Long-Distance Running for Soccer

An attorney with a background in business immigrations Chadwick McCrea Graham is a partner at Graham Adair, Inc. A lover of sports, Chadwick McCrea Graham previously coached his son’s little league soccer team.

Soccer demands fitness from its players. An average game lasts 90 minutes (youth matches are a little shorter) and has the players walking, jogging, running, and sprinting in intervals, and when they have the ball, they have to do all these while dribbling. The demand for stamina is why soccer coaches place a lot of emphasis on long-distance running to build their players’ endurance. It is estimated that in an ordinary soccer match, players cover a distance of around six miles and spend well over half an hour of the match time running or jogging and a significant portion sprinting. And some of the movement is backwards.

Running improves the uptake of oxygen in the body’s muscles, enhancing respiration and air flow into and out of the lungs. It keeps players in shape, both during the regular season and off-season.