Soccer Essay

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Soccer is unequivocally one of the most popular sports in the world (López-Segovia et al., 2011). A survey conducted in 2006 showed that there were a total of 265 million male and female soccer players and 5 million referees and officials or 4% of the world’s population actively involved in the sport (FIFA, 2006). According to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), 90% of all registered players were male, with younger soccer players comprising the greatest proportion (54.7%) of all registered male players (Daneshjoo et al., 2013).
Due to increasing popularity of soccer, as well as the increasing amount of financial interest in the game, soccer is one of the most extensively researched intermittent team sports (Ali, 2011).
Soccer performance depends upon a number of factors such as technical/biomechanical, tactical, mental and physiological areas.
Physical Demands
Soccer is an intermittent activity sports, depending upon both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. During competition, a players workload intensity will range from walking to sprinting (Vanderford et al., 2004).
Distances covered at top level are in the order of 10– 12km for the field players, and about 4km for the goalkeeper. Several studies report that the mid field players run the longest distances during a game and that professional players run longer distances than the non professionals. The exercise intensity is reduced and the distance covered is 5- 10% less in the second half compared with the first. During a soccer game, a sprint bout occurs approximately every 90 seconds, each lasting an average of 2- 4 seconds. Activities performed are: 10-20 sprints; high intensity running approximately every 70 seconds; about 15 tackles; 10 headings; 50 ...

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...formance is the increased oxygen delivery to the muscles via a rightward shift in the oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve and vasodilation of muscle blood vessels (Mccutcheon et al., 1999). Haemoglobin at po2 of 30 mmhg gives up almost twice oxygen at 410c as at 360c and the oxygen dissociated from haemoglobin about twice as rapidly.
Koga et al (1997) proposed that an elevated muscle temperature, as a result of warm up leads to enhance aerobic energy production by accelerating the rate limiting associated with oxidative phosphorylation and speeding the increase of oxygen delivery to the capillaries and mitochondria. Increased muscle temperature (Tm) during exercise would results in enhanced oxygen unloading from haemoglobin. A rightward shift in the O2- haemoglobin dissociation curve may have occurred as a result of increase in blood temperature in the muscle tissues.

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