Soccer articals

There is no substitute for hard physical work, at the right time and place. All the sports science, nutritional information and gadgets will never replace the passion, desire and the will to win that hard physical work can give you.

I have had the privilege to work with several top managers and coaches. I have also talked to many other conditioning coaches, managers, coaches and visited several other clubs over the years, and many of them have different opinions on testing players. Some were not convinced about the benefits, whereas others would be, and would have a whole battery of tests. And then again, there would be clubs that perhaps used only one or two tests.

Basically, the extent of testing and monitoring usually reflects the manager’s and coaches’ philosophy on how players should train and play and how their condition should be measured. Conditioning coaches will also try to educate them on the importance of having some measurable standards in place to back up/confirm what the manager and coaches see in training and games.

My opinion is simple: testing is important but it should be kept simple and, just as crucially, should be specific to the game. Testing is not only evaluative, but also about educating the players about the importance and the benefits of being tested (i.e. so that they can strive for higher levels of condition). Testing is also an objective way of confirming the manager’s/coaches’ thoughts.

Several years ago I went to a course run by the Football Association. There were around 20 conditioning coaches on the course, from the Premiership and the Championship. The tutors asked us to compile a list of the tests we do at our clubs - both past and present. Most of us were expecting maybe a total of 12 to 15 tests. When the combined list came back, there were 30-plus tests, several of which I and many others had never heard of! The point I am trying to get over is that there are so many different opinions in the game regarding testing.

Football is a multi-directional and multi-paced explosive game, primarily anaerobic, but with an aerobic foundation. We should therefore test those components, more specifically as aerobic endurance; speed; and speed, agility, power and recovery rate.

Testing amateur players

When testing amateur teams, ask yourself two very important questions: how much time does the team have to train, and why does the team play? If your team plays Saturday to Saturday (or Sunday to Sunday) and does not train between games, then it will be very difficult to test players, therefore testing might not be feasible. This is because you will not specifically be working on developing improved football condition. If your team plays for the fun of playing and the social side of football, then I think testing is not relevant, it’s important that players to continue to enjoy and love the game. However, if your players are more serious and regular training does take place, or they are at a higher level, then testing becomes more relevant and appropriate.

Subject to your standard of play, you are looking at (subject to the tests used) a difference of 10% to 25% between amateurs and professionals. However, you should be less concerned with this variance and more with past testing history. This will give you a better indication of fitness levels and the effects of the playing and conditioning programme.

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  To assess fitness levels
  
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  To set programmes and schedules
  
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  To study the effect of training programmes and matches
  
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  To turn weakness into strength (team and individual)
  
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  To motivate players and give them objective feedback
  
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  To educate players
  
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  To assess rehabilitation work and post-injury condition
  
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  To create future standards and a player condition database
  
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  To monitor over-training
  
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  To advise the manager of any issues
  
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  To make players better
  
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  To give players the confidence to perform well
  
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  And finally - and often highly underrated – for the mental benefits of telling a player they look and are fit.
  

Generally speaking, what follows are examples of what professional clubs (subject to financial status) would monitor in training from Mondays to Fridays. They may use one or more of the following:

If you are looking to improve a player’s aerobic fitness, research indicates that you need to work players three times a week for 16-20 minutes in the top heart rate zone, ie, 90% to 95% of heart rate max. Heart rate monitors are widely used in the professional game.

Measuring players’ resting heart rates (RHR*) and using a questionnaire (‘Perceived training loads’), designed to measure the way the player is feeling about their physical condition, can evaluate training status and inform the coach as to whether they need a rest or some lighter work or are OK to carry on at the current intensity. Some clubs use this system, but in my experience it is more widely used abroad. You need to trust your players because they can manipulate the questionnaire answers!

* RHR is taken a few moments after waking. A variation from the ‘norm’ can indicate that the players are in an over-trained state.

Omega wave system

Again, only a couple of clubs have this system, due to its cost. It measures the time between heartbeats over several minutes - which in theory, using past history, would give you some feedback on training status.

* The VO2 test measures a player’s maximum aerobic capacity; the Wingate test measures anaerobic power endurance and ‘fade’.

8 x 45 second multi-paced efforts on a pre-set circuit. The players’ heart rates are monitored. The (active) recovery between the circuits is used to monitor their training status. Thus, if a player’s heart rate is dropping and stabilising more quickly than it did during previous tests during the active recovery, then their fitness has improved (active recovery involves gentle CV exercise, eg walking/slow jogging). We look for players to not fatigue by more than 8% in terms of heart rate recovery values, across the circuit.

