Sports conditioning
Prime CONDITION Keeping players fit has become increasingly important for football clubs, who now play up to 50 PHOTO: © PA IMAGES
games a season. Tom Walker looks at the ways clubs are investing in sports conditioning
A focus on sports conditioning and recovery helped turn Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy into an England striker
I
t might detract somewhat from the
during the season and this in turn meant
to aid rehabilitation, offering players
romanticism of it, but it is now a well-
that then-manager Claudio Ranieri was able
beetroot juice to “improve their sprint
documented fact that Leicester City’s
to pick his best 11 players on all but three
performance” and the introduction of
fairytale Premier League title win in
occasions during the 38-game campaign.
innovative new fitness tech – such as
2016 had a large amount of science
Leicester’s fitness team have since
NordBords, which increase speed by
behind it. Leicester’s innovative
revealed some of the secrets that helped
strengthening hamstrings.
approach to sports medicine and meticulous
the club pull off one of the biggest
player conditioning resulted in the club
shocks in sporting history. These included
important sports conditioning has
Leicester’s success shows how
suffering fewer injuries than ever before
the use of a cryotherapy ice chamber
become in modern football. In Leicester’s case, it even helped transform a nonleague journeyman like Jamie Vardy into an England striker. But apart from beetroot juice, what else are clubs doing to ensure their biggest assets – the players – are maintained and prepared for action?
SUSPEND THE ACTION Suspension training and other functional
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Issue 132 July / August 2017
Leicester City FC
training methods have become popular with
use NordBords to
Premier League football clubs because they
strengthen players’
allow physical conditioning that prepares
hamstrings, making
muscles and joints for real-life movements
them faster on the field
and the demands of a football match. As
sportsmanagement.co.uk