Soccer is perhaps the most demanding of all sports. In the modern game, at any level, soccer training and conditioning is essential.

Few sports are played on as large a playing field, lasting as long and without regular rest periods.
Players cover 8-12km during a match.

Here's a break down of how an outfield player might spend his or her 90 minutes on the field of play:

Adapted from Umbro Conditioning for Football, 1997.

There are different definitions of what fitness actually means, but one common way it is described is as the 5 S's

• Stamina
• Speed
• Strength
• Suppleness (Flexibility)
• Skill

Team sports like soccer make it even harder to determine what areas of fitness are required. The types required will depend upon positions and role in the team, but one key area is skill and specifity. Soccer players should be soccer players first and athletes second.

Having said that, a very skillful player who cannot last the whole match due to lack of stamina, or cannot get to the ball due to lack of speed, is not as useful to the team as the player who has slightly less skill, but more speed and stamina.

There are two specific types of stamina that we are interested in and these aerobic and anaerobic.