Match fit’ means having a body that will make you feel light and healthy. The match fit body is something that many players go through if that person has been laid off for a long time off the field for health reasons or personal reasons. When a person is not on the field for a long time, someone who hasn’t played for a long tends to lose their zeal for playing.

Richard Collinge, Head of Medical Services at West Ham Unitedrecently spoke with Betway, and said “We have benchmarks and training data over several seasons so that we know what each player has got to achieve,”.

“How fast he needs to sprint, the number of accelerations and decelerations he makes, the distance he covers.

“You also have to break that down into positional analysis. Match fitness is very different if you’re a goalkeeper from a modern-day wing-back. Using GPS data and distances covered, if a player has had a six-week hamstring injury we can tell what we need to prepare them for based on their position.

“We do some change of direction testing, too, because they have to be able to pivot acutely. They have to be able to withstand the force of an opponent and strike a ball.

“The rehabilitation period is not cleared until we can match as best as possible the loading of the tissue that will be required for full training and then a 90-minute match.”

Fredericks, who is precisely the type of explosive wing-back that Collinge is referring to, agrees that being ready to play in a game is far more complex than merely having the capacity to run long distances.

“The hard miles in games don’t really tire you out,” he says. “Sprinting up and down isn’t really what we find hard.

“The hard stuff is the short bursts of pace, when you’ve got to quickly get tight to someone. Nobody can tell you that you’re match fit unless you’ve been in the scenario where you’re having to struggle in the last 10 minutes and you’ve got to grind out a game.

“That’s when you find out about yourself, not doing runs in training.”

They become anxious when they make a comeback after a long injurious career, that is why they need a ‘match fit’ body so that they can maintain a perfect balance of physical, emotional, and mental health that will help them get in the field. But how to get in shape? And even if you reach the goal then how to maintain it? This article is dedicated to this. 

How to set the goal? 

‘Match fit’ is dedicated to the fitness of three things, 

  • Physical
    • Nutritional
    • Workout
  • Mental
  • Emotional

You have to set a goal in the sense that they have to benefit all those three aspects. You not only have to make your physique better but you have to maintain that peace mentally and emotionally too as it will create an impact on the physique. Here are ways how to do it. 

  • You have to do it in parts. If you keep doing it for a longer time then it will strain your injurious body. So rather than doing any kind of exercise and overwork for a long time like doing it on a stretch, you should do it in sets like you can do it for five sets. You can do it in parts. 

One set for 5 minutes and then take a rest. Then do it again 5 times and the exercise will be done for 30 minutes exactly. It will create the same impact on your body but will not create any strain on your injury. 

  • Build a base. You should not mix and match different types of exercises as it could cause a problem for your body. One exercise could strain your body meanwhile the other one could not create any effect at all. So you have to mix and match the exercise in a balanced mode. You can hire someone to train you in that sense because the person will be very advanced. 

 

  • Suppose you are doing sprints. Do it in the interval and for a small amount of time. You can do the exercise for a small time. Suppose you did the sprint for 10 seconds. Then take an interval. Then again do the sprint for 10 seconds again. The next day increase that time again for 5 seconds and increase it in steps. It will not create any harm to your body and further will not create any strain on your injury. 

 

  • Try to get help from professionals as it will help you have healthy mental health which is one of the other aspects of practicing the ‘match fit’ training. With the right training, we could use this system to help you manage stressful situations on the pitch a lot better,” was told by Dr. Emmanouil Georgiadis who is the lecturer of sport and exercise psychology. Certain exercises are directed towards making the stimuli that will help you hone the positive outlook while maintaining your goal. 

 

  • Emotionally strength is important too and attempting to calm your anxious nerves by breathing exercise can be determined as something very effective. Dr. Georgiadis claimed, “This helps aid recovery with better-quality sleep and relieves stress in high-pressure situations.” That is why many trainers try to do it too, helping them to get better so that they don’t injure their injuries further. 

Fredericks says. “Match fitness comes from confidence,”

“Going into the game knowing that you’re at a higher risk of injury or that you might blow up after 60 minutes isn’t ideal. You need to play two or three Under-23 games or training-ground games to get that. It’s unheard of to have a long time out and then go straight into the Premier League.”

The same applies to domestic matches in cricket.

“I use fitness baselines to determine whether a player is ready or not,” says Tumi Masekela, the strength and conditioning coach for the South Africa men’s cricket team.

“But if he’s at a good level then we will start him with our warm-up games or franchise games before we move back onto the international scene. That’s definite – we will not allow a player back to an international game without playing any games beforehand, so that we can evaluate their match fitness.”

How to maintain the ‘match fit’ schedule? 

You have to do it maintaining everything that we have discussed before. You have to strike a balance between all of it so much that it could help you be more healthy and happy. By following the steps written below you can maintain it. 

  • You have to keep doing it in steps. Even if you cannot do it altogether and maintain doing it for the same amount of time, do it at least for the time that you can give. You will become habituated. 
  • Don’t forget to take rest in between the exercises. It will not create any distress in your body. It needs rest. 
  • Nutrition is important too. Make sure that you eat healthy foods along with doing exercise. The food should be proportionate and should include a balanced diet of fruits, greens, proteins, starch. 
  • Always keep hydrated and do not indulge in junk food. 
  • Take the necessary supplements. 

Kevin Pietersen, who played 275 internationals and is England’s third-highest run-scorer of all time across all formats, felt that intense practise sessions were far more valuable for his match fitness than sanitised warm-up matches.

“I didn’t need to feel that match scenario,” says Pietersen. “I hated practise games, I hated trial games, I hated all that.

“I think if you calculated my average from all of the warm-up games that we played it would be terrible. I didn’t want to play in them, I had no interest in them, because they never made me feel like I felt when I practised.”

Conclusion:

All these steps will assure you a win towards the goal that you are trying to reach. It will yield benefits for your physical and mental health. We hope that you recover and become stronger than ever by following all these steps.