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pro footballers running
Can anybody settle an argument with a work colleague. He says that nearly all Premiership Footballers could run 5K in sub 20 mins....I say....'No way!' Anybody know of any facts or figures?
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but footballers are trained to run in short fast bursts which is different to sustained running so they would need to train accordingly
and I believe Goldenballs aka Beckham beats the bleep test which is very very tough to do........so he's pretty quick!
they should be able to run it.beckham could easily do a fast 10k as he was a pretty useful xcountry runner at school
but here's a couple i have doubts about,
Andy Reid
Tom Huddlestone
John Hartson
can anyone add to the list
I'd say your work colleague is correct. It's a lazy argument to suggest that all Premiership footballers are wife beating drunks who go out and squire young hairdressers every friday and saturday night. The simple fact is that midfielders (at least) run about 10k per match so to ask them to run sub 20m 5k should be a fairly basic fitness requirement. They are fit athletes who are competing at national and international standard week in week out - why would they not be able to do a sub 20min 5k? It's only the goalies who should be struggling with it tbh.
In fact, I'd extend that ability a lot further down the leagues as well. You try running around a football pitch 3 times a week for 2 x 45min halves with 2 to 3hr training sessions on top of that. You'd soon find out how hard it actually is.....
Footballers have to run continuously in fast bursts though FB - it's not like rugby where you can sprint then stand around recovering! They are both explosive sports but I think rugby probably more so - football has more of an endurance element to it.
So many kids play football that the cream of our athletic talent tends to go into the sport - and anyone else remember Dennis Wise on superstars a couple of years ago - he was very useful in the XC.
"I'd say your work colleague is correct. It's a lazy argument to suggest that all Premiership footballers are wife beating drunks who go out and squire young hairdressers every friday and saturday night."
no some of them go out mid week as well.
Kryten, that's splitting hairs. they do have to do some endurance training.i once trained with Steve Walsh,(leicester city) and the guy was amazingly fit even though he looked a couple of pounds overweight, and said he never really ran that much. i think if you look at the physique of some of them, youcan easily spot a good runner
not if you're a forward like I was - we had lineouts and scrums etc to do so the jessies in the backs could try and get all the frigging glory........
actually - no - that's wrong
if I EVER sound like Stuart Barnes I'll definitely shoot myself.....
"They may run 10k during a match - but that is a 10k in 90mins with a nice rest half way through!"
Well if some people on here were to do that sort of training - hard intervals 2wice or three times a week done in 4 lots of 45mins sessions I can guarantee that they'd soon realise how easy it would be to do a sub 20min 5k.
It's not like we're talking about fat darts players is it?
I agree - lots of endurance sports have lost their best athletes over the years to football without realising it.
How many 100m or 200m or 400m sprinters have ended up being strikers on the pitch for instance?}
Look at the physique of Craig Mottram and David Beckham - very very similar. It's only the sheer volume of running that has "thinned out" Mottram over the years
im almost certain all premiership players could do a 20min 5k. just go to a game and see for yourself how fast it is and how much running all the players do off the ball (keeper aside). mind you im not suggesting you fork out 40/50 quid for the pleasure!!!
much as the press love us to hate the pampered premiership stars, its worth remembering (when feeling charitable) that they are pretty good all round athletes.
5k in 20 mins for an athlet thats trains most days with the best medical, diet, coaching etc plus few are over 30 I think even I could have got close to that sort of time then.
Its approx 6.30 min per mile pace
That said I think most footballers would really struggle to do 10 mile under 70 mins without 6+ weeks training for it.
I run the Cliffe Woods 10K most years and until recently,Andy Hesenthaler was a regular entrant.
He was in his late '30's and player-manager of Gillingham at the time and always finished around 40 minutes,with a seriously impressive sprint finish !
I know that's just one example,but it's a good indication of the basic fitness of an "average" professional footballer and I believe that the vast majority of Premiership players would have no problem with a sub-20 5K.
Some would probably do a lot better than that.Thierry Henry,with his build and inherent speed,is somebody I would think could have been an excellent middle distance runner;possibly Rio Ferdinand and I'm sure many others.Somewhat off topic,I remember James Cracknell running a 1.20 half at Windsor a few years ago,so we mustn't underestimate how fit the majority of professional sportspeople are-it's their living.
I've wondered previously how my fitness would compare to a top class footballer. I don't think all of them could run a sub-20 5k; I agree a high proportion could but some of the heavier ones would struggle due to weight and just generally not being suited to high intensity for 20 minutes.
[Considered making a joke about Eduardo not being able to but thought best not to....]
Here are some stats per player per game, lifted from the article below:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article722711.ece
Most people on here, could run 12k in 90 minutes fairly easily. I'm sure a high proportion could also cover 1k of this at high intensity, I think where most would fail would be in the 44 flat out sprints and 147 "reps". Obviously most of these reps would be fairly short (given that they have to squeeze one and a half in each minute) but as nearly a third of them are flat out, it would certainly be a challenge.
Personally, I don't think I'm as short intensity fit as a top class footballer as my focus is stamina based, not speed. But I'm sure I'm comparable stamina-wise. Ok, I think I've got more stamina!
Old thread but interesting.
Some footballers should ease 5k, especially the likes of Theo Walcott, Steven Gerrard, Cristiano Ronaldo etc..
I could probably run 5k in sub 20 minutes if I really went for it, and I'm just getting back into it. Footballers are very lean due to their high workrate in training. You see they don't have one inch of fat on them, but I still reckon they'd struggle anything over 5k as they are heavier than runners and their fitness is made for more high intensity bursts rather than substaining a good pace over a long distance.
Andy Hessenthaler, ex Gillingham footballer has a more than decent time for a 10k, not sure what the time was but I recall reading about it in the Runners World magazine.
Can anyone expand on this?
SS
How about Neil Ruddock or Jan Molby will that do for you snail?
Having been at the track at the same time as an Exeter Chief's track session, I can offer a rugby comparison.
They were all very impressive over 60m; pretty good over 200m & almost without exception sub-65 over 400m. Finishing the session with a 1500m, none of them were under 6 minutes.
Admittedly it is a different game & rugby players are carrying a lot more upper body muscle, but based on my observations I'd have guessed that only a small percentage were likely to go sub-20 over 5K. Nothing like what they were trained to do - or needed to achieve.
As the goalkeeper of an amateur football team, all our lads are drilled to run 5KM once a week, the slowest is 21 minutes and the fastest is 18, premiership footie players should be fitter than us drunken students! Also the drummer in my band plays semi pro footy in wales and I've seen his team training schedule, Footballers are fit lads at all levels and I'd say 5KM is probably not asking too much of most of them.
HOWEVER, John Carew, Emile Heskey, and other stocky non-midfielders may find it a struggle!
I used to play a low level of football before injury caused me to switch to running.
I used to do a sub 5 min mile in boots in pre season training and almost all of the players finished in less than 6 minutes. We were never timed over longer distances
Based on this I'd be shocked if any top level outfield player couldn't do a 20 minute 5k
i think that most of them would do a 20 min 5k fairly comfortably.
James milner of villa was Leeds cross country champion for several years!