7 TRAINING TIPS & TACTICAL INSIGHTS FOR THE PLAYERS OF TOMORROW

PAUL FRENCH Copyright © 2016 Paul French

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www.pspfrench.com TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Performance-Enhancing Vegetable 5 From Baseball To Juninho Pernambucano: How To Make A Ball Wobble 7 The Carbohydrate Trap Revealed. Here’s The Golden Rule For Maximum Energy 9 The Difference Between Fitness and Freshness 13 The Surprisingly Simple & Powerful Thing For Improving Soccer Fitness (It’s Free) 15 How To Improve Pre-Match Sleep With This Simple Hack 17 The Soccer Stretching Myth Debunked (Introducing The Reverse Hamstring Release) 19 The Performance- Enhancing Vegetable

The very latest research in sports drinks that improve athletic performance isn’t what you think. It’s not a lurid yellow isotonic formula with flashy marketing. It’s not a magic powder and it’s not chocolate milk, which you’ll no doubt already know is as good as it gets for post-match recovery (unless you’re lactose intolerant).

We’re talking about a humble root vegetable. Most children I know grew up hating it, probably because it’s an uncommon colour and if cooked wrong, it tasted like mud. But researchers worldwide - and 2015-2016 Premier League Champions Leicester City - concur: when it comes to acquiring an aerobic edge, the beetroot is king.

How much of an advantage does it give you? According to research from a professor at my alma mater, the University of Exeter in the UK, the right dosage of concentrated beetroot juice can give you a 3.5% gain in activity that lasts between five and 30 minutes. This isn’t a big number, but the ability to train regularly at 3.5% above your baseline is a game changer when compounded over time. And whichever position you play, you know the fine margins involved in getting a foot in front of your opponent.

Professor Andrew Jones’ study, which was first published in 2011, attributes this to two things; that beetroot is high in nitrates and the effect it has on your mitochondria: In an interview given to Wired journalist Marc McClusky, Jones said: “It causes blood vessels to dilate, so you can provide more blood through them. Simultaneously, it seems to make the mitochondria more efficient, so they are able to create the same energy while consuming less oxygen. So you really have two things happening. Lower oxygen cost because the mitochondria are more efficient, and then you have a higher oxygen supply. In terms of performance, that’s a pretty good combination.”

To take advantage of this combination, you’ll need the right dosage of beetroot juice. More does not equal more, folks. The consensus is that the optimal level is 600ml of juice consumed between 2 and 2.5 hours before training or playing. You can get this through normal juice from the grocery store, or more conveniently by bulk ordering concentrated powder sachets made by companies such as US-based Neogenesis Labs. This is much better if traveling to away games.

But be warned! There are two serious drawbacks to drinking beet juice. The first, according to Cincinnati Bengals tight end C.J. Uzomah, who first tried the drink when playing for the Auburn Tigers in 2014, is that it tastes “like the worst thing in the entire world.” The second is that it turns your piss purple. From Baseball To Juninho Pernambucano: How To Make A Ball Wobble

The knowledge of how to make a ball wobble in the air dates back more than a century, to 1908. There’s some debate about who the bulk of the credit should go to, but mainly it rests with Eddie “Knuckles” Cicotte, a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. Cicotte discovered that with the right grip he could eliminate the spin on the baseball.

The result was the knuckleball, an erratic, impossible-to-hit pitch. Some 85 years later, a Brazilian footballer called Antônio Augusto Ribeiro Reis Jr. - Juninho Pernamubucano for short - applied the same physics to a soccer ball.

Between 2001 and 2009, Pernambucano won seven consecutive championships with French Ligue 1 side Lyon. He notched 100 goals, 44 of which were direct from free kicks. The most famous of his free kicks came in the Champions League in 2003. Juninho hit a long range effort that bamboozled Bayern Munich’s Oliver Kahn – the world’s best keeper at the time – so much that he smashed his head on the post.

Other players have since learned from the master, with the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Cristiano Ronaldo joining the fun. If you’re prepared to practice, you can too.

In his book I Think Therefore I Play, Pirlo recounts how he practiced for weeks, sending balls flying over the fence at the Milanello training ground and annoying the kit man. His breakthrough came, as they sometimes do, while on the toilet. He rushed to the training ground, grabbed a ball and produced a “geometric gem.” Pirlo had realised that it was about how the ball was struck, not where:

“In essence, the ball needs to be struck from underneath using your first three toes. You have to keep your foot as straight as possible and then relax it in one fell swoop. That way, the ball doesn’t spin in the air, but drops rapidly towards the goal. That’s when it starts to rotate.”

