lomu posted these times at nz regionals…when he raced linford, he had a first burst of problems with kidneys…( he is waiting for a trnasplant), and he was slow on the field, not the monster of 95…many do train like sprinters…take football for example…10s of snational class sprinters…
[QUOTE=Rock N Roll]Sprinting & Soccer, Apples & Oranges. Of course a pro soccer player couldn’t compete with a sprinter, your just stating the obvious. Here is another obvious one, sprinters have the endurance of a slug.
You said Simon Thomas ran the London in 3 hours 15 mins, What can Jason Gardner run it in???, yeah that is what I thought to… I really don’t give much respect to sprinters over the endurance guys, lifting/lifting heavy weights is quite easy, but developing great endurance, another world, especially in terms of mind and guts. I have worked out if Simon Thomas can run a 3:15, I’d say, Pound 4 Pound, Simon Thomas is around 9x quicker than Garder over any distance.
Talk about missing the obvious…
OF COURSE sprinters have less than average long endurance, were they to train this quality with any frequency they would never have become so freakin’ fast! If Jason Gardner even tried to develop marathon quality endurance he wouldn’t be in the top one thousand 60m guys in the world, let alone the champ.
Also, applying a fighting comparison like ‘pound-for-pound’ to compare a distance runner and a sprinter’s relative abilities is illogical beyond comprehension. Weight has WHAT to do with it? 9x faster over any distance??? You must be laughing to yourself when you conjure up this crap.
Finally, the point of Rob’s post wasn’t to ‘state the obvious’ that a sprinter is faster than a soccer/football player, [duhh] but rather that the difference in how fast they really are on the track, not the pitch, is greater than one might think.
You mention mind and guts-two qualities that restrain the rest of us relatively normal board members from flying off and saying whatever the hell pops into our heads.
Ah the memories of standing in the Holte End and catching many a Tony Daley cross.
He was one of the few players who had to learn to slow down to improve his overall game.
He was fast but Linford fast? not a chance.
At the Euro champs this year there was a situation when Rommedahl was racing Fabio Cannavaro for a loose ball.Cannavaro had possibly a 10m lead and Romedahl caught up with him after maybe 3-4 seconds forcing him to make a bad tackle, it was ridiculous.
Now for a practical question. Since the need for more speed is obvious(at least up to 50m) where could footballers fit in the sprint training offseason and in without compromising endurance, technical and team work. Any ideas?
Jovisha
That would depend upon how many times a week you are able to train with your team and if you are a professional,semi pro or amateur player.
I would always put speed/acceleration work ahead of endurance in terms of priority.Football is not an endurance sport as such and that is the biggest mistake I see most clubs make in pre-season.
Beni
I wasn’t thinking about aerobic endurance but anaerobic(which football certainly is).When you have to recover from this kind of training you can’t train for speed in a way that you would using Charlie’s system.Seems to me the only available time to work on speed would be offseason,with some carefully monitored maintanence work in season.Plus,knowing how reluctant footballers are to use weights means that you would have to focus on developing strength which you also need to recover from.
There may be a few. Remember Pavoni of Italy was a soccar player before going to track. He ran 10.38 into a headwind as a junior after a few months and with one year of training, while still a junior, got the silver medal in the 100 at the European Champs (senior meet)
Jovisha
I understand where you are coming from but the players themselves need to be re-educated as to the benefits strength training and speed work will have on their game.
I just read this morning that a Premiership team in the UK have had over 14 players on the treatment table for a variety of injuries caused during pre-season training and have had to call off a couple of friendly fixtures.
I could go on and on about the mistakes clubs make which is why I asked if you were amateur or full time player.
An amateur is an amateur because his skill level is very low.So why in the world do amateur players start off their training sessions by running for an hour before then going on to skill drills in a fatigued state?