Alyuh crazy
Sustained long distance running is an important part of football training to build conditioning and stamina.
of course it is not the only thing and of course football is a short sprint game.
long distance running is an importnat part of preparation especially in pre season.
There is not a reputable team in this world that does not do long distance running at a steady pace for about 30 min or more at a time maybe once or twice a week especially in pre season.
Dont get tie up with the american talk bout no laps no lines no lectures
That is in reference to U10 players who play football twice a week and base ball on the other two days with piano on Friday.
If this case you want to maximize touches on the ball bc the player is playing soccer for 3 hrs a week and running is not developing ball skills
I talking about national team players who are training twice a day 6 days a week
In this kind of setting long distance running is essential to development and in building endurance.
Especially in the pre season
obviously there are other football related fitness that is involved with short sprints changing direction jumps etc.
but running is essential
especially in the pre season.
But this has nothing to do with what Mc commie did, which was a form of punishment.
KND on a national team, it eh have no preseason.
If your players coming in 3-5 days before an international and you using that time to get man fit, then good luck.
In a Pro setting endurance is built through Intervals, developed and applied at variation which will achieve endurance fitness. A footballer does not need to be able to run consistently for 30 minutes as this never happen in a game. Training MUST mirror the real game. The game consist of a series of short forward movement interspersed with Jumping, side shuffling, back peddling, fighting for the ball, falling down and getting up, with a lot of walking.
Therefore, a soccer player need to be trained in such a manner as much as possible. Even on recovery, club are trying really hard not to allow players to run to much, hence the reason for massages, ice baths, rolling rods, and other crazy concoction. A Pro player like Ronaldo or Messi does not need to be running any more than is necessary, with the amount of games they play in a calendar year.
To break it down even more, a defensive midfielder fitness ciriculum will be different than that of a winger or fullback. Same goes for a center back and a center forward, in comparison to the goalkeeper. Fitness goes away most times from the team to "What does the individual player need?" This is where hear rate monitors come into play during training and preseason games. A look at a player statistics from the heart rate monitor will tell a training staff how hard or not a players need to work.
It's a different time my friend, and playing the game with the head is even more revelant now than it was before.
As Adidas say "Smart soccer has arrived."
