I was reading posts about soccer on this site and I founded very interesting concept by xlr8 on speed reserve I would like to comment…
Excuse me because I would have to cite xlr8 and not copy-paste his words:
The issue was about being fast and quick for 90 min (or more) of game, and xlr8 proposed that if you have speed reserve (or qucknes reserve or performance reserve, not so important) you could do repeated bursts of activity (wich is usual to soccer game) without decrease in performance… I agree with this but not entirely…
Yes, when you put 95% of max. intensity instead of 100% in a game situation (dribling, running etc.) you are in better situation than somewone who have to put 100% all the time for couple of reasons:
Less likehood of injury(?) - I debated on this lately…
Ability to do this activity in repetition manner without drop in performance (speed)
Lower CNS stress - fatigue
On all of this proposed reasons I tottaly agree on the last(3.) (I agree also to other two, but not absolutely)
The reason why you can do the bursts of activity in repetition manner without drop in perf is because of lower CNS fatigue, but what about peripheral fatigue? The other things that could make you perform bursts of activity without droping is aerobic endurance wich include higly developed capilarization of a muscle for waste-product removal and oxygen import, great number and size of mitochondria for faster ATP resithesis (without LA build up, wich is detrimental)…
To conclude:
For soccer succes you need two things (talking about physical qualities-fitness, exclude technical/tactical skills and psychology): quickness (speed) and aerobic endurance (about 60 mLO2/kg I think). The speed reserve is indirectly involved and strongly depends on game situation and players experience but it is also a must and it is developed with speed training (SAQ)…
So I would say that speed reserve depends on speed ability of a player and his experince (tech-tact skill) to use lower-than-maximal abilities in game situation and it should be developed (but how? only with games?)
Questions:
I agree on Charlies opinion that in soccer you need two things: SAQ (speed, agility, quickness) and aerobic endurance (volume ratio 20:80) but how much is there involment of LA tolerance and maximum speed (over 30m) and how much should they be emphasided during training? Offcourse there is playing position specialization…
Well, without getting into position specialization…i think that lactate threshold training should play a little part in training soccer players, particularly women. If you think about how most younger females train for fitness, most will “go for a run” and thus run for long slow distances. They are not use to higher intensity intervals, which are common in soccer. Thus, i feel that some lactate threshold training should be incorporated in training female soccer players, males can benefit also. How is this involved in training? I may rotate a LT day in every other week depending on the volume and intensity of the workout. You have to remember that these days should be viewed as CNS intensive because of the higher intensities (85+) with incomplete recovery. Therefore, they should be incorporated strategicly so that there is optimal recovery.
As far as max speed work, a player will have very few runs over 30m during a game. I do not see max velocity work as being necessary for a soccer player.
Speed development, tempos and soccer…thats about all soccer players need.
As with training for any sport, you’ll be best off to emphasize the elements that are most closely related to the player’s position. So this definitely has to be taken into account when designing a program.
As a general form of training for soccer, I would emphasize speed & reactive plyos, shooting and tempo work. There is no reason for middle intensity runs.
This is why tempo work is so important. It helps to build the aerobic component without interfering with speed development.
So I would say that speed reserve depends on speed ability of a player and his experince (tech-tact skill) to use lower-than-maximal abilities in game situation and it should be developed (but how? only with games?)
This is an important part of the equation, but I wouldn’t characterize it as speed reserve. A player that understands the tactical situation on the field and is in the right place at the right time or who plays a couple steps ahead of the game will expend less energy than an inexperienced player who doesn’t see the opportunity until it is too late (and then ends up chasing everything.) But this is why practicing the sport is of primary importance for mastery. Separate the acquisition of skills for sport from the development of physical capacities such as speed and strength.
Questions:
I agree on Charlies opinion that in soccer you need two things: SAQ (speed, agility, quickness) and aerobic endurance (volume ratio 20:80) but how much is there involment of LA tolerance and maximum speed (over 30m) and how much should they be emphasided during training? Offcourse there is playing position specialization…
There is little or no LA tolerance requirement for soccer. You simply don’t run full-out for long enough for LA to become an issue. You could make a bit more of an argument for ‘max speed’ training, but really max speed is attained at around 50 or 60m and again, those kinds of long straight runs are simply not done in soccer. More important is 0-30m which is largely acceleration.