=d> =d> =d>

Add morale to the last sentence as well. No kid wants to do cross-country or laps... Give them a ball to chase and they'll run all night.

Endurance is important in any sport,it is vastly different playing 36 holes of golf socially than playing 36 holes for money.

Playing in the park for eight hours playing five a side with jumpers as posts is still easier than running for ninety minutes in a formal game.
Perhaps the running without a ball business is for this reason,to simulate a real game.
In training good players tend to become great, and fit players tend to become super human Fitoids.
But on match day nerves or tightness comes to the fore,perhaps the endless running without the ball helps replicate these white line crossing conditions?
Oh and never run in tracksuits I was told, what about never run in shin pads?
In training and running around the oval surely all kids should wear shin pads and the boots they will wear matchday?
Shin pads boots they are a factor.

In terms of fitness, as TOBs says, you'll get more out of 5 minutes of chase-ball (3 on 1 passing) than you'll get from 20 minutes of slogging around the outside of the pitch. A series of such drills is a far more effective similation of the intensity of a match situation.

Same here and the FIFA one i got is from 2007 so fairly new. And i thought a proffesional foul was a red card offense no matter what.

Of course endurance is very important.

But you'll agree endurance is gained in the first stage of pre-season training, where EVERYTHING revolves around long sustained running at a steady pace.

But, there comes a time when long steady-pace running comes to an end in pre-season and the fast and shorter work begins with or without the ball.

Endurance training is not interval fitness training. In endurance training an athlete is teaching his body to use oxygen only (which is a slow-burning fuel) for energy, just like the marathon runners do.

In sprinting the body uses different chemicals stored in the body for energy plus ogygen especially near the end of the sprint.

Since a football player must have endurance and also be able to execute very fast sprints constantly throughout the game and be able to recover as quickly as possible, he needs to teach his body to produce, store and quickly replace those fast-burning chemicals the body uses for fuel in the sprints and hard runs as well as teaching his body how to be a more and more efficient ogygen-burning machine. Providing early and steady long running has helped a player gain endurance, inteval training during the rest of the season helps him get and remain fit.

Running players hard and long without breaks during the season proper is akin to disaster for fitness. This is the period the players must be kept fresh and just below 100% percent fitness so they don't peak too early. This is not the period for long running without rest breaks, particularly long, hard running.

Doing warm-ups with the ball, some stretching, some skill drills, playing a conditioned game and then a free game, then doing some sprints with rest breaks followed by a winding-down jog and stretching is more than enough to keep the players fit and fresh and a good training session.

A first-offence foul to be a red-card offence must involve violent conduct. Always in the opinion of the referee of course.

The term "professional foul" in football signifies a deliberate foul commited with the intention of stopping play.

This offence in itself is and always has been a yellow card offence.

An intentional (or professional) foul becomes a red card offence when the offending player is the last defender and deprives his opponent of a scoring opportunity, or when there is violent conduct involved in the intentional offence which could cause serious injury to the fouled player.





Edited by ton.of.bricks: 7/8/2009 03:27:46 PM

Alternatively, you can do the Paul McGrath trick... Stand at the side smoking a cigarette and watching the others training.

"So long as I can see the ball, I'm fit enough." As he once said.

EDIT - I understand Ledley King is using the same training regime, less the cigarette.

Edited by Benjamin: 7/8/2009 10:29:18 AM

you are dead right here mate.

think of it this way. by the book if a referee wants to red card a player he must immediately blow the foul and send the player off. there is no such thing as playing advantage and then sending a player off (when referring to the laws of the game violent conduct must be immediately dealt with). [This obviously doesn't include when an incident happens in backplay and the linesman has to signal the referee etc]

the referee in this case, has two options.

1. the referee must play the advantage, award the goal, and yellow card the offending player

OR

2. blow the foul, disallow the goal, send off the offending player and award a penalty.

it's easy to see which a decent referee would choose.

Edited by anth: 7/8/2009 11:05:18 AM