You won’t get it first time. Or even on your hundredth. But if you follow these principles and be patient, one day you’ll crack it.

• Place the ball with the valve facing towards you. • Adjust your run up according to your distance from goal, but never stand more than 5 meters from the ball. • Aim to hit the ball with your full side foot. Keep it locked. • Kick up the ball, from top to bottom. • Follow through quickly. The Carbohydrate Trap Revealed. Here’s The Golden Rule For Maximum Energy

It’s hard to believe that nobody’s done this yet. Elite sports nutritionist Matt Lovell, who advises Premier League Champions Man City, knows how to put performance on a plate.

In this chapter, I crystallise the carbohydrates advice he gives elite footballers into one rule that’s easy to remember. Using this will mean you’ll be fully charged every time you play AND never struggle with body fat. Knowing this puts you ahead of the competition.

The problem with most advice about carbohydrate intake is that it’s written by the experts, not for the readers. What seems like logical advice for the expert is often missing crucial details or steps that make the advice actionable.

That’s how you end up with not enough energy in the tank on match day or, worse still, struggling with body fat throughout the season. Generally speaking, footballers need to consume between two and five grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight.

But there are two things to consider here…

1. How much training is the player doing? 2. How much does the player weigh?

For example, in the 2013 Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo, who weighs 80kg, ran an average of 9.9km a game. Chelsea’s Ramires, who weighs 73kg, covered an average of 11.4km a game. And Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who weighs 95kg, put in an average shift of 8.6km a game.

Meanwhile, Messi (67kg), ran just 6.8km in the quarter-final defeat to Atlético Madrid (but otherwise averaged 8.2km per game). So it’s easy to see how complicated this can get for those who want to know exactly how much carbohydrate to eat.

As Matt puts it:

“There’s 500g of glycogen [glycogen is stored glucose, glucose is sugar formed by carbs] in the body; 100g in the liver and 400g in the muscles. If someone does 6 sets of 12 reps all over their body, which would take about 90 minutes, they’re only going to deplete glycogen by 30%. That’s 200g of carbs. A sports drink has about 50g of carbs. It’s easy to over-egg the bread.”

So here’s the golden rule: If you’re training once a day, stick to 2g carbs per kilo you weigh. For example, a 70kg player should have a baseline daily carb intake of 140g.

70 x 2 = 140g

They should then add more or less, depending on training requirements. So far, so good. But here’s the missing bit.

What does 140g of carbohydrate look like? This may come as a surprise, but weighing out 140g of cooked white rice WILL NOT give you 140g of carbs. This is the bit that experts assume people know!

As you’re aware, you can get carbs from lots of different places. Potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, asparagus. Yeah, asparagus. But to get 140g of carbohydrate by eating asparagus, you would need to eat nearly 6 kilos of the stuff. To get 140g carbs from white rice, you need to know that there is 80g of carbohydrate per 100g of white, long-grain, UNCOOKED rice. If you weighed out 140g of cooked white rice (which has only 28g of carbs per 100g), you would not be eating enough for your body weight. Because every gram of uncooked white rice contains 0.8g of carbohydrate, you need to do this sum first:

140 / 0.8 = 175g

175g. That’s what you need. Not 140g. Food weight does not equal carbohydrate weight.

Matt adds: “If you have more than one training session a day, you’ll need more fuel. To optimise the fuel mix, check your output and energy levels – if you are not covering as much ground or feel low on energy then increase your carbs by 1g per kg each day – then reassess things a week later.”

Some useful numbers In uncooked white rice, there are 80g of carbohvdrate per 100g. In uncooked brown rice, there are 77g per 100g. In uncooked pasta, there are 75g per 100g. In white bread, there are 73g per 100g. In wholemeal bread, there are 56g per 100g. In a banana, there are 23g per 100g. In baked beans, there are 22g per 100g. In sweet potato, there are 20g per 100g. In a normal potato, there are 17g per 100g. In oatmeal, there are 12g per 100g.

These numbers mean that white rice is the most efficient food to eat when fuelling and refuelling for soccer. It’s cheap, and you have to eat less of it than you do other foods to get to your target daily carbohydrate intake. It also means that it’s the easiest to overeat when you’re not training, so be careful.

