Ohio
University
Coaching
Education
Performance
and Recovery
COED
6340
William
Wilson
ww655614
The
main body of this essay will be to discuss and investigate the ways that
professional soccer teams cope with travel. Recovery is a huge part of a
player’s fitness and wellbeing, and can have a hugely influential, and often
catastrophic effect if not completed properly. The best of the best will have
to compete in two high intensity games per week, often with international
travel, and sometimes crossing time zones. Recovery following travel is a
factor that teams have to consider in their planning. It is an arduous process
of constant readjustment, which can be compounded by fatigue and boredom. Some
might think that being an international soccer star, being paid millions to
play a game you love, and travelling to all sorts of exotic locations is
nothing more than fun and games. What must be remembered is that these players
are precious commodities of insurmountable value to their clubs, and their
bodies are treated like machines. Their limbs are like finely tuned, highly
specialised tools, and as such, require constant monitoring and maintenance.
The
globalisation of soccer has increased exponentially among the top leagues in
Europe since its inception in the 1800s. The last few decades have seen vast
amounts of money being poured into the game, and as such, the demand for skills
is even higher, leading clubs to search for talent abroad, with the highest
bidder bringing in their man. In 1989, Arsenal won the English league without
using a single foreign player in the whole season. By 2005, their Valentine’s
Day match versus Crystal Palace saw Arsenal list an all foreign starting
eleven, with an all foreign bench (Harris, 2006). Six years later in the Premier League, in a game
between Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion, there were twenty two
different nationalities amongst the twenty two players that took to the field (Magowan, 2011).
Where
playing and competing internationally in soccer is nothing new, as is evident
by the travelling men’s Canadian team of 1888 toured Britain and Ireland (Harris, 2006), what has changed
significantly are the physical demands of the game, including travel and
competition. Millions of dollars are at stake, as is professional pride. The
effectiveness of recovery is key to maintaining peak performance, as Rountree (2011) writes “In order to
receive the benefits of recovery, - and
hence, to get the most out of your training – you must pay as much attention to
recovery as you do to your training.” Mental recovery is just as necessary as
physical recovery. Trans-Atlantic flights and distance runner-type endurance
events can wreak havoc on the body, but also on the brain, as Foster (Rountree, 2011) explains; “When
you’re a full-time athlete, it’s actually amazingly boring. A lot of people
with physical talent drop out of it because the lifestyle is too constraining.
You have to have the discipline to be one of the No Fun Guys – and that’s no
fun.”
Reilly
et al (2007) note the
difficulties of competing internationally:
“Professional
athletes based in Europe, such as soccer players, may incur a competitive
schedule that includes international representation for their country on
another continent (Asia, America or Australia) in between important domestic
contests for the club. Such itineraries place a physiological and psychological
burden on those athletes who have to adjust to a different time-zone and a
different climate and then have to re-adjust back to their home time-zone after
the return journey.”
Jet-lag
is determined by many individual factors, and where a two hour time zone shift
may not have much impact, a three hour shift can have a significant effect. The
effect is known as “desynchronization”, (Reilly et al, 2007) with flight
duration, and both departure and arrival time playing a key role in how deep
the effect is. Some teams that travel to different time zones try to ignore the
change in time, and operate on the same clock as they would do back home, as to
not disrupt their rhythm. Reilly (2007) writes;
“A
strategy used by the national soccer team of Wales when playing Azerbaijan in a
World Cup qualifying match in September 2004, was to stay on home time for the
duration of the short trip. In this instance, the kick off time of 21:00 hours
(17:00 hours on home time) would have suited the strategy. Such an approach is
useful if the stay in the new time zone is three days or less and an adjustment
of circadian rhythms is not essential.”
In
what is the most successful and impressive year in recent soccer history is
that of FC Barcelona in 2009. This successful team was labelled the most
successful club side ever. To some detractors, it was easy for a squad of the
world’s best players, coached by the world’s best coach, and lead by one of the
greatest players of all time to achieve what Barcelona achieved. In 2009,
Barcelona won six competitive trophies, including; Spanish league title,
Spanish Cup, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, the UEFA Champions League
(to crown them the best team in Europe), and the FIFA World Club Cup (to be crowned
as the best team on the planet) (FCBarcelona.com,
2009). In that twelve months, Barcelona played sixty four competitive
games, with six pre-season friendlies, and one friendly in Kuwait (FCBarcelona.com, 2009). Without
factoring in stoppage time, that adds up to 6,570 minutes of soccer. Over
ninety minutes, the average outfield player will cover 10km (Gregg, Nash & Hamm, 1999),
equating to a combined total of 730km ran if a player were to play every minute
of every game. To provide further perspective, that would make for around
seventeen and a half marathons. Thirty five of the seventy three games
Barcelona played were away games, and sixteen were outside of Spain altogether.
