Thoughts on Charlie Francis and soccer

Yeah!. Many of the metatarsal injuries that occurred were from being stamped on by a member of the opposing team, poor boot design? & the upper part of the boot not being very protective.

That is the brilliance of Charlie’s sequencing for sports performance. He was the first to understand this relationship. Work on your aerobic power on off days. This will help recovery and your ability to recover your heart rate.

Instead of mixing the two and training unnecessary systems and ruining the intended training effect.

Extensive work can be sport specific.

could you or someone else explain this? How does one work at aerobic power?

Thanks

I would say aerobic capacity is more important than aerobic power

things from a simplicity standpoint. Speed builds endurance, endurance builds no speed. With that said, none of my athletes do anything other than tempos and speed. Football, I worry more about recovery. Hockey, they play 80+ games and skate 2 + times per week practice. As is often the case, they play their way into shape. The less I do, the better. I know ESTI has done some out of the box soccer training and his girls were blowing through collegiate conditioning without doing and distance work that so many coaches base their programs on. The problem we face in the private sector is that you can have the best plan and peak your athlete perfectly, then he reports to camp. Two weeks later, he is smashed by someone who hasn’t considered if the guy is already in shape and just needs to hold his fitness.

Exactly. Some people here are putting 2+2 together and getting 5. The situations are multifaceted and unless you know all the details, and the all the history, the rest is just speculation.

I was wondering that last night after seeing those injuries. Im curious if they still favor the soft animal skin boots over the traiditonal syntheitic leather cover.

Kangaroo is the most likely.

Boot design may be one very small factor for the occasional metatarsal injury but blaming it solely on the boot is incorrect.

It is possible that the boot is a contributing factor, as is the duration and intensity of the premiership season and condition of the pitches .

Modern lightweight boots have been blamed by some experts for the spate of metatarsal injuries, which used to be relatively rare. “They are not offering the protection they once did,” said Exeter University’s Sharon Dixon, an expert on the biomechanical aspects of sports injuries. Adidas tweaked the design of its Predator boot in 2004 to provide better cushioning at the front of the foot and give the metatarsals more protection.

Over the past 7 years in soccer there have been …
[ul]
[li]Increased training loads[/li][li]Greater loads at a younger age[/li][li]Greater volumes overall[/li][li]Poor preparation more games[/li][li]More artificial turf[/li][li]Greater deceleration loading[/li][li]More traveling[/li][li]Poorer nutritional habits[/li][li]Poorer quality foods[/li][li]Longer seasons[/li][li]Greater increase in injury overall & worsening biomechanics[/li][li]Etc [/li][li]etc[/li][/ul]

But of course it’s the boots
:cool:

Agreed with above list. So back to earlier discussions, it appears most of those can be helped with proper training??? Also, I would agree this is true for US players as well. Not sure what the US injury rates are. Would be interesting to compare. Also compare within the different leagues.

Sensible training and good approaches would work wonders in soccer, but it will take time.

Like I said, there is an excellent chance for the US to make improvements, maybe even prepare better than European teams if it can combine a progressive approach physical conditioning program with good technical and tactical knowledge.

The demand in Europe is the inverse.

But still have the top teams & far greater technical and tactical knowledge from players & coaches.

Can a physical conditioning program override technical and tactical knowledge. Not IMO. Don’t get me wrong, physical conditioning is extremely important.

A team of Usian Bolts with mediocre technical ability would get the run around from teams with the greater passing/first touch/composure ability (Manchester United/Barcelona/Real Mad etc) with mediocre/to good conditioning.

(I can’t understand the first line buddy)

To answer the 2nd part I go back to what I said previously…

The outcome of a soccer match is 70% determinable by the skill levels of the players involved.
Physical conditioning has an approximate 30% influence.

I felt in a way you were “criticizing” the European method of training, But Europe still have the top teams & far greater technical and tactical knowledge from the players & coaches. There could be an argument for South America having the technical and tactical knowledge, but the best teams as a whole are generally based in Europe to where the best coaches/players would most like to come.

I’ve never thought about it % wise.

I’ve just got images of Barcelona & there dominance in the Champions League this year in my head. They don’t have any “noticeably” fast players (I think Landan Donavon is quicker than any of them), athletically there good, but TECHNICALLY, & the dominance it produced, I would have them %'s more at 85% (Technical)-15% (Physical).

I was.

European soccer can improve in it’s physical preparation of soccer players.

I agree with you!

This is why I’m staking a case for “over complicating” the physical side.

The ball creates more velocity than any player could accomplish.

Yeah… But its speculation whether they would see big improvements.

This is getting tedious.
You’ve been, and are, looking for an argument.
(Metatarsals, 85% vs 70%, Technical, Tactical etc etc …) which I haven’t time to engage in.

How much do you know about Premiership, Serie A, Bundesliga soccer?

At the highest level it’s all about small differences and whether it’s 30% or 15% physical ability - if that can be optimized it’s worth millions at the end of the day in the sport of soccer.

That’s also ignoring the fundamental fact that all technical and tactical ability is expressed as a function of physiological wellbeing.

Soccer has incredible room (and many other sports) for improvement in - many domains.