What if I want to lose body fat AND have energy? Matt says: “If you want to lose weight, you need to create a deficit, but it’s a total energy deficit, not just to do with the carbs you’re eating. It’s not enough to cut your carbs if you’re still consuming copious amounts of fat and protein. If you cut carbs out completely, then you know you’re burning fat for energy.

“If you go on a no-carb diet, which is a ketogenic diet, then you know your body is burning fat to make glucose. You won’t have as much energy as you do when you’re carb fuelled, so although you’ll be able to manage longer, steady state stuff, you’ll struggle with anything explosive.”

The solution is to cycle around it, so go low carbs for three or four days then normal carbs for three or four days.

So, to lose weight a 70kg player should consume 140g of carbs on training days, but then a smaller amount, around 100g, on rest days.

A note on protein In order to maintain strength throughout the season, a sensible range of protein is between 0.6-1.0g of protein per kg of body weight.

If, however, you’re limiting carb intake in order to lose weight, you should up your protein intake to 2g per kg. Being stricter with carbs makes protein more important to protect lean mass and prevent overtraining.

But again, remember that food weight will not equal protein weight. Chicken breasts that weigh in at 100g on a food scale will provide about 30g of protein. The Difference Between Fitness and Freshness

As I write this, teams are preparing for the 2016 UEFA European Championships in France and the Copa América Centenario in the United States. The domestic seasons have barely finished, but professional schedules are so demanding that there is no time for players to rest and recharge before the tournaments begin. This is where coaches need to understand the difference between fitness and freshness, or risk crippling their squad with injuries.

The English FA Cup Final took place on May 21 and the Football Association scheduled three friendlies to take place before England’s opening game against Russia in Marseille on June 11. This invites risk on the players. On May 25, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge had given England an injury scare after suffering a calf problem in training, one week after he played 90 minutes in the 3-1 UEFA Europa League Final loss to Sevilla.

At the end of a season, players are not lacking fitness, but they are lacking freshness, both mentally and physically. Fatigue, as you’ve already read, is the enemy.When you’re not feeling 100% as a player, the question you need to ask whether you are lacking fitness or freshness.

According to Raymond Verheijen, the brilliantly outspoken director of the World Football Academy, the golden rule of tournament periodisation is regaining freshness while maintaining fitness. This means starting with at least a seven day break between the players’ last game for their clubs and the beginning of tournament training. Verheijen’s position is that once tournaments are finished, players need a minimum of three weeks of rest after a season. This is the absolute minimum to regain freshness after ten to eleven months of training and games.

If your soccer schedule doesn’t meet these criteria, then you need to take action to protect yourself against injury. To summarise:

• You want 7 days rest between a season ending and tournament preparations beginning. • If you’ve been involved in a summer tournament, then pre-season should be about regaining your freshness while maintaining your fitness. • If you haven’t been involved in a tournament, then pre-season should be about a gradual build up of fitness, to avoid fatigue. • You want a full three weeks of rest between the end of a tournament and the beginning of pre-season. The Surprisingly Simple & Powerful Thing For Improving Soccer Fitness (It’s Free)

When Brazilian players first came to the English Premier League, coaches were left scratching their heads as to why relatively slight players were still so incredibly strong on the ball compared to their European counterparts. They put some significant research resources into this phenomena and came up with a surprisingly simple answer.

Top clubs around the world now use this knowledge to improve the reactions, balance, core strength and overall fitness of their players. It is particularly powerful for players returning from injury.

In December 2009, Lionel Messi limped out of Barcelona’s 2-1 Champions League victory against Dynamo Kiev, having scored the winning goal, a free kick, in the 86th minute. He suffered a hefty challenge from Brazilian defender Leandro Almeida and was immediately declared a major doubt for the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.

Just seven days after sustaining what was reported as a Grade 2 ankle strain in Kiev, Messi played a key role in Barcelona’s Club World Cup semi-final win against Mexican side Atlante. A few days later in the final against Estudiantes, Messi scored the winner in extra time, chesting in Dani Alves’ cross.

The normal recovery period for a Grade 2 ankle strain is 6-8 weeks, so by all standard measures Messi’s recovery was very quick indeed. It could be that the severity of Messi’s injury was misreported, but it’s also worth pointing out that Messi was photographed using the exact technique that the Premier League coaches determined was so powerful.

The answer is that Messi rebuilt his strength at the beach. The uneven surface provided by sand works muscles more than a flat grass or synthetic pitch. Importantly, it does this at the same time as reducing the strain on joints and maintaining muscle tone. Sand shifts under foot when force is exerted, altering what is known as the myostatic reflex. The result is that you need more energy to move yourself forward, forcing the body to focus on proper extension at the ankle, knee and hip.

