Lesson 2 – Fitness requirements in football
Lesson Objectives
*Types of fitness & Aspects of Fitness
*Fitness requirements for football
Types of Fitness – Task 1
Q1. How many types of fitness are there
Q2. Name the types of fitness?
3 Types of Fitness
Physical
Skill-related
Mental
Physical Fitness
Physical
Fitness
Cardio
Respiratory
Endurance
Local
Muscular
Endurance
Strength
Power
Speed
Flexibility
Speed
Endurance
Physical Fitness
Watch the following two video clips and summarise the
information given.
Cardio Respiratory
Endurance
Speed Endurance
Physical Fitness
To further develop your understanding of these two aspects read and
summarise the two handouts provided on Cardio Respiratory
Endurance and Speed Endurance.
Physical Fitness – Cardio Respiratory Endurance
Cardio-respiratory endurance is the ability of the heart and lungs to provide the working
muscles with oxygenated blood for a prolonged period of time.
Poor CRE will result in the player becoming breathless more quickly and unable to keep up
with play or maintain a high skill level. Decision making will also be affected and longer rest
periods will be needed to aid recovery.
Cardio Respiratory Endurance – Football Example
Cardio respiratory endurance (CRE) is required to last the full 90 minutes of the game.
During the game you will do a lot of work both on and off the ball. You will make repeated
runs to support attacks, get into space to receive the ball, make runs with the ball, chase
back to defend etc.
The energy required to do this is supplied aerobically, which requires your heart, lungs
and blood system to supply oxygen to the working muscles throughout the game. Therefore
a high level of CRE delays the onset of fatigue. This means that your work rate stays
high you can fulfil your role in the team and you will be able to maintain a high skill level (as
fatigue can also affect your control, touch and concentration).
Physical Fitness – Speed Endurance
Speed allows the whole body to move quickly eg. in sprinting, or part of the body may move
quickly eg. in throwing a cricket ball.
However SPEED ENDURANCE
Is the ability to do this repeatedly over an extended period of time without a decrease in
speed.
Speed Endurance – Football Example
Speed is required when trying to beat an opponent to a 50/50 ball, to lose defender, to get
in to space, to support an attack, to dribble round an opponent or to chase back and close
down an attack. If you lack speed then you will be unable to maintain possession of the ball,
win it back, or take on your opposite player effectively. This happens continually throughout
the game as you repeatedly sprint over varied distances.
Therefore speed endurance is more important because if it is poor you will be unable to
maintain sprinting or repeatedly sprint throughout the duration of the game.
The energy required to do this is supplied anaerobically as the aerobic system is too slow
to meet the energy demands. These results in lactic acid build up and it is this, which leads
to muscle fatigue. Therefore with improved speed endurance (anaerobic endurance) the
body can delay the production of lactic acid and tolerate higher concentrations of it thus
delaying fatigue.
Skill Related Fitness
Skill
Related
Agility
Reaction
Time
Balance
Timing
Coordination
Movement
anticipation
Skill Related Fitness – Agility
Agility is the ability to change the position of the body quickly, precisely and with control.
This uses a combination of speed and flexibility. This helps team players dodge their
opponents or turn to track back in defence or turn to create space and time to evaluate their
options.
Skill Related Fitness
Watch the following video clip regarding agility in basketball.
Are there any comparisons that can be made?
Agility
Agility – Football Example
Agility is required to enable players to quickly change direction, for example when making
runs into the penalty box, turning to close down an attack, quickly adjusting to closely mark
a player who is trying to lose you or adjusting their upper body to reach a corner kick and
head the ball towards the goal.
Attacking players need to use agility to lose defenders and create space, leading to better
scoring opportunities and more time on the ball to evaluate their options increasing the
chance of them executing skills correctly.
Skill Related Fitness – Balance
Balance is the ability to retain the centre of gravity above the base of support when
stationary (static balance) or moving (dynamic balance). This helps gymnasts maintain their
position and prevents games players from falling over at speed. Muscles work together to
keep the body in a balanced position.
Dynamic Balance – Football Example
In football dynamic balance is very important. Players need this because they are moving
and adjusting body position constantly when looking for scoring opportunities in the penalty
box or trying to mark an opponent closely.
Good balance will help players to keep their shots on target, and to reach and play difficult
volley strikes with accuracy - it will also help to maintain possession when a defender tries
to push you of the ball.
Mental Fitness Homework Task
Due:Tuesday 26th October
Instructions
H/W.1
H/W.2
1.
2.
3.
Number your group 1-4
4.
