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pro footballers running
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football uses different physiques in different positions.
A heavy defender has to muscle strikers off the ball, and also sprint to recover position, and jump to head the ball. Similarly, sprinters do a similar job as their counterparts and also need skill on the ball. Both suggest they are built for power and explosive speed, rather than enduarance per se.
'Tricky wingers' tend to be fast, slight players while fullbacks and central midfielders tend to be closer to distance runners and endurance merchants. Central midfielders especially, though fullbacks have to make large amounts of faster looping recovery runs back and worth protecting the flanks.
Im sure all need an aerobic base, and a football match resembles fartlek training in many ways. In particular Id have no problem betting on a midfielder or fullback to clock up a more than decent time for 5k
i started pre season training with a local 1st div pre sunday league team on sunday and was 2nd fittest there..... they just about managed 2 laps of the park.
I rmember Sol cambell weighing 16st and running 100m inside 11 seconds.
Most professional footballers should be capable of running 5k in 20mins, however, I also think that their running ability is often overestimated. As has been pointed out, Beckham is probably among he best 'runners' in football but he was nothing other than a good standard club runner as a junior. Furthermore, footballers these days seem to spend less time running and more time in the gym than previous generations. England's world cup winners looked like middle distance runners, our current lot look more like boxers.
Yeah i m sure Campbell did run that in his prime bazza ,you have to remember campbell was a very athletic defender as well as carrying that weight , very strong core ect.
Do remember him playing against Ronaldo the brazilian striker for England in 97 when he was 5 yrds behind him but caught him within 60 meters and made the tackle ! That was when Ronaldo was in his pomp virtually unplayable in most matches.
I think probabley the best footballer at distance running would be Steve Macmanaman ,im sure i read he was Lancashire cross country champion as a teenager .
I played gaelic football up until about 27 or so. Have been running since then.
The best I've seen a non runner do a 5k in was high 19s. 10ks they go down to ~42. There's much more endurance training in gaelic football than soccer BTW...
Soccer beign pro though attracts the tio athletes. Beckham is bound to do a sub 20 5k...