retired_tracyfrost

Just got back from my first indoor 5-a-side game in about 3 years and to be honest, im absolutely fooked The games are only 10 minutes aswell but obviously intense.

I was knackered after about 2 minutes of running about and by the end of the game had a crippling pain in the middle of my chest and was wheezing. I'm by no means fat at all just probably unfit, i'm 5'11 and 11.5 stone. So any tips on how to improve my energy levels when playing without joining the gym as i cant really afford it.

I did drill a cracking shot right in the top corner ala Riise though so swings and roundabouts.

Would eating a meal high in carbs a few hours before playing help my energy levels ?

Looking for any advice really.

hanouda

hahahaha ten minutes?!

5-a-side is all about sprinting. Here I will tip you my default strategy for football fitness. Go to a football pitch and run laps of the pitch, jog the lengths and flat out sprint the widths. The fuirst time you do it, count the laps and stop when you've got no more sprint left. Go and do it every other day and each time put an extra lap on until you're comfortably into double figures of laps.

If you stick with it switch to sprinting the lengths and jogging the widths.

Ansthenia

"I was knackered after about 2 minutes"

Classic

retired_bemesel

Its not so much the sprinting, its the continous change in pace and direction that tires.

retired_srujanach

You could always just play more five a side.

Vegas171

tbf 2 mins is a lifetime compared to what Billy could achieve

retired_gonzamy114

People tend to go mental at the start of a 5-a-side and thus get out of breath quickly, like Ranjith said though it's the change of pace and direction without any real break that is knackering at least in 11 a-side you get a break every now and then.

I'd say you just need to play more, or go in goal

retired_71angie

I can run around for the full hour when playing 5 a side but this season i've just started playing on a saturday again 11 v 11 and can barely last a half.

Think its something to do with either having to run over longer distances, fresh air or running in the mud taking it out of me.

retired_vgrunlund

We did a tournament a few months ago between a load of us, and we seemed to be, by quite some distance, the unfittest team there.

So in the week we had to prepare beforehand we went flat out everyday to make ourselves.. The most annoying 5-a-side team ever.

While every other team went flat out early on we just sat back, went niggly, kept the ball.

We were decent technically so managed to grab a fair few leads on the counter attack, and despite playing in some decent 5-a-side teams previously I've never had more fun then being derided for playing a lovely style of 5-a-side Catenaccio.

Yeh, so basically, forget about getting fit, and just play the sweeper role or something. So undemanding fitness wise if you have some brains.

retired_mountainsong

played a game yesterday and we only had 3 players, won :cool: