Entries from June 1, 2006 - July 1, 2006
To Be Or Not?
The Don sent me a message on my mobile phone over the weekend. He was partying up at the Establishment in George St. Sydney. After work, me and the boys went to pay our respects. The usual throng of beautiful heads were milling around the bar or posing for nobody on the marbled floor. The Don gave me a big bear hug, I hadn't seen him since the shit hole we call work did everything in their power to get him out of their heads. The Don was an ex professional footballista, a stocky, powerful midfielder who plied his trade in the old Australian National League. As a manager he was the most dynamic, professional and driven guy I had ever met. I could only glimpse in my minds eye what kind of talent he was as a footballer growing up.
John Stevanja
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PrintThe World's Love-Hate Relationship With Soccer
Recently, I came across a fascinating string of articles that showed differing views of not only the World Cup, but soccer in general from people across the globe. In some cases soccer is just not part of the cultural settings, as implied by this article in the US. Some statistics showed that "only 3.9 million Americans viewed the World Cup out of 1.1 billion worldwide". Much of this article stated the word "hate" toward soccer, which is a huge word to use, but shows the minimalist view that US sporting codes hold of soccer and possibly the world stage in general.
Skip Breakfast & Pay The Consequence
If you skip your breakfast, you can kiss all your hard training goodbye. Two recent studies showed that people with low carb diets suffer from poor memory and mental health. For breakfast remember to have a a good mixture of both protein and carbohydrates to maximize your mental performance, and fuel you energy needs for any intense training you may participate in. The above studies also pointed to those people who eat breakfast suffer from less depression and have more energy to power their day. The following excerpt from the (AIF, 2001) shows the carbohydrate requirements for those who participate in both moderate training and intense exercise:
Fish Oil For Maximum Fitness?
Ain't nothing fishy about it. Fish oil provides maximum heart health, and can also help reduce LDL (bad cholesterol).
Strength Training Is All Relativity For Goalkeepers
This training regime focused on strength training is a good little read about how a personal trainer can help you facilitate increased strength levels depending on your sport. If you are looking at increasing strength you can go about it two ways, depending on the sport you play. For goalkeepers who use their body weight to propel themselves the type of strength training that we should focus on is relative strength. Relative strength is described below:
Goalkeeping Elite Sheds Some Light On Fitness
Jens Lehmann, goalkeeper for Arsenal, a little too hot headed at times but that is the stuff that us goalkeepers are made of. Arsenal.com have recently interviewed Lehmann and it was a very interesting insight into what professional goalkeeping is about at the highest level in the English Premier League. I'll let your read up about it, but here are some great tips that I feel you can take away from it and utilize in your own goalkeeper development:
Holistic Medicine The Way For Full Soccer Season
While on the topic of the body. Over the last few weeks I suffered a very nasty flu. In fact, in the past month me and the Mrs. have bought a brand new treadmill. It cost us $1,800 , I haggled the price down from $2,100. Therefore for about two and a half weeks I was training on the treadmill doing long slow distance running, building up from a base of 15 minutes to about 26 minutes before I caught the flu. Now here is the point, when I caught the flu, I could well have utilised some prescription drugs to get my fix. Over the past few months I have been looking toward natural supplements to remedy any ailments that I may have been exposed to.
Get Proactive About Your Body
If you don't understand your own body, how can you progress when you are playing competitively in soccer or any sport for that matter? I forked out $2,500 last year to study personal training and another couple of thousand a few years back to become an internationally certified fitness instructor. I always felt that growing up as a goalkeeper and training for goalkeeping was totally different than what any outfield player experiences. Over the past few years (including my recent injury) I felt that what I learn about my body, and what I could do to increase my performance through my own studies were invaluable.
Carb Loading For Better Performance
One of the most fundamental components of your training regime lies in simple and complex sugars. The much aligned carbohydrate should never be underestimated for goalkeepers training and playing competitively. Carb loading before a competition and after is very important to replenish muscle glycogen loss during intense activities. Something that has me steamed is the perception that low carb diets can be healthy for you. They aren't. The fact is that the more you starve yourself the more your body's defense mechanism raises the alert that you need to store fat as a means of survival. We have brilliant bodies that can adapt to any situation. The prime reason for athletes feeling over trained is that they do not plan their carbohydrate loading throughout the competitive season. Following are some key points to understand so that you get the most out of your season:
Adidas World Cup Sales Soar
Our previous Keeper Skool poll results showed that Adidas was your preferred soccer equipment. Reuters have just given some indication that Adidas has pulled in about 1 billion + dollars worth of sales because of this years World Cup in Germany. Impressive.
Aussie Blokes & Yanks Mixed Opinions About World Cup
Two articles struck me about the contrasts of the World Cup and how the Western and Oceanic world view football or soccer. The first from the Telegraph in London suggested a mixed view about how Australians are viewing the World Cup. For most Australians there is jubilation, but some Australian sporting codes do not believe that soccer will really stand up as a sporting code against traditional sports such as AFL, Rugby League or Rugby Union. To tell you the truth, if you ever watched an AFL game it would bore you to tears...but damn it, it's a great Australian blokey type sport and that's what we Aussies love mate!
Train The Brain: Even World Cup Stars Get The Blues
Injury can be debilitating. Now this statement does not just encompass the body, it outlines that injury can really have a negative effect on mental performance. Even World Cup stars with seemingly brilliant capacities to perform, have negative lapses in performance that effect their game as this article suggests. Something to realize from the article are two very important points
World Cup & Faith
This fantastic article in the NY times made me think about the universality of the World Cup. I was wondering how many of us, before we enter the field to play, do the sign of the Cross, praise Allah or talk to Buddha? When billions of football lovers praise their national teams, in unison...possibly unbeknownst to most of us, we pray to a higher order. Whether it be to save us from brilliant Brazilians or thank the sky above for defeating an Argentinian machine for example. The beauty of 'the world game' is that it embraces the world. Apart from the money or the glory, we are also amalgamating many faiths.
Adidas World Cup Ball Nightmare For Goalkeepers?
Uncanny free-kicks and muddled slow motion goals are making the World Cup Adidas 'Teamgeist' ball a nightmare for top level goalkeepers. This article from a Bath university states that wold class goalkeepers such as Paul Robinson and Jens Lehmann suggest the Adidas World Cup ball as being terrible to keep goals against. The Adidas 'Teamgeist' has 14 panels compared to the traditional 32 panels and is super light. I can remember my old trainers son collecting a ball from each and every World Cup. I still have one of them in my bag and that is a nightmare to kick. From a goalkeeping perspective catching or parrying the 'Teamgeist' ball seems difficult. I have seen some goalkeepers in the World Cup struggle in a few games, where they would traditionally have no problems at all parrying or catching a simple ball.
Holisitic Fitness For World Cup Performance
Looking to get fit like a World Cup superstar? It's not that easy. Actually I applaud many of you who have sent me emails over the past few weeks. Fitness for soccer is exceptionally demanding, this article points to how difficult fitness for elite soccer players can be. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Following are a few tips that you can utilize to maximize your fitness for soccer:
Explosive Plyometrics For Power & Strength
Are you reaching a plateau in your training regime? Are you looking at maximizing your goalkeeper abilities while taking your game to the next level? There is an answer, and guess what? You don't need a hefty gym membership to do it. When you need the added edge in your training and you have reached a high level of activity, then plyometrics can make you into an explosive, energy charged goalkeeper.
