Thoughts on Charlie Francis and soccer

[jamirok]

@speedcoach

Jamirok,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I watch my players who certaily have lower V02 maxes than many of their counterparts run and skate circles around them. Usually high V02 max indicates to me that someone spend a lot of time on the eundurance end of training spectrum. I train mostly football and hockey, and i focus a lot on explosive speed and change of direction such as accel/decel. I believe Charlie told me the Russians had avg V02 maxes on Oly team of about 55. USA had 62-65. Who was whipping the arse off of who back then? Also, isn’t a high V02 max useless unless you have a high lactate threshold as well? Technology is nice, but it doesn’t replace experience. ESTI, Jamirok, No23 and many other have years of experience doing this. I can tell by the way my players enter the gym whether they are recovered just by demeanor, I don’t need to do a Wingate test to find out they are not recovered.

I agree with No23 about fitness test.

But we have to speak about kind of test and not mix different areas.

Vo2Max is a fitness test, and It’s usefull for control the start point and then progressive results from a kind of training, but Vo2 Max doesn’t tell you about your inner staus of your regulatory mechanism (functional reserve and adaptation in brief).
I can do HRV or similar, every day, 3 times a week etc…Vo2Max every day is stupid to do.
This is because I say it’s a waste of time.
Leave it to sport lab and medical doctors.

PS: lactate is another argument really interesting, there are a lot of test to do, from carbo load to metabolic fatigue…and training organization.