Such
an example of extreme physical demands are made even more impressive when it is
considered that many Barcelona squad members represented their national teams
too. Throughout 2009, in addition to more than sixty games played for
Barcelona, their shining star Lionel Messi played ten times for Argentina. In
that year alone Messi’s teams played in Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Spain, France,
Germany, England, USA, Argentina, Uruguay, UAE, Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, and
Kuwait (FCBarcelona.com, 2009).
That amounts to fifteen countries across four continents, which could be a
lifetime’s worth of travel condensed into one year.
Messi
was not alone in this, as most of Barcelona’s players were competing regularly
for their national teams, and would have had similar hectic schedules. A new
problem arises for the staff at the club when international week beckons. If
the team were to travel to play in Russia, then travel back to Spain, all the
players would be adjusted and cared for in the same way. For the international
games, that is not the case, as players will leave Barcelona to represent their
country all over the world, in vastly different climates, time zones, and with
very different travel times. One player could fly to China, another to South
Africa, and another to Mexico, then all three would reconvene shortly after to
represent Barcelona on the weekend.
Sleep
is an undervalued commodity. According to Rountree (2011) “Your sleep affects not just your recovery
but also your ability to perform to your potential in workouts. When you don’t
get adequate sleep, your motor response is dulled, which can compromise your
form or ingrain inefficient neuromuscular patterns – bad habits.” During sleep,
an athlete consolidates memories and ingrains skills, as well as allowing time
for rest and repair to muscles and joints (Rountree, 2011). Without sufficient sleep, an athlete can
develop what is known as “sleep debt” (Rountree, 2011). Barcelona, travelling from Spain to United
Arab Emirates, would have to contend with jet-lag and an adaptation to a three
hour time shift (Timeanddate.com,
2016).
Fatigue,
lack of conditioning, lack of mental preparation, all contribute to minor
injuries. “More than 3000 injuries are suffered each season by the 2,500 or so
professionals in the Premier League and Football League. Each injury keeps a
player out of action for an average of four games” (Hawkins, 2004). Where one sprain might not seem
like much, the numbers are evidence that they build up, and this can greatly
impact the success of the team. To be successful in the modern era, teams have
to travel thousands of miles. Germany were the recent champions of the men’s
World Cup in Brazil 2014. Through the concept of the aggregation of marginal
gains, team organisers did all that they possibly could to remove as much
stress and interference from the day to day operations at the training camp.
This included many aspects, such as training facilities, security, downtime
activities, but the location itself was chosen for two reasons; travel and
climate (Honigstein, 2015).
By
contrast, England, who had a shambolic tournament, stayed at a hotel in Rio de
Janeiro, and had to contend with traffic on the daily commute to training (Wilson, 2014). That acted as a
needless and avoidable stressor. The German players stayed at Campo Bahia, and
could walk from their villas to the training field (Honigstein, 2015). The
location allowed for minimal travel times to the first three games of the
German campaign, the only three games guaranteed before elimination begins. The
first three games took place in Salvador, Fortaleza, and Recife, which were
some of the warmer venues in Brazil (FIFA.com, 2014). It was anticipated that perhaps Germany’s route
to the final would take them to some of the colder climates, with the Germans
feeling it would be more beneficial to practice and adapt to the warm and
climate, something they are not as used to as a group of European based
players.
The
German squad believes strongly that the selection of the camp location allowed
for optimal preparation for the tournament (Honigstein, 2015). For a player,
and for anyone involved in the game, the World Cup is the pinnacle of their
career. Nothing comes close. With the tournament taking place every four years,
it becomes an era defining moment that leaves a legacy in its place. Even the
best players may only have one appearance at a World Cup. The planet’s most
expensive player, Gareth Bale, transferring from Tottenham to Real Madrid for
€100,000,000 (BBC.com, 2013)
has never played at a World Cup, and may never do so, as his country, Wales,
have qualified only once for the World Cup, back in 1958 (FIFA.com, 2015).