Selected scores from professionals:

Number of press-ups - 65
Number of clap (plyo) press-ups - 19

Squat – 1.5 times body weight.

Choose the right time to test. Avoid testing players when they are tired, or during a hectic schedule of games.

Try to produce the same environment for each test as previously done, eg, after a couple of days off, or always outside on a dry day (professional players are usually tested two to four times a year).

I believe that any test with a ball is testing skill. This makes it very much a coaching issue – therefore, in my opinion, you should avoid testing with a ball.

Over the years I would say that the manager and coaches’ observations with reference to conditioning issues in games and training are right 75% of the time. The surprise and food for thought comes with the other 25% of the time! This is when test results could just make the manager and coaches think a bit! And, perhaps, rest or change playing and conditioning in regard to a specific player/players.

Having the fittest team in the league will not win you the league. As an ex-international and world cup player once told me (as have many other top coaches), conditioning is a very important aspect of today’s game BUT more importantly, it’s the players’ ATTITUDE, DESIRE. SKILL and ABILITY that matters first and then, and only then, the coaching and conditioning they receive.

After serving in HM Armed Forces, Simon became a professional football conditioning coach some 20 years ago, with the last 9 years spent at Ipswich Town Football club. Simon has overseen the conditioning of the squad during Ipswich’s promotion and successful Premiership and European campaigns and thereafter the tough and demanding Championship campaigns.

What a coach says to the players during half-time will depend on both the score, and the perspective of the match. If a team is winning 2-0 at half-time, it will almost certainly go into the changing rooms with a more positive attitude than the opposition. However, suppose the opposition score just before the break; although still losing at half-time, they may well feel very positive, believing that they now have the momentum. The type of game also affects psychological perspectives; knockout games are different to league games and top of the league teams tend to have different expectations to those at the bottom! Whatever the perspective however, the half-time period is crucial because players will have their first opportunity to reflect consciously on the game for an extended period, and the role of the coach is critical.

Maximising second half performance is the goal of any coach and this will entail discussions about tactics, state of the pitch, player formations etc. However, just as important as what is said is how effectively it is communicated. Communication is a 2-way process and while most coaches are good at talking to players and giving out instructions, some are less accomplished at listening! This is unfortunate as coaches can often get a good feel for what’s going on by asking players questions and instigating a 2-way discussion.

How a coach communicates with the players is partly reflected in his or her leadership style; ideally this style should be adapted to the circumstances of the dressing room. For example, a hostile attitude among the players may require a more autocratic style, whereas a friendly and co-operative attitude may favour a more democratic style. The characteristics of these two styles are summarised below:

• The coach decides what needs to be done;

• The coach sets out what the players need to achieve;

Whether and who the manager decides to substitute at half-time can make an enormous impact on the second half psychology. If a team is ahead at half-time, substituting an attacking player for a defender may suggest that the manager lacks confidence in holding the lead and has decided to ‘batten down the hatches’! Substituting the team captain can have a devastating impact on a team, suggesting perhaps that the manager in panicking. Putting on a player who’s performed particularly well against the opposition in previous encounters may on the other hand unsettle the opponents! Deciding the best course of action is often a balancing act; if a team is playing well but losing at half-time, should the manager keep the faith and trust that things will come good, or should he or she make a bold attacking substitution, but risk disrupting the flow and cohesion of the first half? In order to make these kind of decisions, it’s important that the manager and players are in the right frame of mind and this is where psychological techniques borrowed from neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) can come in handy.

NLP is about a series of psychological techniques, which can help us gain control over parts of the brain that we normally think of as ‘automatically’ regulating the way we think, behave and perform. And when applied to sport, NLP can help athletes to maximise performance. One of these techniques is positive instruction; instead of a coach telling a player not to miss the target when shooting and create negative thoughts in his or her mind, it’s far more positive to tell the player to hit the target. In relation to half-time, there are 3 very useful techniques that can favourably affect the state of mind of players and coach and maximise second half performance:

