To Sprint or Not to Sprint?
Sprinting in football has been the topic of a big debate between coaches and sport scientists. Exposing their players to high velocities is an issue that a lot of coaches seem to be avoiding in their training sessions. Can sprint activity in training improve performance, or does it cast too big of a big risk for players and should be avoided?
Taking everything from the beginning: What are the physical demands of a 90min game? If we try to monitor player performance at an elite level, we will find that a football player covers distances between 10-12km (depending from their position) with the majority of that being in low intensity (Di Salvo et al, 2010). In the span of the distance covered, we have activities like tackles, headings, changes of direction and high intensity running of which sprinting constitutes the 1-11% with 10-20 sprints (>25.2 km/h) (Stolen et al, 2005; Di Salvo et al 2010; Haugen et al 2014).
Modern soccer requires fine planning and solid preparation. The increasing demands of play lead sports practitioners to design weekly training plans paying great attention to detail in preparing their players for what we call a “worst case scenario”. A player may have to make a 30-40-meter sprint in an offensive transition or sprint to run back to save a ball. How well are our players prepared to anticipate these scenarios? Preparing football players for the aforementioned 1-11% of the game is crucially important. One offensive or defensive sprint can make volumes of difference in a game. Moreover, the importance of maximum sprinting speed is also indicated by the big percentage of goals scored in a game after a via-straight-line sprints (Faude et al., 2012). Tony Strudwich (Man Utd, Head of Performance), in a recent presentation, referred to “critical moments” as preparation for the most intense phase of their sport; 10m maximal burst (acceleration), high speed training (max sprinting speed), train quick, make athletes hard to break, build resilience through volume and ensure athletes can cope with these demands.
Analyzing the game, we observe max sprinting efforts occurred offensively and defensively. Offensively, when in build up and when in transition (off the ball – with ball) are the moments when a max sprint can occur. On the other hand, defensively, we can differentiate two phases; the first when our team press high as a part of our strategy leaving space at the defense back and the second, when we lose the ball in transition. Therefore, it is essential to analyze correctly our team’s game model and train these phases accordingly.
Key Information
Research has shown that High-Speed Running and sprinting vary from match to match depending on the player’s position, playing style and match score (Gregson et al, 2010 Mendez-Villabueva et al, 2011; Mendez-Villabueva et al, 2013; Al Haddad et al, 2015). Taking averages maybe is not relevant to what your team or player can do in the game. Therefore, coaches and sport scientists should be very careful when interpreting data and designing their training sessions. Physical and Tactical elements should be prioritized according to team and player needs. Profiling your players (Max Acceleration, Max Sprinting Speed, Max aerobic Speed) can help you understand better each players’ performance.
During a 90min game players can achieve very high sprinting speeds (ie, ~85–94% of maximal sprinting speed) regardless of age or playing position and that faster players are likely to reach greater absolute speed during the games than their slower teammates (Villanueva et al, 2011). Do not insist to make your players faster, just understand their weaknesses and focus more on speed of play and how they could compensate any weaknesses they may have.
Among all physical puzzle pieces, sprinting speed is essential for players’ performance and injury prevention as well (Buchheit, 2016). For example, it is suggested for hamstring prevention to perform isometric strength exercises and training of inter-muscular coordination combinedwith exposure to high-speed running (Van Hooren & Bosh, 2018). In addition, return to play protocols focus on preparing players to perform what they did in training or match; max sprinting speed is considered to be one of the most important markers. Hence, sprinting is a key factor to indicate a player’s readiness to train and play.
Sprinting speed can be differentiated into acceleration (10m) and maximal sprinting speed or peak velocity (20-40m). Train-wise these two components should be trained independently as not all max accelerations lead to max speed (Haugen et al, 2014; Al Haddad et al, 2015). Set priorities every day; set specific targets for your team and players, so you will know in the end if you achieved them or not. If you plan your sessions from what you are doing in the game, you may need to re-consider the acceleration data as the validity of said data is still not clear. Acceleration information from GPS can mislead the training stimulus, so it is therefore recommended to observe video from the game to see how these accelerations occurred and maybe in which speed each acceleration or sprint started and ended.
Coaches and sport scientists, should use the analysis of their team’s match physical demands combined with the tactical aspects, when designing a weekly plan. According to tactical periodization (graph 1) and the principle of horizontal alternation in specificity, everyday (acquisition days) has to focus on a different physical fitness component (Recovery, Strength, Endurance, Speed). Therefore, on a Speed day we should expose our players to max velocities that are required in the game (or compensate if they didn’t reach them until that day).
