ABSTRACT

From all of these studies, it may be concluded that the mean distance covered during a game is around 10 km (range: 9-12 km), in a non-continuous motion mode, with over 3% of the total playing time running at a linear velocity higher than 5 m.s−1 (Ohashi et al., 1988). Average oxygen consumption during a game has been estimated to be around 75% of the maximal oxygen uptake (Van Gool et al., 1988) and the mean heart rate registered during the first half of a competitive game was 164 beats. min−1, while in the second half it decreased to 154 beats.min−1 (Bangsbo, 1994). Anaerobic metabolism plays a qualitative role as high intensity activities are a characteristic of top-level games, with a frequency of 19 sprints per game for a player, with an average duration of 2 s (Bangsbo et al., 1991). However, little has been studied considering football training drills.