists like to point out sometimes, it is either since they are exhausted (density of competitions as well as travels) or since the intensity of the technical as well as tactical method is not high sufficient to represent a training stimulus. So, while many of the time the stamina as well as Conditioning trainer is seen as the culprit, the coaching personnel is many most likely to blame as they deal with as well as plan much more than 80% of the training process. So, the function of a sport scientist working with such teams ought to be to guide as well as guidance the coaching personnel on exactly how to make sure the training tons is always suitable in each technical as well as tactical session.
What can we wrap up by taking a look at common regular methods as well as plans of elite football teams?
Let’s not youngster ourselves…it is impossible to enhance aerobic capability with 1h of “fitness specific” training per week!
The high quality of football particular method needs to be improved in purchase to enhance players’ physical fitness
Most of the S&C time needs to be devoted to enhance strength/speed/acceleration
Extra “training” time needs to be directed to injury prevention activities (pre-hab, proprioception, healing activities etc.)
Individualised training programmes are required
Monitor training sessions is extremely essential
Monitor exactly how individuals adapt is vital
Monitoring training as well as avoiding mistakes
It is at this point remove that tracking training sessions is a required step to comprehend exactly how efficient the training process is as well as exactly how the players are adapting/responding to the different stimuli.
What do we requirement to look for then when we want to execute someevaluation techniques ?
– identify the effectiveness of football particular training drills
– acquire info to be able to individualise the training program
– acquire info to screen an athlete’s development
– acquire info in situation of injuries
Why do we requirement to screen training in particular?
To make sure the packing is suitable of what we are trying to accomplish.
What kind of testing and/or markers might be of use?
Physiological as well as Behavioural markers
Biochemical Markers
Hormonal as well as Immunological markers
What’s the cost/effectiveness?
… part 2 coming soon…
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