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Soccer players generally have no idea how to sprint. And this relative lack of knowing HOW to sprint negatively affects not only the way they play the game, but their sustainability within it.
A short thread:
A short thread:
At the highest end of sport, athletes are generally both incredibly skilled and have the required neurophysiological abilities that underpin their respective sport.
Athletes who are only skilled, but lack the underpinning physical requirements, generally do not last very long. Conversely, athletes who lack skill, but excel in the physical demands, rarely make it to the highest levels.
In American football, the required physical demands are at the extreme end of the force-producing continuum. Force - and its derivatives - underpin the physical requirements of all players.
While there are degrees of competence and experience, we will not find a single player in the NFL who has not spent significant time developing their force-producing abilities - whether it be through lifting weights, sprinting, or both.
As a consequence of the natural developmental progression of those who end up in the NFL, we end up with guys who can generally move pretty well.
Success in soccer, however, is defined less by force-producing abilities, and more on skill; players who excelled through their developmental progressions were those who were more skillful than their peers - not necessarily those who were bigger and faster.
The game itself, is underpinned primarily through more cardiovascular abilities - rather than force-producing - especially through the developmental ranks.
So at the highest levels, we end up with a large variance in how players move generally - and sprint, more specifically, as these abilities have never played a significant role in their development.
Taking an already elite (both from a skill- and a force-producing perspective) NFL player out of context to work on their sprinting is *normally* not an efficient use of time (possible exception of @run__cmc)
Soccer players, on the other hand - especially at the highest end of the game - often lack the underpinning physical (force-dependent) abilities (and basic movement competencies) to sustain themselves.
We see incredible numbers of soft-tissue injuries, simply because players lack basic technical sprinting competency.
In these cases, it is often most-appropriate to remove context entirely. Take the ball and opponents away, and simply teach them how to sprint.
The challenge in this is 1) finding the time in an already dense training schedule, 2) the intention that is required, not only from the player, but from everyone with touch-points to her, and 3) getting buy in from the technical-tactical coaching staff.
Much easier through developmental levels.
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(Preceding was part of weekly text convos with my buddy @MovementMiyagi ... we agree on 96% of stuff, but I prefer to chat about the 4% we don’t!)
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(Preceding was part of weekly text convos with my buddy @MovementMiyagi ... we agree on 96% of stuff, but I prefer to chat about the 4% we don’t!)
