Fitness

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Spursguru

Spursguru

Active Member
Sep 23, 2011
1,756
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Forest Row, East Grinstead
Gylfi - “It was good to get 90 minutes at last, it’s been a while. I looked at the clock at 60 minutes and I felt tired but I got through, put a shift in for the team and the three points which was very important.

“It was great to come on and score against West Ham and get the assist against Arsenal but the important thing is to keep on winning games and try to get that Champions League spot.

“We’re on a fantastic run and hopefully we’ll maintain it to the end of the season.”


Just read this on the Spurs site and it struck me as odd.
Theres no doubt up untill this point Gylfi has failed to shine as brightly as he did at Swansea, and has therefor not been playing as much as he would like, but surely he is still training?

I thought the days of our players being under prepared compared to say Arsenal *Jol cough* were over...
 
Training doesn't give you match fitness though, SG.
I don't think that there's any real way to get to 100% without the sharpness that playing in competitive games gives you.
It was a very fast paced, end to end affair at times, too.
 
also, being his first NLD he may have had a rush of the old adrenaline. Probably powered him for 60mins and then crash.
 
Yes the only way to gain match fitness, is to play matches.

Over the years ive heard many a fan and pundit claim match fitness is a myth yet its a reality that unless your a freak of nature ( ledley king) players need to play matches to gain a level of fitness/sharpness to perform to their best.
 
Tbf, midfield/attackers cover more ground than defenders, and any player at any level will tell you the first 90 after a period of time without one is bloody hard going.
 
Boss said:
Yes the only way to gain match fitness, is to play matches.

Over the years ive heard many a fan and pundit claim match fitness is a myth yet its a reality that unless your a freak of nature ( ledley king) players need to play matches to gain a level of fitness/sharpness to perform to their best.
Click to expand...


If so many people in the business claim it to be a myth then surely it must be?


Logic tells me that if you train for 90 minutes each day, which our players do, then you're trained to last 90 minutes. I know they have to use the exercise machines too in order to do their cardio work.

Myself, I do 10 minutes cardio a day on a cross trainer. Stick me on some grass and I could run for 10 minutes just the same. Being "match fit" doesn't come into it.

Fitness is still measured in the same way it always has been - is that true? There's that horrible bleep test and there's measuring the time it takes your heartbeat to return to normal - does that still happen?


Sorry, I can't buy into this "match fit" nonsense. The only way I could be convinced is if you showed me Spurs' players acting like Ballotelli laying down during training.



Not arguing. Debating. <ok>
 
I'm the opposite Inda. I could do 10mins in the gym but put me outside and tell me to run and i'd keel over after 3 mins.
 
There's also a difference between fitness and sharpness. You can be 100% will all the running about, but not in the head or reflexes.
 
You can't create match conditions on any training pitch Inda, even the practise matches are 'soft'. Match fitness relates to your mind aswell, the decision making, the wrong decision, or slow to see a situation develop can make you look half a yard slower than everyone else, even though you're physically on par.
 
So maybe "match fit" is a bit of a misnomer. It's not totally about physical fitness.

When a manager say "his head's not in it" about a player, he's refering to a player not being "match fit".

"match ready" might be a better term to use.


Buuuuuuuuut... "I looked at the clock at 60 minutes and I felt tired but I got through" still doesn't add up. If it's true, Gylfi needs to borrow my cross trainer. 40 calories a minute! C'mon son! Feel the burn!
 
This one might be for Spurcat only, but does anyone know how long JD has been back in training since hi injury?

He looked fully fit last night, but knackered after 10mins on Sunday?

Unless they've ben injecting him with Ledley King DNA, that's quite a turnaround!
 
Spursguru said:
This one might be for Spurcat only, but does anyone know how long JD has been back in training since hi injury?

He looked fully fit last night, but knackered after 10mins on Sunday?

Unless they've ben injecting him with Ledley King DNA, that's quite a turnaround!
Click to expand...

