Fitness for Sports

Most sports are coming into/started their season but are you fit enough? Did you do enough during the off and pre season? Most people spend time thinking about Aerobic or Cardiovascular fitness, but this blog is going to look briefly at Aerobic fitness but also 3 other areas that need addressing to ensure you can be at the top of your game.

The Importance of A Good Fitness Base

Better aerobic fitness is linked to higher levels of playing in a number of sports like Squash, Football, Basketball, Hockey to name a few that have been studied. The continuous nature of this sports means the cardiovascular system is being challenged all throughout the match.

However, it’s not just during the match the aerobic fitness comes in to play. Having a good aerobic base helps faster recovery post match or training. Being able to recover faster or more efficiently means you have the potential to either train or play harder or train and play more, or a combination of both. For example look at the congested schedule professional football has. One thing that has made this possible is their superior aerobic fitness levels being able to recover quickly between matches. In addition to quicker recover it provides better cognition during playing. So those crucial moments of decision making are found to be clearer and the better choice is made. Also meaning half time instructions can be taken on board and implemented.

Although, aerobic fitness isn’t the be all end all as we will see later in this article. It does proved the foundations from which other aspects of fitness can be built. The stronger the foundations the better the building on top can be. Likewise the bigger the aerobic base built the stronger and better other fitness components can be built on top. Other components like: speed, agility, sport specific techniques like kicking, striking, passing etc. Imagine a pyramid, having a narrow base you could build a tall peak but it wouldn’t be very stable and could topple. So below par aerobic base you can do other components to higher levels but it would be a narrow selection and potential to topple i.e. injury is high. Now widen the pyramid base the same peak could be made with far more stability. Meaning more components with variety and robustness.

But, there is a limit. Don’t immediately don trainers and stack up mile after mile of running. Ultra endurance levels of aerobic fitness are not needed. Once reaching the appropriate level for your sport it’s time to focus on other fitness components. Longer slower runs promote type 1 fibres which re slow to fatigue but not very powerful. There are alternative ways to improve aerobic fitness than just long slow runs.

So build that base. Make it as wide as needed for your sport to aid match fitness, recovery, clearer thinking and to build other robust and varied components on top. But read on to find out why aerobic fitness is not the component to think about with fitness.

Technique is king

I’ve been told by coaches certain players are not fit enough, they need to doing more running or fitness session. They know more about the specifics of their sport and how they want their player to perform so I take that player and fitness test them. This is so I know where we are starting from and can show the player and coach how they have improved.

However, when testing them their fitness is as good as the rest of the team!

What’s happened here? Why do they look awful running around the pitch?

Well the answer is in the second question. Their technique is awful. For example a player who is constantly being beaten 1 on 1 either in defence or attack. Look at their change of direction ability. They probably have a poor technique, either not connecting upper and lower body or innate foot placement is bonkers. Take time to coach them appropriate technique and watch them appear fitter on the pitch.

Rugby is always a great example of this. Players who are laboured getting off the floor after a collision. Coaching them more effective strategies to get their body off the floor, then watch them fly around the pitch making tackles for fun!

No matter you base level of fitness, poor technique cannot be out run in sports. The majority go training to practice the techniques that are appropriate to their sport, whether that be passing, kicking, striking etc. However, not a massive amount spend time of practicing technical movements that happen around their sporting technique. So if you’ve spent time getting fitter and want to take it to the next level video yourself playing and look at any areas you lag behind and get technical.

Speed!

You’ve worked hard in the off season. Realised some of your movement techniques are poor and drilled those to look as graceful as a gazelle across the Savanah. But your still behind and seem less fit than others. Time to look at speed.

I’m not just talking about top speed as many sports don’t actually get anywhere need it due to court size or the actual game. I’m talking about acceleration, deceleration and change of direction as well as top speed. In order to be fast you have to practice being fast. Obviously the last point comes into this as well where as near to perfect technique needs to be practiced. But at some point practice needs to be as fast as you can. This will promote/train the type 2 fast twitch fibres which are able to produce more force than the type 1 aerobic fibres. 

Being able to first complete the movements at speed is crucial as it will give you the extra couple of inches to be in front of your opponent. But then you need to repeat this for the duration of the match when it is needed. Even Olympic lifting where it how much you can lift over 2 individual lifts, they still have to do this 6 times! This is where that wide aerobic foundation comes into a benefit. Because the better the aerobic base the quicker recovery and more the body is able to do. Improvement will be seen in solely practicing the speed element and repeatability will occur. But the drop off will be dramatic and potential for injury high due to the lack of conditioning.

Strength and Power

This slots in nicely straight after speed. Strength is critical component to help with the techniques and speed. Being able to produce more force in a quicker time with each movement with support the technical and speed work built on top of the aerobic foundations. Personally I put this along side aerobic work in strengthening the base. Imagine these as the first course of bricks. They need to be solid and well placed in order to build on top. This is what well programmed and practiced strength leading into power will give a player.

Similar to building an aerobic base players do not want to be spending too much time on this. The strength needs to be built to an appropriate level, not power lifters level. But then this force needs speed added to. So performing powerful movements that require force with speed will develop power. This doesn’t mean spending hours in the gym curling bars, but spending quality time doing movements that will assist the movements required in the sport. Forget muscles think movements.

Final Thought

The aerobic base is vitally important in creating a wide foundation to build on for recovery, clarity under pressure and pure fitness for playing. Strength will make up the next layer on top of the foundations to ensure all the skills over and above are performed well. However, don’t forget to practice skills and techniques needed to move around the pitch, court or field easily. Build speed and the ability to repeat on top with a wide variety of movements all of sudden you’ll be the fittest person in the game!

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