David Beckham claims in this month's Health magazine he runs 12 miles at game, B.S!

NoVan wrote:

Thats hilarious! Which players smoked cigerettes?

Until the 80s quite a few did. It can't have been that unusual in other sports either.

Not smoking while playing though.

Herb Elliot smoked as did one of the best herdlers in the world in the 80's. He used to show up at the starting line with a smoke in his mouth. Anybody recall his name, I think he was French but I don't think it was Guy Drut.

Complete BS. I played 2 full soccer games and scored 3 goals and 2 assists in my last half marathon.

Beckham greatly exaggerates his mileage and claims to run more on a daily basis than he's ever actually run at one time in his life? I wonder what his Letsrun handle is.

A few points:

* In hockey Guy Lafleur was famous for smoking in the dressing room between periods

* Top tennis players are in phenomenal shape. Andy Murray does a lot of 400m intervals in the off-season from what I've read.

* Brits use the metric system for most things, but use miles for distance, so it's unlikely that Beckham said 12 km.

he must post here wrote:

Beckham greatly exaggerates his mileage and claims to run more on a daily basis than he's ever actually run at one time in his life? I wonder what his Letsrun handle is.

I think his handle is Gerry Lindgren.

he doesn't know the difference between a mile and a yard.

Frogs are cooler wrote:

Nostradanus wrote:

Methinks you are easily offended.

WHAT?!?

I Challenge YOU to a DUAL! Or is it DUEL! I can never remember. Well, one of those SWORD THINGIES.

You have to slap him with your lady-like glove first to initiate the duel.

I heard a claim similar to this during the women's soccer hoopla last year. Something to do with how far (26 miles?!) they run in games/practices. I know they run a lot, but...really?

I bet its like pro runners who tell us that their best week is an average training week to make themselves sound better.

Unlike Lagat who seems to downplay his work load.

Anyway, exaggeration.

this is why so many people in America hate soccer

I've heard that ping pong players do up to three miles during a match (I'm sure you've all seen Forest Gump and seen how far back they can get from the table). 12 for a soccer player doesn't seem unreasonable in light of this.

In 2005/06, the average EPL midfielder ran 11.49 kilometres per game. The average EPL centre-back covered 9.96 kilometres per game.

From the article, "the average distance covered by players in matches has changed little [between 2002 and 2006] but the amount done at top speed has almost doubled. What ProZone class as “high-intensity activities” — runs made by players at three-quarters of sprint pace or faster — have increased from 627 per team per match in 2002-03 to 1,209 in 2005-06, and the ground covered by players while sprinting has increased by 40% over four years. A sprint is classed as a run made at quicker than seven metres per second, equivalent to running 100m in a sharp 14 seconds."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article722711.ece

I would say that Beckham covered much less ground than the average player.

He probably meant to say km. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if they get in about 1.5 miles in jogging and drills for a warm up for the game.

you've clearly never played basketball or hockey

12km or so a game sounds about right, but it's a very tough 12km. if you've played soccer, you know there is a lot of sprinting, and that you are getting knocked to the ground while running at full pace. try getting pushed to the ground a few times in your next 10k.

also, soccer entails a lot of cutting and quick stops. it's hard on the body. i quit playing soccer and took up long distance running because my body couldn't take soccer any longer.

Andre Agassi was in the top 100 in the ATP and allegedly could only bench 120 pounds or so. (He weighed around 200 or more) That was before he got into shape.Marty Fish dropped 30 pounds and is now in the top 10. He was in the top 40 while being a fatty.Keith Tkachuk had a crappy year when fat but he still was at a "professional" NHL level when fat. Shawn Kemp got 20 points/game one year when he was 300+ pounds.Its hard to be good at pro sports when obese, but its possible. With pro running or cycling...no way!Sports that have a big skill component let you get by with poor (er) conditioning than endurance sports. I'm not impressed by Nadal or Djokovic. They are in solid shape but the 5 hour "marathons" are way overplayed. These two guys in particular spend a LOT of time bouncing the ball. There have been requests to enforce the time between points; it is 25 seconds if I recall but many players abuse it greatly. If a tennis player is in bad shape they can adjust their strategy and go for broke.

Nope, I've done both. Also, it is "you are" or "you're." Man, people suck at English!

Finally, I'm not saying that you don't need to be in shape to play the skill sports. I'm saying that your conditioning plays a much lesser role (obviously) than in pure distance sports. That's it.