Examining
the extraordinary achievements of Barcelona and of Germany, it is clear to see
that they have much to contend with off the field. The ninety minutes of
playing has become a very small part of their operation as the teams all around
the world pour their resources into finding new edges over the opponents. In
2015, IFAB commissioned a rule change allowing for players to wear small
tracking devices (FIFA.com, 2015)
that record and transmit a whole range of information, from heart rate to force
exerted upon landing. Even the balls are becoming ‘smart’. The new Adidas
MiCoach Smart Ball (Adidas.com,
2016) records data such as power and swerve applied to the ball upon
striking in order to provide training tips to players.
Sleep
has become a huge area of research for top teams and athletes in all sports
across the planet. In a study conducted by Stanford University using college
basketball players (Singer, 2011),
upon increasing the players’ sleep times by ninety minutes, it was found that
282 foot sprints were increased by an average of one second, and the accuracy
of free throws and three point shots had increased by 9%. In the quest for
marginal gains, these equate to significant inches.
The
off-field lives of athletes are becoming more regimented and controlled by
their clubs, that even their own downtime is becoming organised and regulated
but their coaches. Mobile phone apps are used for players to log, in their own
time away from the team, their sleep quality, their heart rate, their
nutrition, their emotions, and a whole range of other factors that coaches wish
to know (Hill, 2016).
Some go further, as it has been found that some aspects are not recorded
accurately by the players (Singer,
2011), and as such, the Fatigue Science ReadiBand has been developed,
which is a wrist band capable of recording sleep quality via the use of sensors
(Fleming, 2015).
Professional
clubs truly value sleep. At top clubs that have the financial resources, each
player has a personalised bed kit, including their own unique mattress, pillow,
and blanket (Fleming, 2015).
The kit is tailor made, suiting the skin sensitivity, weight, and muscle
density, in addition to other factors, of each player. Players use them at
home, and when travelling and staying away, hotels are fitted by the club staff
so that each player uses their own mattress, blanket, and pillows (Fleming, 2015). Wherever they
go in the world, they will be sleeping in the same bed every night. Clubs have
even invested in what are known as “Sleep Pods” or “Snooze Boxes”, which again,
are personalised to each individual (Fleming, 2015). Sleep pods are useful for naps before or after
practice. It has been tradition for many clubs to stay in a hotel the night
before home games, but now it has become much more efficient for each player to
use their own sleep pod at the training ground on the night before a game.
For
travelling teams, jet lag becomes an issue. “the symptoms of jetlag
(particularly those due to loss of sleep) are likely to have a de-motivating
effect that will in turn impair performance” (Reilly et al, 2007). Travelling eastwards can
cause the symptoms of jetlag to be felt more than travelling westwards, and it
is recommended to have one day to adjust for every hour in the time difference
(Reilly et al). Germany arrived in Brazil six days ahead of their first game (Honigstein,
2015), adequately allowing the players to adapt, avoiding the effects of
jetlag. When Barcelona won the Club World Cup in 2015, it was a thirteen hour
flight, across eight time zones, for a seven day trip. Barcelona departed at
10:30am and arrived the next day at 8:30am, which would have been 11:30pm by
their home time (FCBarcelona.com,
2016).
Research
conducted by Charles Sturt
University (Fowler, Duffield, & Vaile, 2014) suggests that the effect of travel has a much smaller
impact than other factors, such as tactics, player selection, and psychological
state. Winning the game is not determined by which team had the best sleep the
night before. Through marginal gains, if all else was equal, then sleep quality
could make the difference. If every other opponent is ensuring that their
players are well rested, it would be disadvantageous to not at least match
that. A separate study on the effects of away travel on training loads found
that the rate of injuries of soccer players do increase as the season
progresses, but not by any concerning amount, and that away travel is
marginally, but not significantly, more impeding upon training loads towards
the end of the season (Fowler, Duffield, Waterson, & Vaile, 2015).
Both
of the aforementioned studies involved professionals playing in Australia.
