Pace

Y2KBOS86

Part of me is curious to see what some think here.

Friend of mine was big into running in his late teens/early twenties, was mainly a 400m runner, competitive over 200m in college.

At the age of 32 he has been started up again training for over a year now, with a weekly track schedule like this.

mondays strength training 100 -200m work.
tuesdays acceleration max speed training 10 - 60m
wednesdays weights, flexibilty work.
thursday rest.
friday general strength, short acceleration reps.

He is within a tenth of his of personal best over 200m at 32. (23.8 )

How is that the likes Kaka, Henry, basically every footballer over the age of 30 loses a serious amount of pace quickly, yet my friend who works full time and trains in his spare time is as quick now as he was 21.

By 27 most players pace is on the wane now, it's frightening.

dreamers75

Because they have a football at their feet.

2 completly different types of pace, they are conditioned by scientists.

Rayne Wooney

I suspect professional footballers get a lot more injuries in their career and it probably adds up as they get older

Torres seems to have lost a considerable amount of pace when you compare his time at Liverpool to Chelsea now

Reedsie

He's lost more than pace

Y2KBOS86

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

I suspect professional footballers get a lot more injuries in their career and it probably adds up as they get older

Torres seems to have lost a considerable amount of pace when you compare his time at Liverpool to Chelsea now

Torres is a good example, by the age of 24 his pace had gone, he had a serious knee operation as well as muscle injuries, but tracks stars at the elite level also have had there share of injuries and came back.

I know I sound naive but there has to be training to get your pace back, I find it strange too that very quick players like Bale don't even do speed training.

Bale has commented a few times, that he doesn't do speed training.

Y2KBOS86

Paddy_R wrote: »

He's lost more than pace

Darren Campbell can fix him in 2 weeks :pac:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/9713162/I-can-fix-Chelsea-striker-Fernando-Torres-in-two-weeks-says-former-sprinter-Darren-Campbell.html

Corholio

Y2KBOS86 wrote: »

Torres is a good example, by the age of 24 his pace had gone, he had a serious knee operation as well as muscle injuries, but tracks stars at the elite level also have had there share of injuries and came back.

I know I sound naive but there has to be training to get your pace back, I find it strange too that very quick players like Bale don't even do speed training.

Bale has commented a few times, that he doesn't do speed training.

Track sprinters have injuries but they dont tend to have the same injuries as players, a lot of injuries suffer (ACL is a good example) is as a result of quick turning or getting the foot caught, this does not happen nearly as often with track athletes.

Recovering from injuries is when players can lose their speed, not actually the injuries themselves, slight muscle wastage during rehab can make a difference to a players subsequent speed upon their return from that injury.

Kirby

The answer is twofold.

Firstly your mate wasn't being tackled every day like the footballers are. That's not to say runners don't get injured, they do.....but not to the same extent as footballers and often less severely. The other runners in the field aren't allowed to trip each other. :P

Secondly, his discipline is less extensive. He's a runner, so all his exercises and training are based around that. And only that. Footballers have to run, head, pass and shoot with both feet, tackle, etc. And we haven't even gotten into the tactical side of the game. Guys like Mourinho spend a lot of training sessions without a football at all.

Simply put, there is more to football training. They have to fit more into the same amount of time. It's not to say its harder....it just different. They have to be proficient at many skills....not just running quickly. They don't spend every day solely working on improving or maintain their pace. If they did, they would probably retain more of their pace. They have a dozen other things on which to work on. They cant dedicate it purely to physical fitness.

GavRedKing

If footballers dedicated their entire training sessions to sprint training, tjen ya, theyed be quick until they were 30 but training to do 100, 200 or 400m is different to what the average top flight player will train for to cover about 6miles a game

Michael Owen another good example