FITNESS FOR SOCCER
Aerobic Fitness
Aerobic fitness determines the level at which you can take in and use oxygen to perform an activity. Aerobic activities are things like jogging, where you can continue without getting too tired. You work at a rate which means you don’t get completely fatigued or out of breath.
Anaerobic Fitness
Anaerobic fitness determines the level at which you can work at a high intensity. This usually means short burst of activity, where you will often be out of breath. You are working at a level where you body cannot provide enough oxygen and your muscles need to get energy from glycogen.
Soccer Fitness
Soccer players need a combination of aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Some positions require higher levels of anaerobic fitness than others, some require more aerobic fitness.
Midfield players tend to cover the most distance compared to forwards and defenders, midfield players tend to have a more continuous involvement in the game. However, while forwards and defenders usually have more time to recover between sprints, they also need to perform those sprints at a faster speed to be successful in their crucial phases of play. Midfield players need more of an all-around fitness profile, with an emphasis on both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Aerobic capacity relates to sustained performance (20- 40 minutes), or performance during lengthy repetitions, each interval of equal length, and not over 30 seconds.
Attackers and defenders will need more training emphasis on speed. For improvements in acceleration, repeated sprints of not less than six seconds in duration, performed from a standing or walking start, will be useful in training. For development of Maximal speed, a gentle increase in speed to about 85 percent followed by a sustained burst at maximum speed for about six seconds will produce more specific improvements.
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