In the summer of 2011, 75 grass roots players across the UK played over 150 hours of football to break the world records for the longest ever futsal, 5-a-side and 11-a-side football matches. For all of these world records, Footballnutra provided dedicated nutrition plans, advice and almost 4,000 product servings. The 36 hour futsal match and 42 hour five-a-side match were to support the charities Cash for Kids and Freekicks. The 11-a-side match smashed the existing world record for the longest ever football match (60 hours) with 75 hours of non-stop football being played in aid of the Red Cross. This is how players can break football world records and complete endurance football events safely.
There are four things players need for endurance football;
1 – A common aim.
2 – Mental preparation and focus.
3 – A great support team.
4 – The right nutrition.
1 – A common aim
All of the world records were organised by groups of friends for charity. The motivation to not let down their friends, team mates or chosen charity helped power everyone to success. This helped push players through the pain barrier in difficult moments and helped create the right environment for the next component of success.
2 – Mental preparation and focus
Breaking a world record is painful. Really painful. Your body and mind will tell you to quit. Prepare for the pain, go through it. All the participants were provided with a mental preparation document. It gave them a breakdown of how they would be feeling at each time in the world record and how to respond.
For example, players were all excited at the start of their record attempts so would naturally play at a high tempo. But for an endurance event players need to conserve their energy, so by highlighting this issue before the start, players could prepare for a sensible starting pace. The mind will also start telling players to stop once they have played a full 90 minutes, or a few hours,Calcio Maglia 09/10, or overnight. Players need to expect this and tell themselves to continue.
By building up a player’s expectation of what to expect, you can increase their pain threshold. Telling yourself, ‘this will be painful’ as well as using the common aim as a motivator is essential to success. Things to break the tedium of endurance football are also useful as a mental release, e.g. playing favourite music, breaking the event up into mini-games or competitions, all help the mind focus on things other than the pain. Endurance football is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one.
3 – A great support team
People to help out with massages, equipment, time keeping and encouragement all help football players play for longer. A good ‘blister strategy’, great masseurs, a team making sure drinks and food was readily available was essential to all the world record successes. Even people to shout encouragement, play music, play games help turn matches into an event. Good podiatry advice, foot strapping,Maglie A Maniche Lunghe, etc are all essential in endurance football. Your support team can also help players with their sleeping strategy. Players should elevate their legs to a comfortable angle while sleeping and either aim for short burst of 15-20 minutes, or about 90 minutes of a sleep cycle.
4 – The right nutrition
Football nutrition can make a big difference to performance, endurance and recovery.
Before the challenge:
Eat a good breakfast 2-3 hours before the challenge. Aim for at least 800+ calories. Stay hydrated. It’s easier to eat and drink before the challenge, than during!
During the challenge:
They key thing in endurance events is to be almost continually eating and drinking.
Drinking – Footballnutra advised 500-750ml of liquid per hour, consumed every 15 minutes.
Eating – 4-500 calories for every hour played, consumed every 30 minutes.
Always drink water with the food you eat. A little all the time is better than too much at once.
Each player must take individual responsibility for their nutrition. Every player will react differently to the challenge, at different times and in different ways. This plan is a guideline only, so players must adjust their nutrition accordingly. Players must listen to their bodies,cheap football shirt, head and stomach!
Dehydration and stomach upset are two of the biggest concerns, so balance your intake of liquids for hydration and foods for fuel. The most important thing is – listen to your stomach.
Start eating/drinking as soon as you start the challenge. You need to be eating and drinking ALL the time. Don’t think you can have 1 large meal. Don’t think of this as 1 whole event. Look at each hour as a match and refuel as needed. Competitive football burns c.650 calories/hour, but scale this down assuming (hoping) for lower intensity.
Try to leave as much time for digestion before you start playing again,camisetas de futbol baratas, e.g. finish, hydrate, +10 mins eat, +40 mins eat, +60 mins play again.
Recommended Foods
An endurance football diet is unique. Footballnutra recommended starting off with ‘complex carbohydrate’ e.g. pizza, sandwiches, pasta etc early in the event then switching to ‘easy to eat’ simple sugar foods e.g energy bars, fruit, cereal etc later on in the event.
Complex foods – Sandwich / roll / bagel. Slice of pizza. Serving of pasta / rice/ couscous.
Easy to eat foods – Energy bar. Cereal (with milk/water). Fruit (bananas/oranges). Footballnutra Drink During Football (or other sports drinks/gels). Dried fruit (with water). Fruit juice (50:50 with water). Tablespoons of jam/honey. Yoghurt. ‘Treats’ (to be consumed every few hours only).
Foods and drinks to avoid:
Anything you don’t like. High volume, low calorie foods. Anything fried. Fizzy drinks (unless you let them go completely flat, bubbles will cause stomach distress). Tea/Coffee (can dehydrate you). Alcohol.
Refuelling during a match :
If the rules permit you to refuel while playing, try to consume about 100-150 calories from drinks / ‘easy to eat’ foods and 150-250ml of liquid. Avoid eating ‘complex’ foods during a ‘match session’.
Players were also provided with Footballnutra football supplements (Electrolyte and Mental Energy capsules every) 3-5 hours as well as recovery drinks every 6-8 hours.
Good luck to anyone playing endurance football or trying to break a new world record in the future. You will need a good level of football fitness and lots of football training, but now you know what to do, it should be easy!