Used a fair bit of energy on Saturday night then! <whistle>
 
Spursguru said:
This one might be for Spurcat only, but does anyone know how long JD has been back in training since hi injury?

He looked fully fit last night, but knackered after 10mins on Sunday?

Unless they've ben injecting him with Ledley King DNA, that's quite a turnaround!
Click to expand...

He was back in training on Wednesday of last week.

I've mentioned before how insistent our fitness coach is on injured players getting playing time in games below the first team and so the initial plan was to give Defoe game time in the under 21 game at Wolves on Monday, but then when Adebayor got injured, that plan went out of the window,
 
Inda said:
If so many people in the business claim it to be a myth then surely it must be?


Logic tells me that if you train for 90 minutes each day, which our players do, then you're trained to last 90 minutes. I know they have to use the exercise machines too in order to do their cardio work.

Myself, I do 10 minutes cardio a day on a cross trainer. Stick me on some grass and I could run for 10 minutes just the same. Being "match fit" doesn't come into it.

Fitness is still measured in the same way it always has been - is that true? There's that horrible bleep test and there's measuring the time it takes your heartbeat to return to normal - does that still happen?


Sorry, I can't buy into this "match fit" nonsense. The only way I could be convinced is if you showed me Spurs' players acting like Ballotelli laying down during training.



Not arguing. Debating. <ok>
Click to expand...

Debating, no probs, although an argument is always fun :D

Training is there to assist a player in maintaining a level of fitness so they can perform for 90 minutes, yet it can't recreate match conditions, nor can it solely prepare a player to have full match fitness, unless they are also playing.

So I understand you may think its nonsense, but take a note of what SIggy said, even with all the training, being a fit lean bloke, working in the gym, he still struggled, and that's not a myth, a reality.

I get your point about exercise machines, but exercise machines don't imo recreate real life conditions, they assist a persons movement, be that cardio or strength training, the only way to gain full fitness (peak fitness) in cardio or strength training is to do so with real life unassisted movements.

Here is a good quote (although a different sport:)

"Batsmen need to bat under match conditions and bowlers need to bowl under them, something that seems forgotten in the gym-bunny culture. Instead, fitness as measured by pulse-rates and bleep tests, is being confused with being match-fit - being ready to compete with an opponent rather than a dumbbell."
Click to expand...


Maybe Match Fitness could be viewed as Match Sharpness (depending on who you're speaking to), but as you can see there is a reality that no matter how much gym work you do, or training, players aren't fully prepared in a fitness or sharpness sense, to play a 90 minute game and they struggle both in a fitness sense and sharpness sense UNLESS they are also playing regularly in match conditions.

The performance factor is also why players like Siggy mentions he struggles, as while hes struggling to keep up with the pace (in a physical sense) his level of performance suffers, which is where the match fitness/sharpness crosses over.
 
I saw a similar thread on the arsenal board. They were discussing if ten minutes of ****ing gives them the same stamina for ten minutes of sex. Most of them will never find out!
 
Inda said:
If it's true, Gylfi needs to borrow my cross trainer. 40 calories a minute! C'mon son! Feel the burn!
Click to expand...

40 calories a minute!!! I don't think so. More like 12/15. Unless you are 40 stone I guess <laugh>
 
As was mentioned above, whether you believe that being 'match fit' is a myth or not, there is difference between being physically 'fit' and being able to apply that fitness in a game scenario. And that difference is as much the mental exertion that is required - the adrenalin that will be present in a game in front of a big crowd, when the pressure is on. (And none bigger than a NLD perhaps...)

Those are the factors that will drain any players fitness at the best of times, but if returning after a longish layoff and no other game time then it will have a huge impact.

I imagine that is why, as OS mentions, the plan in the club is to get the 'game legs' into returning players before they have to step back in at the highest level.
 
Training can't replicate match conditions. As previously stated, it is "soft" in comparison. Also the mental focus required is on a completely different level as is the adrenalin rush of playing in front of a noisy home crowd. All these things take their toll. To be able to do this for 90+ minutes is not something you can just pick up again after not playing full games or missing out completely.
 
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