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This week Alan Sinclair takes us through the endurance demands of team sports...

Team games such as Football, Hockey and Rugby involve bursts of high-intensity, explosive sprints to be performed repeatedly throughout a game. These sports also require a significant amount of background running at sub-maximal pace, and football players can cover up to 11KM in a single match. Also, players at a higher level perform more sprints during a game that players who compete at a lower level. Therefore, it is essential that games players wishing to compete at the highest level focus on developing the specific endurance capacities required in their sport.

This is best achieved by focussing on 4 specific areas:

High-intensity Aerobic Intervals

These involve the athlete performing repeated intervals of steady running which last from 3-8 minutes at a very high intensity, typically 90-95% of maximum heart-rate, with a 2-3 minute recovery in between efforts.

Speed Endurance Training

This involves the athlete performing short sprints with changes of direction. These are completed at maximum intensity, and have limited recovery between efforts.

Small Sided games

These are a very important part of endurance training for games players as the training is very specific, and higher intensity levels are often reached compared with other training methods. The size of the pitch, rules, and number of players can be varied to focus on different aspects of endurance, and these sessions tend to be more enjoyable than intervals or shuttles.

Weight Training and Plyometrics

There is increasing evidence that strength and power training can enhance endurance running performance. It appears that there training methods enhance endurance by improving a players economy of motion. This means that, for a given amount of running, the player uses less energy. It is important to note that the training needs to be focussed on developing maximum strength and power, not muscular endurance.