Skip to main content

The 20 metre Rule

In the past I've posted lots of thoughts on functional training, including some research on appropriate training for football.

Dr Craig Duncan is currently the director of The Academy of Athletic Development and Head of the Sport and Fitness department at the South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE.

He completed his PhD in Sport and Exercise Science at The University of Sydney and has numerous published papers on the effect of exercise on the human body. Craig has worked with a number of sporting organisation including NSW Institute of Sport, Football Federation Australia, Sydney Olympic Football Club and International Goalkeeping Acadamy. Craig's special interest is in Total Athletic Condioning and applying a systematic approach to training.
Craig comments occasionally on this blog - which I find quite humbling. He is a proper scientist and I am an amateur in all this. I find diet and training fascinating, but my degrees are in other disciplines.

Anyway, Craig has a blog with some interesting and stimulating ideas. I was really impressed with his latest post:

Team Sports and the 20metre rule

I believe that the maximum distance a multi sprint sport athlete needs to run in one direction during conditioning training should be limited to 20metres. Think about it for a while and try it as I have tried to follow my 20metre rule for the majority of the training year. In the analysis of soccer we can see that it is rare a player runs more than 20etres in one direction so I ask why should we do anything differently in training? We want to move away from players cruising during the game and move towards attacking the space at pace

Check out his stuff
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I find this quite interesting as I am a qualified soccer coach. The Football Association of Ireland has been stating that the most players run is 20 meters at a time for the last number of years on their courses.

However, there are always exceptions to the rule though as I have a couple of players on my team that would run the length of the pitch to win a ball.
April 30, 2008 at 1:30 AM
Dr Craig S. Duncan said…
Hi chris thanks very much for taking the interest in this post and like Ive said before you do an outstanding job and your blog is the first i read everyday. Re the comment by anonymous I do agree that there will be players who run box to box but mostly the distance is 20metres at 100% and by training over this distance with repeated effort it will still make them conditioned for the longer sprint. Try it and see how you go as I have experimented with a number of methods and my testing data demonstates that the shorter distance stuff is very effective

Regards

CD
April 30, 2008 at 7:21 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dry January

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in "Dry January".  I didn't make a big song and dance about it, but I decided to go for a calendar month or so with no alcohol.  A few people have asked me about my experience, so here are a few points. Why take a break from drinking? Alcohol is an interesting topic.  As a drug it is widely accepted in society, central to so much of our socialising and leisure.  There seem to be lots of health benefits - so we are told - yet there are also a lot of problems in terms of health, relationships and lifestyle that come from drinking. Over a few years I'd begun to become aware and then concerned that I was drinking too much and too regularly.  I am in a busy and stressful job and sometimes a glass of wine after work to relax is really helpful.  But over time, one glass became two.  Two glasses became ....I might as well finish the bottle.  A habit got established....and was starting to get too e...
7 comments
Read more

So where have I been?

You will have noticed that this blog has been quiet for a while....  There are a few reasons for that, reasons that I thought I'd list here: WORK -  my day job has been incredibly busy and stressful this year. Working 10-14 hour days the last thing on my mind when I got home was putting something on here.  FACEBOOK/TWITTER - I suppose I've been using other channels to do some of what I used to do here. Quick fire posts pointing to interesting studies or news etc tend to get posted to Twitter (@chrishighcock) or to the Facebook Hillfit group http://www.facebook.com/groups/263083947097000/  REASSESSMENT - I've found myself less comfortable with some of the positions I've taken in the past. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by some of the things I've promoted. I'm not Paleo or low carb. I think Tabata and intervals are misunderstood and misapplied. I cannot really claim to be HIT.   I find myselfunable  honestly to post things on here and pretend that I am some sort o...
12 comments
Read more

Taking up space for a brief update

I've a couple of posts in draft that I will get up soon -  an update / reflection on Dry January and some thoughts on the scheduling benefits of short workouts if your life is busy.  Before that though, I am pointing to something else. However, I wanted to highlight something that is coming this weekend that I've been involved in.   Amber Rogers (Gokaleo and author of Taking Up Space ) has been pulling together a bundle of books from various authors with a common theme, one that I've been pushing here recently.   Keep it simple, avoid the hype, be patient, be consistent and flee the gurus.   I've talked before about how we get obsessed with pushing for more and more, when enough is OK.  I've given my view that so much of the health and fitness internet world is more like a gnostic religion than something that will benefit your life. There are other voices out there saying similar things and I'll be pointing to a bundle of books later this week ...
1 comment
Read more