As we mentioned before, the most exhausting part of going out on the field during a soccer game is the fact that you never get a chance to rest. As long as the ball is in play, you will need to be active at all times, helping your teammates move the ball towards your goal while also keeping it away from the other team. In most other sports, you would have a chance to rest after one of the teams scored while they regain their position on the field of play. Although you’ll also be doing this while playing soccer, the break you’ll be able to get will be brief enough to think it never happened when you’re back moving across the field hearing your muscles scream in protest at you.
Fortunately, if you have a couple of weeks at your disposal, you can quickly build up your stamina so that keeping up with the steady pace of the field doesn’t leave you feeling like something vaguely like yesterday’s garbage. Since the base of the game is based on your running ability, it is on your running skills that you will have to focus on. The average football player runs five to six miles during the course of a game at an average speed of four to six miles per hour. (The average is about the same speed that a strong walker would exert; however, note that this is an average, not an exact number. You won’t be running at a steady four miles per hour; rather, you will have moments of running full throttle interspersed with periods of moving at an easy pace). In order for him to stay in the field, he will need to be able to travel five to six miles at a steady pace. pace to be fit enough to keep up with the traffic that accompanies the ball.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should go out right now and run six miles. If you’re not used to exercise, it’s very likely to kill you! (Not literally, but he’d be pretty sore the next day and it’s not overkill one day and then having to rest the next five to recover will help him shine on the pitch.) Instead, what you should do is start slowly and work your way up until you can run the full distance. The distance you should start at depends on how much time you have until the season starts (hopefully enough time has been given) and what your current level of conditioning is. Two miles is generally a good starting point; almost everyone can run two miles at an easy pace.
If you don’t think you can run two miles or are intimidated by the thought of running such a long distance, try breaking it down into smaller goals; For example, you might decide that you are going to run for twenty continuous minutes at a steady pace. This will probably still take you about two miles, but since you’ll be concentrating on the clock rather than the distance you’ve traveled, it won’t feel as far. The important thing when you’re doing a timed jog is to remember that it doesn’t matter how fast you go as long as you keep running. If you’re moving in a little jog that’s not really getting you where you want to go faster than a brisk walk would, that’s okay; the point is that your legs are still moving as if you were jogging. It’s much harder to start over once you stop running than it is to keep your legs moving, so you’ll do yourself a disservice if you stop to walk around and catch your breath. If you find you really can’t run for twenty minutes, try a smaller increment, like ten minutes, and work your way up again.
Once you feel comfortable with your two miles and/or twenty minutes, it’s time to extend your distance a bit more. It will take you approximately two to three weeks to get used to a particular distance; maybe not so much that you can walk it with very little effort, but certainly enough that you can stretch it a bit more. Try adding an extra mile or ten minutes to your runs for two to three weeks, then another mile or ten minutes after that, and so on until you can run a full six miles or an hour straight.
