Indian Footballers as fit as Europeans say these leading sports scientist and physiotherapist.
Football is gaining popularity in India. Not only are there more people playing football in India, tournaments like ISL is making the game more popular in India. The good news for fans of soccer is that the fitness levels of Indian footballers is almost on par wit their European counterparts.
Sports scientist Danny Deigan, says the fitness training methods followed by the Indian football team are “very similar” to the ones in leading football clubs, such as Arsenal. “After visiting a number of English Premier League clubs including Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City, I can say that the methods that we use in the Indian team are very similar to them”.
Deigan said the physical condition of the players are assessed every morning before the day’s training. Deigan says “During the screening, we look into their ankles, hamstrings, groins and also their ability to jump. It gives us an idea of their fatigue and readiness which helps us to plan the day’s training”. At the training, we start with a physical warm-up session that leads to the main training.
Spaniard Miguel Martinez, physiotherapist of FC Pune City, has been in India for a couple of years now and has closely scene the players.
“After working with ATK for two seasons, I noticed that the locals are not far behind in the fitness level in comparison to the European players. They are on par with the international players, the only difference maybe was on the field, they fall behind in the tactical things. Technically they are good but the tactical implementation is lacking,” said Miguel.
“The reason may be how they think, because most of them are not playing in the same standard from their developmental stages. And they didn’t have good playing and coaching facilities in their initial years, like the European players have.”
So can Indian football match global standards?
Miguel says for that to happen, the country needs a long-term developmental project at the grass-root level. India needs to invest in projects with long term planning, not short term of a year or two. India should also get more foreign players in ISL.
Regarding football related injuries, medical consultant Dr Mapari says “The basic principle of management is the same but we have to learn the aspect of player recovery after injury from them. Experience counts and they came with lots of football experience and it definitely helps our players as well as other technical staff.”
Indian football team’s sports scientist says India lacks a holistic approach to fitness
Australian-born Danny Deigan is Indian football teams sports scientist and says that India lacks a a holistic approach when it comes to fitness. Danny also tells us more about the major differences between the top players in the world in comparison to Indians.
Countries that are good in sports and win several medals at top sporting events have a holistic approach towards fitness where everything related to the fitness of a sportsperson is monitored on a daily basis, modified on a daily basis.
Every country conducts national camps before major sporting competitions. But then the foreign players work only on the technical aspects when they come to the camp; they are already in peak fitness.
However, in India, its totally different. Camps are where the Indian players also work on their physical side, besides working on the technical aspect.
And that’s too late (working on fitness), according to Danny.
However, he admits that the Indian football players have shown considerable improvement in the last couple of years.
“I used to play a lot of sport and I have got natural strength. So, the physical strength is always there. But what I have struggled in these 10-12 years of my career has been the lack of consistency in (following) this fitness regime. I need to be more consistent in my efforts regarding strength and physical conditioning. Sunil Chhetri is leading by example (by keeping super fit) and he is an idol for all of us,” Indian women’s football team goal-keeper Aditi Chauhan.
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