Soccer Fitness And Nutrition: The Main Factors
Soccer fitness and nutrition depends wholly on the role the soccer player has on the field. Every player has to have certain skills but it is very important that every player has good stamina, good strength, good speed and suppleness. All of these factors are important for a soccer player and keeping these skills requires a lot of fitness exercises.
A very skillful player who cannot last the whole match due to their lack of stamina, or cannot get to the ball because of their lack of speed, is not as useful to the team as the player who has less skill, but more speed and stamina. There are two specific types of stamina that we are interested in and these are aerobic and anaerobic.
Aerobics helps a person to learn how to control their breathing and therefore control the amount of oxygen that they intake in one breath. People can practice aerobics when walking or jogging to control when they start to get out of breath, with time and practice you can control your level of fatigue and continue with your exercise for a longer amount of time.
Anaerobic exercise helps determine the time you can work at a high intensity level which will include a short burst of energy that will make you feel out of breath. When practicing this exercise you will learn to control those short bursts of energy and ease your breathing to be able to eliminate the feeling of fatigue.
Soccer players need both aerobic and anaerobic fitness due to the nature of the game and also due to the fact that there is a lot of continuous movement with lots of short bursts of energy of more intense activity. Some positions require higher levels of anaerobic fitness than other positions; some require more aerobic fitness than others. For a midfield player it is required to cover a lot of ground during the game and therefore needs a good aerobic exercise.
To be able to stay fit, nutrition also plays a very important role in the program. A full medical examination should take place to determine what type of diet is better for the player. Every diet must include a high level of carbohydrates, especially in the pre match meal. Players are also advised to eat a snack with protein in it whilst playing the match itself.
Glucose filled drinks are also advisable as they help to maintain a high energy level and are also very easy to digest. A soccer player should avoid the intake of soft drinks in his diet and especially before a game as the bubbles that the gas provokes make digestion a lot harder. Caffeine should also be avoided before a match as it tends to cause more dehydration that it does hydration.
The three main food types are carbohydrates, fats and proteins, and it is very important that there is a balance of these food types in the players’ daily food intake. Adding this to a good fitness program and routine and the player will have no problems when having to play soccer.