Subject: What you have in common with world cup soccer!

Hi Friend!



World Cup Soccer is here and I'm excited and I hope you are too.  It's the simplest game: kick a ball through a big net.  It can be played most anywhere with open space.  It's athletic and great exercise.  It's social and its fun.  



The World Cup provides an opportunity to root for your favorite non-American country, for the favorited teams, for the underdog teams and for the individual soccer stars.  Its globally bonding because massive amounts of people all over the world are following along, non just the U.S. and the game is in Russia, so you get daytime games vs. having to stay up late to follow along and having a tired cost the next day.



World Cup Soccer also brings to light how the athletes and sport have been prioritizing strength & conditioning at the elite most level.  It's so big that there's a lot of research being done.  If you search pubmed for "soccer", you get 9,226 studies dating back to 1947.  If you search pubmed for "soccer strength" you get 1,392 studies.  If you search "soccer conditioning" you get 330 studies and if you search "soccer strength & conditioning" you get 126 studies.



When you scroll the 1st page of a search for "soccer strength & conditioning" you can read that the subjects cover (type of people studied), men, women and children from youth, collegiate, professional and national teams.  



Looking closer, revealed research topics on the first page with words such as:
  • post-activation potentiation
  • importance of reactive agility and change of direction speed
  • observing women's physiology during a season
  • hip thrusts
  • effect of cluster sets
  • effect of contrast strength vs. plyometrics
  • meta-analysis of different body fat percents
  • altitude training and hypoxic training
  • injury prevention
  • strength training frequency
  • activity profiles


Then because I didn't see it on the first page, I searched for "soccer and High Intensity Interval Training" and "soccer and HIIT", I found and 55 and 12 studies respectively.
Soccer is a big deal.  FIFA, the world governing body of soccer did a report in 2007 that showed there were 265 million participants, plus 5 million referees for a total of 270million people involved on soccer fields, which equated to roughly 4% of the world population at the time.
In 2017, the U.S. had 15.86 million participants.  
It's truly a world game and the world game is prioritizing strength & conditioning in a big as you read above to gain any edge they can over the competition.  Germany, who won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil was partnered with EXOS since 2005 is the most shining example of combining strength & conditioning.   And obviously they won the world cup because they do band relays like we do (see above), so do band relays = win world cup is what I take from that picture.



Seriously though, growing up you were either athletic or you weren't.  If you weren't, you may have been discouraged from participating in physical things because you didn't have natural athleticism.  The times are changing though.  



Its still easier for those who move well naturally to play better at sports and get better feedback about their participation, but ask any informed coach and they'll tell you that hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard and that if you don't move well naturally, you can learn to move well through practice.  



And the best part is most everyone can learn to move better and reap the benefits (health, body composition and performance) that come with regular training.  This is what you have in common with World Cup Soccer Players!  They're working hard to become better at their craft by presenting their best self to their sport each day by prioritizing their strength & conditioning (aka self-care) and you're working harder to become better at your passion by presenting your best self to each and every day through the prioritization of your self-care (aka strength & conditioning).  



Soccer brings people together, its fun, its exercise, it includes high intensity interval training and it gives you cardio minutes.  I hope you're enjoying the World Cup and if it's not for you, thank you for tolerating the passionate fans who do.



Rooting for Portugal and admiring Ronaldo's awesomeness,



Coach Mike



p.s.  if I can help you with your training, either in getting started or getting better, reply and let me know.
Athletes by Alves,321 Walnut St., #263, Newton, Massachusetts 02460, United States
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