• Dissociation – this technique recreates a past experience but from the perspective of somebody who was not emotionally involved (eg an onlooker). For example, if the team has conceded a scrappy goal, the coach would try and recreate that experience in the mind, but imagine that he or she is a passive onlooker watching the event. This enables a coach to analyse the situation coolly and logically without emotion, and thus come up with a solution that can be discussed calmly and rationally at half-time;
• Reframing – this is about changing the frame of reference in order to interpret a situation in a more positive light. A good example of this was in football’s 2005 European Champions League final. Liverpool were 3-0 down to AC Milan at half-time; during the team-talk, Rafa Benitiz, the Liverpool manager suggested that his players ‘go out and score the first goal and see what happens from there’. This was a far more positive frame of reference than asking them to go out and score 3 goals in order to draw level;
• Anchoring – is a useful practical technique to help create a desired state of mind by applying a simple physical stimulus. This involves recalling a powerful memory where you experienced the desired state of mind and then simultaneously creating an ‘anchoring stimulus’ – eg pressing together your thumb and index finger. With enough repetition and practice, merely pressing together your thumb and index finger can be sufficient to reproduce the desired state of mind, whether it be confidence, relaxation etc.

Applying a combination of these techniques at half-time can significantly enhance the performance of both players and coaches, and increase the second half performance of the team.

Football is a high-intensity intermittent sport. Although players can cover up to 11km in a game, most of this is done in short, sharp bursts lasting seconds, and this performance therefore relies on anaerobic energy, speed and power. Plyometric (jumping) exercises to develop power are used by sportsmen and sportswomen from myriad sports with success. But can they be applied to football and combined with traditional approaches?

A plyometric exercise involves the combination of two muscle contractions coming together to enhance muscular power outputs and therefore speed and power (see box 1). Footballers need to posses agility, speed and strength (see box 2) and plyometrics are a great way to condition these outcomes. Firstly, let’s take a look at some research that has examined the inclusion of these types of exercises into football training.

Swiss researchers examined the effect of surface type (grass or sand) on residual muscle soreness, vertical jump and sprint performance in 37 footballers (2). Why residual muscle soreness? Well, if a player suffers from soreness or gets injured and has to be rehabbed back to full fitness, the knowledge of the best surfaces on which to train will be of great benefit to football conditioners, physiotherapists and managers.

Eighteen players followed a four-week plyometric training programme on grass, while 19 followed the same programme on sand. Pre and post-intervention programme, the players were tested on 10m and 20m sprint performance, squat jump and counter movement jump ability. Muscle soreness was tested using a questionnaire. The results showed that both interventions improved sprint speed and squat jump performance similarly. However, it was discovered that the footballers performing plyometrics on sand improved their counter movement jump more than those who jumped from the grass. It was additionally discovered that the players who performed their jumps from sand reported less muscle soreness.

In the world of sports conditioning, specificity is seen as key in terms of conditioning drills and practice, and maybe, therefore, jumping from sand could be seen as less relevant than jumping from grass. However, it’s not always that simple. To perform a squat jump requires the generation of force from a stationary position, primarily using a concentric muscle contraction in the ankles, thighs and hip muscles. But the counter movement jump utilises the eccentric/concentric stretch shortening cycle interaction and jumping from the softer surface will slow this down. Basically the sand will ‘damp’ the explosive capability of the muscles, which explains the reduced adaptation to this training method of the players in that group.

However jumping from sand requires greater strength and this probably explains why the players who performed their plyometrics from this surface improved this jump more significantly. It was as if they were performing their jumps with added resistance, which overloaded their muscles to a greater extent than the grass, producing a resultant increase in strength.

What are the lessons here for football conditioners? Varying the surface from which players perform their plyometrics training could yield physiological and performance benefits, and reduce residual muscular soreness, allowing a player to complete more high-intensity training. However, everything else being equal, it’s probably still better that players train on hard dry grass, running tracks or sprung sports hall floors when performing plyometrics. This is because the harder surfaces will help develop a ‘quick fire stretch shortening cycle’, which will translate into improved on-pitch performance.

Weight training

For comprehensive football conditioning, weight training and plyometrics can be combined. But what kind of weight training protocol works best for footballers? Researchers from Norway examined weight training protocols used by professional football teams (3). Specifically they wanted to find out whether there was a strong relationship between maximal strength, sprint and vertical jump performance among elite players.

Seventeen international players, with an average age of 25, participated in the survey. They were tested for maximum half-squat, vertical jump and sprint performance over 30m and using a 10m-shuttle run. It was discovered that half squat performance was a key determinant of all test performances and it was also noted that this did not compromise anaerobic endurance as measured by the shuttle run. The researchers concluded that ‘elite soccer players should focus on maximal strength training, with emphasis on maximal mobilisation of concentric movements’ (see box 3).