PART I: TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO FOOTBALL
The Football in the last decade has advance more than the previous 100 years, and the contribution of science to the understanding and development of this sport has been decisive. Technology, Medical science and the specialization applied to football has been the three great branches that have supported this development.
The technology applied with Amisco, Pro Zone, Media Coah, has allowed us to know exactly what actually happen during a football match, earlier estimates were unreliable. Now we know what happen in terms of physical parameters, what distance does, intensity, recovery times between high-intensity actions, sprints, jumps, duels, etc. and all accompanied with real image which you can compare this information with the technical-tactical parameters. If we know what happen during a football match, if we know the physiological demands and the player, we can be mor effective in planning and making training, adjust with greater accuracy what the player needs.
On the other hand the evolution of pulsometria, GPS, Cameras 3D, accelerometers give us real-time information about variables we are measuring. All these resources have led to improved training systems and therefore an increase in performance of the player.
As a simple data shows this increase, during the 60s, the average distance by an elite team was 5 km, Nowadays many players run more than 13 km per match. But the difference is not as long as you run but how it run, today most players which play as wings in 1st, 2nd Spanish League and major European leagues exceed 3000 meters per match at high intensity (more than 14 km/h)
The somatotype footballer has changed, now is a true athlete, although there are exceptions that supply this deficit with a big talent, but they obviously not take advantage theirs full potential.
We can put another clarifier example , A first division Midfielder is subjected to high-intensity efforts every 20 seconds on average. However we have registered matches in this times are reduced to 12 seconds, if the player is not in optimal conditions he will begin to select which actions go and which not by fatigue. In many cases, the number of high-intensity actions exceeds 300 per match.
D. Alfredo Di Stéfano with great wisdom said: “Nobody says I´m going to run to football, everyone says I will play football. Great truth, although it is true too that no one says go swimming waterpolo, but if not swimming, drown.
In short we have much information to apply to the new training methodologies and get better performance. Although we shouldn’t confuse better performance with specific physical work, in fact, after 17 years of experience as a professional I believe strongly in the design of task that make up the physical target in Play Model that is intendes, whatever this. The training will make sense from the beginning to the end, the player will feel that everything has a reason and a clear goal, that doesn’t training because yes but all has logic and it will make more effective. They, the players, will see unity within the coaching staff and will be easier that the Play Model made own .
To begin to understand better the demands of football we have to do slightly analysis about the pitch. This sport develops in 7300m2, 12 times more than a basketball pitch, This dimensions with the rules cause a physical, physiological and psychological demands during a official match that UEFA don’t allow play a match without 48 hour rest. The varios attempts to televisions to reduce these minimum periods collide with UEFA expert medical committee which at the moment imposes its opinion. Also it would be against the show because the intensity would fall significantly, only with a clear increase in number of players in staff of professional clubs, introduce more changes during the matches, could reduce these periods and compete more continuously without damaging the show significantly.
Without delving too deeply into the physiological requirements of a football match, we can say that approximately 75 minutes of the 90 the player is on his anaerobic threshold or above this, being slightly below this parameter among the players who occupy the central defender position. These data are served us by heart rate monitor, GPS, intelligent sweetshirt that integrate these sensors.
All this knowledge has been reversed in a clear modification of the training system in football, approximate more to the real needs of the competition.
But as I said before, is not only run more, we are talking about a sport in which decisions making is fundamental , technical quality is crucial too, so we are faced with the continuous challenge to develop goals of different areas making its in greater or lesser extend to achieve an improvement in the overall performance of the player and team.