Similar to the United States, Australia has large distances and crosses of time
zones for away games. The scope of a team travelling to play around Australia
or the US, competing in their regular season would be comparable to a team travelling around Europe. Barcelona’s seven day 2015 trip to Japan included five
training sessions, and two matches; a semi-final versus Guangzhou Evergande of
China, and the final versus River Plate of Argentina. Both games were won at a
stroll, comfortably at 3-0 (FCBarcelona.com,
2015). Both Barcelona and River Plate would have had a lot of adjusting
to do in a very short space of time, compared to their semi-final opponents
from China, and Sanfrecce Hiroshima of Japan. River Plate and Barcelona are
much stronger than their Asian counterparts. Eluding to the point made
previously; as long as these sides were not incapacitated by their travel from
the other side of the globe, their superior quality on the field would be
enough to win the game. The point is made even stronger when it is considered
that Barcelona only had three days to adjust before their first match, and that
River Plate arrived in Japan a week earlier than Barcelona, and even had one extra
day of rest before the two teams competed in the final (FCBarcelona.com, 2015).
As
a coach of a women’s soccer team that competes nationally, I could rightly feel
aggrieved at the lack of funding we have. Sadly, it is the nature of the game
and of society, that female teams are often left out in the cold. An equivalent
competing men’s team would have considerable funding, as well as paid players.
Our players have to pay to play. With more funds and resources, I would
certainly look into what we could do to increase and accelerate our recovery.
In regards to sleep, there is little need for ideas such as sleep pods, and
with England being a small nation, we are usually home from a game in time for
dinner.
Using
some of the means discovered and researched, it would be entirely possible to
use apps to have players log their sleep and other vitals. From my own
experience, I have found it tedious and invasive. To ask my players to report
to me daily the colour of their urine would be problematic in terms of the
respect I currently command. It is my belief that this group in particular
would feel as if I have no trust in them. They have the will to perform and the
will to succeed, so they won’t be going to bed at ridiculous times on game
days.
One
option would be for education of recovery techniques, nutrition, and the
importance of sleep. Flyers, videos, presentations, and seminars could inform
the team of better practice. It is quite possible that some may lie, which
could be for many reasons, including; they don’t want to be found out for
having an unhealthy lifestyle, perhaps it happens so infrequently that they
view one incident as inconsequential, or maybe they will be looking to impress
and as such will log that they awoke at 6:30 am, completed thirty minutes of
yoga, ate a healthy nutritious breakfast, jogged five kilometres in a good
time, and while they were at it, fed the hungry and healed the sick. If, as a
club, we were paying our athletes to represent us, we would certainly have more
sway over their private lives. In reality, it is quite the reverse. Their love
of the game is what drives them to pay a substantial amount of money, and to
sacrifice an enormous amount of free time to be part of this team. For that, I
have huge admiration for them. Any attempts on my behalf to regiment and
dictate their sleeping and resting habits would create a backlash, as it would
seem I had stepped over a line. Education is different, and I believe many
would be interested and would try to apply the principles discussed, but I
certainly won’t be forcing them.
Marginal
gains are becoming more and more important in professional sport. Everybody is
looking for that extra inch that can be gained over their opponents. Soccer is
big business, and those inches could cost millions. It appears that sleep
duration and quality are just more inches to be gained. Rest helps to replenish
the mind and the body, allowing for recovery and consolidation of skills.
Improving sleep can lead to improved performance. When it comes to travel, the
top teams appear to be figuring it out. The staff are well aware of the
distances and time zones, and do all possible to minimalize any negative effect
associated with jet lag or desynchronization. The concept of sleep pods and
luxury resorts do little to help the image of a pampered footballer, but when
it leads to World Cups and Champions Leagues, there is little regard towards
the opinions of those not in the know.
If
all else is equal, one factor such as sleep could make the difference. All
teams are striving to keep up with the leaders, and so it is unlikely that
there will be team so far behind on their sleep that it costs them the game. A
team that slept for nine hours on personalised mattresses will not beat a team
that slept for seven hours on standard hotel beds, if the latter is a far
superior team, both technically and tactically. Like most marginal gains off
the field, there is no substitute for quality. However, if a team did not
adequately prepare to counter the effects of jet lag, has had a very rough
sleep, and have had no time to adapt to a significant change in time zone and
so are playing at around 3:00am home time, such factors could be detrimental
enough to impede performance significantly that the game is effectively handed
to the opposition.
In
essence, sleep is about preparing thoroughly, and doing all possible to not be
at a disadvantage. If the opposition has not acted in a similar manner, the
“not a disadvantage” becomes an advantage. To not value sleep would be shooting
yourself in the foot, or within the soccer lexicon, an “own goal.”
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