So I'm thinking of changing from pick-up to dedicated training soon, and the firs thing I want to improve is my cardiovascular fitness. I would be looking at doing interval training to improve this, though I was wondering: How long would my fitness last for? Do I need to keep doing committed sessions of interval training to maintain it? Or would my other training be enough? On a weekly basis I have 1-2 team training sessions, 3 individual (usually ball work), and then there's game day. I also have 2 work-outs during the week. When I do/did structured training, it's targeted training. Meaning I pick which aspect I want to improve and I work on this until I'm satisfied with my results, and then I move on to the next aspect. For example, the aspect I want to work on is fitness, so I work on this until I get my results, then move on to crossing.
I would say there are several aspects to Football 'fitness': 1. Aerobic capacity 2. Anaerobic capacity 3. Agility 4. Power 5. Sprint speed For me, the three most important out of them 5 are anaerobic capacity, agility and power. You will see many footballers who aren't hugely muscley, but are powerful, and so are 'football strong'. However, if you are looking to improve your fitness, you should attempt to improve on all 5. However, if by fitness, you mean, how far and long you can run.. Then make sure you go for ANAEROBIC and not AEROBIC. Long-distance running is the biggest waste of time in football seriously. There are people who go for 60 minute+ runs, and it just doesn't correlate to football. Get sprinting! And get repeating those sprints! For me, the best training aid for this is Adidas miCoach. I'm on level 7 (granted, I haven't ran for a while due to me bulking and niggly injuries) and the workouts are TOUGH. But, I'm the fittest I've ever been. Eventually, you will be repeating like 30 ten second sprints, and this is like what you'd do in a 90 minute match, so as you can see.. It's very useful. Final point - many amateur players run hard, but not top speed. For me, I don't see the point. You could jog around the pitch all day, is it going to be effective? In a word - NO. Being able to sprint around, at your maximum, is going to effective. Whichever position you play. Of course, you have to consider what position you play. I play wing-back, I sprint up and down the pitch. Therefore, my sprints in my conditioning are longer than they would be for say, a striker. I do sprints of about 30 seconds, up the touchline, then back again. You need to apply this logic to YOUR game. You can also incorporate ball-work, for example.. Dribbling through some cones, taking a shot, then sprinting back to your defensive position. Jog back to starting point and repeat. But for me, for conditioning to be at its most effective, you HAVE to have individual conditioning sessions, preferably in the morning.
No worries mate. Off-hand, I cannot remember the exact details, but it is something along the lines of.. The body being more prone to adapting to the stresses placed upon it conditioning wise in the morning, and power in the afternoon. Don't know how true it is. I'd also recommend you keep an eye on SoccerReviews, as I will have an article up by next week at the latest detailing soccer conditioning. (A bit of shameless advertising there)
Each individual have a different time of the day where they can peak their performance...depends on the athlete...it's not necessary ''in the morning''
You can also incorporate ball-work, for example.. Dribbling through some cones, taking a shot, then sprinting back to your defensive position. Jog back to starting point and repeat. But for me, for conditioning to be at its most effective, you HAVE to have individual conditioning sessions, preferably in the morning.