So, if you live near the beach, fantastic. You have an advantage in your summer fitness schedule. If you don’t, you’ll find many athletic tracks also have a sand pit for the long jump available that you could seek permission to use. More generally though, seize every opportunity you get to run barefoot on sand. It’s a simple but powerful soccer superpower.

How To Improve Pre-Match Sleep With This Simple Hack

This amazing sleep hack first surfaced in 2013. With this tip, you’re going to go into games with spot-on reaction times and laser-like focus.

You’re going to feel calmer and more alert and your performance is going to step it up a notch. Ready? You’d better bee. Nope, ‘bee’ isn’t a spelling mistake. The sleep hack has everything to with bees and their honey.

But before we go any further, I have to give an appreciative bow to the late Seth Roberts, PH.D., for first bringing this to my attention. In 2013, Seth wrote a blog post titled, ‘Does Bedtime Honey Improve Sleep? Nine Reasons to Think So’. Since that post, people all over the world have been experimenting with honey before sleep and the results are in. It works.

If you’re interested in improving your match day performance, you HAVE to give this a go. And not just because you’re going to wake up feeling amazing, but because you’re also going to wake up STRONGER.

Here’s what Seth discovered:

“As soon as I started the honey, I got stronger — a complete surprise. For years I have done one-legged standing to exhaustion several times per day because it improves my sleep. To reach exhaustion sooner, I stand on one bent leg. Recently I’ve been doing it four times per day (right leg twice, left leg twice). For a year, I’ve averaged about 3 minutes to exhaustion. After I started the honey, the length of time until exhaustion quickly increased.”

How cool is that?! So, let’s get some more results in.

Try taking a tablespoon of raw honey right before bed, on an empty stomach (have dinner earlier in the evening around 18:00 or 19:00). Raw honey is the cloudy stuff, not the clear runny honey you get in the supermarket. Holland & Barrett or Whole Foods will definitely stock it. And let me know how you get on. The Soccer Stretching Myth Debunked (Introducing The Reverse Hamstring Release)

It’s really about time someone shouted this from the rooftops. Static soccer stretches can negatively affect your performance by up to 5.5%. The question is why? You’ve always been told that stretching prevents injury and muscle soreness. So, what’s really going on?

First, some facts. Your muscles are connected to your bones. Your brain controls your muscles. To loosen muscles, you have to engage your brain. Pulling on muscles will only make bad things happen. Engaging the brain at a neurological level is the only way to make your muscles work efficiently. A typical hamstring stretch is accompanied with the instructions: Hold for 10-30 seconds, relax, repeat.

This is HORRIBLE advice.

Pulling on a tight area and expecting it to naturally lengthen is wishful thinking. The brain, for whatever reason, is causing that muscle or muscles to hold tension. The muscle is no longer under the brain’s conscious control. Applying force is not going to change that.

Instead, you have to involve the brain through movement. Here’s an alternative. Here’s THE alternative to stretching that really works. Try this yourself. It will release your lower back and hamstrings better than any stretch, guaranteed. Introducing the reverse hamstring release Start Position: Lying on your front with your head turned to the left. Bend your right leg at a right angle.

Movement: Inhale to lift your knee enough to sense hamstrings/ buttock and lower back contract. Exhale to slowly lower your knee to the floor, then slowly straighten your leg. When rested, sense the release in the back and hamstrings.

Repeat: x3, then slowly turn head to right and repeat for your left leg. If you’ve got tight hamstrings, you have to try this today. And here’s why.

There is SCIENTIFIC evidence that stretching does more harm than good.

A 2013 study by the Motor Control and Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Zagreb in Croatia concluded that an athlete’s performance after warming up with stretching is likely to be worse than if they hadn’t warmed up at all.

• Stretching reduces strength in the stretched muscles by almost 5.5 percent, with the impact increasing in people who hold individual stretches for 90 seconds or more. • Muscle power generally falls by about 2 percent after stretching. • By loosening muscles and their accompanying tendons, stretching makes muscles less able to store energy and spring into action.

Giving stretching the red card Want to read the study?

It’s called ‘Does Pre-exercise Static Stretching Inhibit Maximal Muscular Performance? A Meta-Analytical Review’.

So the next time a teammate gives you an earful about stretching, you can send them the link.