Why is Fitness Important in Soccer?
Fitness is a topic that not only matters in soccer but in most sports. The definition of fitness depends on what type of sport is being played, though most team sports nowadays require all-around fitness. Soccer is a game that involves physical contact, requires enormous strength and balance. These are just subsets of fitness that need to be perfected. Fitness matters a lot in soccer, and act as the one of the best soccer goals. The fact that there are separate fitness coaches now asserts this fact. We have also witnessed the best soccer goals that have been scored due to the scorer displaying excellent fitness such as the great balance of ball, great stamina, or strong legs for powerful and thunderous shots.
Training Methods
Soccer is a fast game that gets completed in 90 minutes, requires speed, stamina, and strength all at once. The more agile a player is, the better they are expected to finish and complete. We have seen that all-around performance is required, not only by one or two players but the whole team collectively. Whenever there’s a player that isn’t physically fit, it is determined by the warm-up sessions conducted before the match. Nowadays, football has become faster and more competitive.
Proper training methods are not restricted to the traditional powerhouses of South America and Europe but are being applied in several countries. It is not surprising that teams from Asia, Africa, or North America can now defeat the European or South American big teams more often due to better training facilities. Players go through rigorous training schedules in the warm sessions nowadays, with different new training approaches being adopted. Sports medicine and rehabilitation is now an important topic that has seen a rise in the soccer world with recent advancements.
Fitness and Schedule
Scoring a goal requires the contribution of many players on the field, and some goals are scored through opponent team blunders, but those are rare possibilities. If a team endures 90 minutes better than the opponent team, they have better chances of scoring a goal. Some of the best soccer goals are displays of excellent fitness levels, be it excellent solo runs, powerful headers, curling free kicks, or long-range bangers, which keep us in awe. In today’s date, players have to engage in a more competitive environment.
There are several clubs and international matches throughout the calendar, which gives the player’s very little time to rest. Therefore, maintaining the physical fitness of the players is a much important matter nowadays. Some players have even started an extremely hectic schedule which is disrupting the flow of their fitness.
Consistency in Performance
To become a great player, you have to maintain consistency. Great players have performed excellently throughout their playing careers and have maintained fitness to such an extent that they are available for most of the matches in the season. There have been players who have struggled with fitness for most of their playing career and thus haven’t reached the potential they were expected to reach. Not being fit means while playing a match, one is more prone to injuries, and injuries can end someone’s career. Take, for example, the big transfers like Eden Hazard from Chelsea to Real Madrid.
This transfer is the one that raised the most eyebrows in 2019 in Spain. But the $113 million transfer was reduced to staunch criticism as the player struggles to stay fit and got injuries more often. Similar is Philip Coutinho, who Barcelona brought for 189 million dollars from Liverpool. He also had a dip in form due to poor fitness, which saw him being loaned to German club and European giants Bayern Munich. According to reports, due to the fitness training at Munich, he recovered himself. He had a much better season where he also scored a brace against his club Barcelona from where he was loaned in a crucial Quarterfinal match in the 2020 UCL.
Conclusion:
The fitness levels of a team require a good fitness coach and their subordinates. Suppose the proper investment is made for achieving greater fitness. In that case, the team will have greater chances of winning matches—the collective fitness levels of the whole team matter for the overall performance in a game of soccer.
Deepa Mahar is an independent blogger and admin of DeepAdvices who is exploring the beauty of the blog writing from a variety of subjects and books to health, science and others. She believes the blog would be helpful to the reader in the context of knowledge. She is post-graduated with a degree of Biotechnology.
