The football season ended a couple of weeks ago, with no summer tournament this year footballers have got a long break between now and August when the new Premier League season begins. How do footballers spend this break? Whilst many of us would spend a holiday from work drinking beer, filling up on comfort food, and lounging in front of the television this is not the case for our favourite football superstars. Professional footballers are advised to take a couple of weeks off, spend time with their families resting their tired bodies after a long action packed football season, but then it's back to a strict regime of pre season training. All footballers whether professional Premier League players, or amateur lower league and even Sunday league players are advised to undertake regular pre season training to ensure optimum fitness and performance.

In the past professional footballers used to undertake rigorous pre season training that involved running miles and miles each week, nowadays the approach is much more scientific and uses new technology and techniques that are designed to produce the optimum fitness, this can also been seen in the development of football training tops designed specifically for training as opposed to game play. The professionalism of players has increased dramatically over the past couple of decades as there has been an increase in the commercial aspect of football, as well as the influence of dedicated foreign players. Despite a short relaxing break most footballers will undertake light daily training, and will return to the training ground in similar shape and fitness to how they left.

Sports scientists are heavily involved in today's pre season training schedule, with every players heart rate monitored and GPS tracking widely used, live time statistics are a key factor in determining the flow of a training session. Using the results and statistics gained each player is issued with personalised training schedules. There is very little in the way of long distance running nowadays, the focus is on short bursts, heart rate recovery, and building up muscle strength in the gym.  It is now recognised that during a match players use short bursts of energy running no more than 250m at full pace during any one episode, they then have time to recover ready for the next burst, this is replicated during training ensuring players are as match fit as possible whilst putting the least stress on bones, joints and muscles.

Over recent years there has also been an improvement in the football training kits worn by the teams. The major manufacturers produce not only match day kits but also football training tops, and other equipment designed specifically for the different requirements and intensity of training in comparison to the 90 minutes of a game.  Training tops are usually made of lightweight fabrics with added mesh ventilation panels, Nike, Adidas and Puma have all developed their own fabric structures to wick moisture away from the body and increase air circulation to the skin.  The most popular clubs football training tops are now available for supporters to purchase, including Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid, they are often lower priced than match day replica tops making them more affordable.  The tops are usually adorned with crests and sponsors making them a great value option for supporting your favourite team. Supporters can also use the tops and other equipment during their own pre season training, to help enhance their own fitness and performance.

What do you think of the new sports science approach to pre season training?

Do you undertake pre season football training?

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