Is this overtraining or weakness on my part?

[Chupacabras]

@nnpeoples97

Chupacabras is right. I midfielder will certainly run close to 20k during a match if they are playing the position as it should be played. My coach has been trying to get me to play this position, but I don’t feel that I’m in what I believe is “mid-distance” shape. I believe that the folks who excel as midfielders are excellent mid-distance runners (400m-800m-1600m runners). Folks who typically are used to running 2 or 3 miles tend to lack speed, and those who run less than 400m tend to lack endurance. This is why I think I’m going to up my conditioning to 800m and 1600m repeats. I’m already seeing a difference, and I’ve only done it for a couple of weeks.

Yeah, if I had to pick an athletics event with the most similar demands, I would say 800m for midfielders and 400m for most other positions.

It’s still a fair bit different though as you are generally running for around 20-100m at close to full speed followed by periods of slower running / then followed up by another burst at close to full speed. For this reason I think its good to also include some conditioning work involving short runs with short rest periods.

For example at a recent training session we did the following conditioning session after our ball work:

20x20m, 15x40m, 10x80m, 8x120m
The rest periods were - jog back between reps and 3-5 minutes between sets (with pushups etc done between sets).

@nnpeoples97

So you play center halfback too in the UK or Aussie land?! I love that position. I like seeing what’s in front of me.
We were actually in Australia this past August. We played games in Cairns, Bendigo, Melbourne and Sydney. We, unfortunately, lost all 4 games, but our fitness made up for our lack of skill. We even almost won a two games.

Yeah I’m Australian. I play in a league in regional Victoria.

Is your team made up of mostly expat Aussies, or mostly Americans who have taken up the sport? If it’s the latter then you did pretty well to come close in two of the games, as it’s not an easy sport to pick up if you didn’t grow up playing it.

[Chupacabras]

@rainy.here

From http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/afls-hi-tech-future-within-reach/story-e6frgal6-1111113299998

About umpires, but from http://www.afl.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=55011

I would have expected it to be a bit higher than 13km, although an average on baller would probably spend a fair bit of time on the bench.

It makes me laugh that the goal umpires have to get level 10 on the beep test etc. I know those standards aren’t very hard, but all they have to do in a match is stand there and decide whether the ball went through the goals or not.

[eroszag]

I played a bit in italy ( rugby field 9 vs 9, we are trying to qualificate for 2011 world cup 18 vs 18)…yes they run lots of miles, but speed is much mor eimportant than in soccer, so the conditioning should reflect this…also many AFL teams have a speed consultant…speed enable you to have the breaking burst.
There ar emany miles also beacuse of the lenght of the games…in soccer the 90min clock is always running.
Many successfull aussie rule players are fast, with high school or ( rarely)college sprint experience… plus add upperbody strength and bodyweight, so you have players who do not resemble milers at all.
GPS technology is intriguing…with my sprinters on tempo day, counting every drill, run, and the walk between exercises,+ cool down I’m sure to be over 6km…