In modern training planning, it does not make sense working traditional blocks with different physical aspects (aerobic capacity – aerobic power – anaerobic capacity – anaerobic power etc). Big clubs spend 2-3 weeks pre-season doing friendly games in different places around the world. After the first week (adaptation), according to the tactical periodization we can work all fitness components in relation to a) the team needs (tactical) and b) the level of complexity. Therefore, players should be exposed to high velocities early, in order to be prepared for what will happen in a friendly or official game.
Improvements in sprinting velocity during youth occur due to growth and maturation (Al Haddad et al, 2015; Moran et al, 2017). Therefore, we should be careful when interpreting the data as we may have late or early mature players. Suggested max speed training for youth is twice per week with 16 sprints of around 20m, with work to rest ratio of 1:25 or greater than 90sec (Moran et al, 2017).
Graph 1, Tactical Periodisation weekly plan (Villanueva & Delgado, 2012).
Measurement and use of Max Sprinting Speed
Fully automatic timing systems, laser guns and high-speed video are considered to be the gold standards for measuring max sprinting speed (Haugen & Buchheit, 2015). However, these systems are expensive to buy and they need well-trained people to operate them. Timing gates is a cheaper and easy method to assess max sprinting speed, but accuracy of the data is questioned as with this method we get the average speed. The last few years, a lot of studies have attempted to validate Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) which are daily used by the most of the professional teams (Roe et al, 2017). GPS can possibly be the best solution to assess and monitor sprinting speed as they are being used in the daily training routine by most of the practitioners.
When practitioners have confidence in systems used to measure max sprinting speed, the method used to get those measurements is crucial. For example, a lot of teams use testing, training or match data. However, the use of match data is not recommended; firstly due to high variability from match to match and secondly, the positional differences in the game can lead players in higher or lower physical performance. For example, the physical demands of a Central Defender are much different from a Full-Back or a Winger. There will be cases in which players will not have to run in high velocities in the game. Consequently, the use of testing (at least 3 times per season) or specific protocols in training, are highly recommended.
Monitoring the training load is essential in terms of improving performance and reducing injuries. As it was mentioned, sprinting is considered to be part of a team injury prevention strategies. Therefore, sports scientists should be careful when monitor the training load and maybe appropriate the use of relative thresholds instead of the traditional absolute thresholds, especially for the high speed zones 5 and 6 which are 19.8-25.2 Km/h for High Speed Running (zone 5) and >25.2 Km/h for Sprinting (zone 6). For some players, the absolute speed at which they begin to exercise at high-speed will be either higher or lower than these speeds. Thus, having the max sprinting speed (preferably from testing or training), an alternative approach to monitor is the use of speed thresholds tailored to the individual and based on objective physiological measures. Consequently, the use of relative thresholds to quantify training load may provide a better understanding of player’s training and match physical load (Villanueva et al, 2013; Lovell & Abt, 2013).
Training Methodology
Professional football requires the individualization of high speed running zones by position and by coaches’ game model. The large variation between players in the same team (faster, slower etc) makes the use of absolute thresholds difficult. Consequently, assessing players’ locomotor profile and using relative external load can keep us from misleading the data we get from players’ performance and from acute to chronic ratio comparisons (Buchheit, 2016). Profiling a football player is necessary not only for performance purposes but for injury prevention as well. We have to monitor our players’ progress relatively to themselves and to their readiness at that moment. In terms of when and how we could train Max Sprinting Speed, knowing the locomotor profile of our players and their current status, we can adjust accordingly the training method used and the total load.
Graph 2, Max Speed Methodology
The training methods that can be used for max speed training are:
1. Isolated: sprinting activity with or without ball, including different starting options (flying start, side move, reaction). The main objective is to achieve pure Max Sprinting Speed without any tactical and technical targets. The easiest way to achieve that is with 30-40m flat runs and exercises involving Max Sprinting Speed as a transition.
2. Functional: football-related, sprinting activity through football-specific drills like running, cutting, shooting and possession games. The purpose of this category is to achieve max speed though the four moments of the game (especially through transitions).
3. Tactical: Tactical-related, sprinting activity though the team game model and system of play. Combination play and positional drills using specific movement patterns linked with the teams’ Game Model.
Practical Applications
Train for the “worst case scenario”
According to tactical periodization, every day (acquisition days) has to focus on different physical fitness components (Recovery, Strength, Endurance, Speed)
At least once per week, we expose our players to peak velocities
Assess your players’ max speed through testing or daily GPS monitoring
Use one or a combination of the 3 training methods (Isolated, Football related, Tactical related)
So, the answer is: YES we sprint!!
Graph 3, Practical Applications of Max Speed Training
This article was edited from its initial form on Nov 25, 2018
References
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