On Tuesday 26th October you will be responsible for teaching
your group your topic area
Collect the handout which corresponds to your number
H/W.3
H/W.4
Read and make notes of the information you have been provided
with
Mental Fitness
Mental
Level of
Arousal
Mental Preparation /
Mental Rehearsal
Managing
Emotions
Mental Fitness – Level of Arousal
H/W.1
Level of arousal is the level of excitement, stress, nervousness and aggression as you get
prepared to participate in an activity. Arousal levels can peak too high or dip too low.
Level of arousal can be described as how focussed, alert or laidback /relaxed or stressed a
sports person is when performing.
 If a performer is too laidback or not focussed their lack of arousal and limited
motivation will lead to a poor performance.
 If a performer is over anxious / motivated and tense their stress levels will be too
high and this will also lead to a poor performance.
Level of arousal is like a glass of water. If there is too little water in the glass it
is not full enough to quench your thirst. If there is too much water the glass
will over flow and makes a mess.
Mental Fitness – Level of Arousal
H/W.1
If Level of arousal is to low performance will be poor because you want work to get into
space to receive a pass or wont be motivated to track back and help protect defence. A low
level of motivation will lead to a laid back can’t be bothered attitude.
On the other hand is performer is overly motivated or anxious they will run around
everywhere and be out of position, by trying to do to much your physical fitness will drop.
You are also likely to lunge into challenges giving away free kicks and possibly picking up a
booking.
Level of Arousal – Athletics Example
H/W.2
 Level of mental arousal is key to success in the long jump. The level of
mental arousal is the level of excitement, anticipation, stress, aggression,
apprehension and nervousness. It refers to the state of mental
preparedness for participation in the activity. This is important for long
jump as the athlete must be prepared to perform in front of a crowd and
be able to deal with everyone focussing their attention solely on them.
 If our mental arousal is too low then we may not perform at our highest
level, we may appear to be tired, disinterested or distracted. Then again if
it is too high, we may become stressed due to expectations, the
importance of the occasion or the number of people watching. Having too
high or too low a level or arousal may result in loss of distance.
 I must find the correct level of mental arousal to perform at my best, so that I am
excited enough, yet calm enough to execute the long jump perfectly.
Mental Fitness – Managing Emotions
H/W.3
Managing your emotions is controlling your feelings in demanding situations. For example,
if you are taking a penalty in football there are considerable pressures on you to score. You
need to focus on what you are going to do, be positive about taking the penalty and not
become easily distracted. Becoming over-anxious about taking the kick can result in a
poorly taken penalty.
Managing emotions is also important when you perform in a team or group. For example, it
is important to keep upir shape as part of a team. You need to listen to others and be ready
as part of a team/group. This requires constant discipline to avoid conflict.
It is important to be aggressive so that you don't back out of tackles, but it is important to
control your emotions. You don't want to get too wound up, put in dangerous tackles,
retaliate too strongly, or argue with the referee's decisions and get booked for dissent. It is
also important to remain positive and not be too hard on yourself if you make a mistake, as
this can get you down and lead to a drop in performance
Mental Fitness
Watch the following video clip regarding managing emotions.
What can we say about the different players in video clip



Portuguese player sent off
German play who was the victim
The Portuguese players teammates
Managing Emotions
Mental Fitness – Mental Rehearsal
H/W.4
 Mental rehearsal is key for mental preparation in a number of activities.
 This is when you rehearse in your head exactly what you plan to do and block everything
else out.
 Performers will visualise or run through in their mind what they need to do to perform
well prior to their actual performance. They will often think about and visualises a
successful performance before they carry it out. For example, in a basketball free throw I
visualised the timing of the action I would be using and imagined the flight of the ball and the ball
going into the basket
 Mental rehearsal is most effective when you have control of the speed and pace of your
movements. For example, you can rehearse all the component parts of your golf swing
prior to playing a shot. It’s more difficult to do this for the return of a badminton serve.
This is because your own movements are dictated by your opponent.
Mental Rehearsal – Athletics Example
H/W.4
 I may visualise the perfect jump and exactly how it will feel so that I know what to
do when actually executing the jump. If I am able to block everything else out, such
as the noise / movement of other athletes / spectators, then it allows me to think
about nothing but my jump and makes me focus on my run up, striding, take-off,
flight and landing.
 If I have not rehearsed the jump in my head, what I plan to do, then I may rush into
my run-up without striding correctly which means that I may place the wrong foot
on the board or over/under place my take-off foot. Either way, my foot plant, takeoff, flight and landing would be all wrong and the jump would be poorly executed
and this would result in a loss of distance.
 I must spent adequate time rehearsing a jump in my head in order to ensure that I
have planned the jump and know exactly what I need to do.