durleydude

An please dont say play more 5 a side footy.

Cheers

Little Miss WRX

Lots of short bursts of running might be worth doing.

Plenty of stretching in order to warm up - 10 mins or so.

Use a full size footie pitch, sprint one sideline from goaline to centre line then switch to sidestepping, walk at a fast pace across the goaline, walk backwards/jog backwards along the other sideline to centre half, sprint the second half then brisk walk the other goaline.
Jog round the perimeter.

Repeat if you want as many times as you wish.

Warm down afterwards with lots of stretching, minimum 10 mins.

That's the kind of thing I do for fitness when I am doing a lot of line work (Assistant Referee)

Cycling is always good too.

I never really did much 5-a-side, admittedly I used 5-a-side to get me fit for 11-a-side footie.

[Edited by Little Miss WRX - 10/07/2003 16:15:17]

durleydude

Wow, thanks a lot, iv just started cycling to work so hopefully that will help (once i get over the initial shock).

I will def give all your tips a go, epesh the stretching, my legs always feel tight after about 5 mins into a game.


Admittedly though I do play 6-a-side for just over an hour a time which is way over what a game is normally.

I love it though.

ozzy

Yep, I'd agree with everything 'chelle has mentioned. Basically there's two types exercise systems that your body uses -

1) aerobic (with oxygen)
2) anaerobic (without oxygen)

The first is exercising without getting breathless. Your taking in enough oxygen for the muscles to use and this would equate to a steady jog, cycling or even a good steady run. Anything that you can keep going for longer than a few minutes.

The second is when you simply can't take in enough oxygen for the level of intensity you're doing and therefore can't last very long. This would equate to sprinting as fast as you can. You'll probably last around 40secs before you have to stop or at least slow down into aerobic mode.

You'll know when you've gone anaerobic as you'll be blowing out your backside and gasping for air when you stop Obviously, the fitter you are your body may cope with sprinting in 5-a-sides without having to switch into anaerobic mode.

With 5's you tend to have lots of short bursts running around, so you spend most of the time exercising anaerobically. Obviously, the fitter you are your body doesn't need to go into that mode as often (unless everyone around you is getting just as fit and pushing you further).

Anyway, the best way to build your fitness for this type of activity is to do what's called Interval training. As 'chelle already pointed out, this is just repeatedly exercising at a high rate for a short time, with a period of rest in between.

I do intervals at least once per week (don't overdo it) where I just sprint as fast as I can around a football pitch, then just jog for a few minutes to bring my heart rate down and catch my breath. I then repeat this 5 times.

Do a search in Google for Interval Training and you'll get lots of different ideas. It's not just running, as long as your exercising hard for a short period, resting and then repeat the same thing for a number of times then that's Internal Training. You could do this type of training in any sport or activity.

Stefan

ozzy

Try these

Stefan

Little Miss WRX

Is that your site??? Looks good.

Fancy helping out on The Final Whistle? Bajie and a friend of mine in Aus are keen on getting a coaching forum started on the forums.

durleydude

Thanks you everybody for all your help I'll let you know how it goes.