The fitness training in elite soccer- with special reference of high-intensity intermittent exercises and small-sided games

Resumo

The aim of the present short presentation is to examine which position took the fitness training with  a special reference to the modern top-level soccer. The analyze of the activity has allowed to show the intermittent nature of the game and the importance of the repeated high-intensity activities ability with especially elite players covering a distance ranging from 10496 to 11779 m including 3-7% of high-intensity actions. Therefore, the high-intermittent exercises were commonly used in order to improve the physical capacity of players and different parameter allowed to  provide different physiological and physical implications: the intensity (% of a maximal aerobic speed), the number of repetition and blocks, the duration and the type of recovery (active or passive), or the format (in line or with directional  changes or with the inclusion of specific technical or physical skills). Moreover, the modern soccer is also characterizedby the high-intensity of the technical actions illustrated by players who covered ~191±38 m with the ball possession, presenting 43-61 individual ball possession which corresponding to a total duration of individual ball possession ranged from 43 to 84 s, and with a numbers of ball contact per individual possession ranged from 1.76 to 2.26. In this context, it appears that the growing interest of small-sided games (SSG) is a consistentmethod to recreate the intensity found during a game and to improve the physical performance of soccer players, independently of the playing level and concomitantly of a tactical and technical sollicitation. However, a greater coefficient of variation is presented during the SSG as compared to  intermittent exercise, probably due to the tactical and technical demands  inducing a limited control of these variables. Consequently, according to the objectives and the period of the training, coaches should make a choice between a controlled physical training (high-intensity intermittent exercises) and physically integrated training (SSG) with greater variation.