Could most elite soccer players easily run a sub-20 5k?

Easily!! Under 20 is very slow. We had a soccer player on my high school team that had never run track and ran 10:00 for 3200m with no training.

I would guess that most of the best could run under 16-16:30.

With correct training I'm quite certain that Ronaldo could have been a low 13 guy. That dude is FAST!

The fittest soccer players are the left and right wingers. Followed by the wing backs.

They have the longest cover assignments in the field.

copa mundial wrote:

I'm always amazed about the overestimation of soccer players distance running abilities. I've tested hundreds of professional players. Not the highest leaque but they are still considered professionals and have no job besides playing.

The best players I'v ever tested could run in the 18:00 min region. Considering a squad of 25-30 players, then maybe 3 would run between 18:00- 19:00, 5 between 19:00- 20:00, 10 between 20:00-21:00, and the rest including goalkeppers up to 23-24 min.

Mostly they hate distance running.

What do you mean when you say that you "tested" soccer players. Was this in a context where the players had incentive to run as fast as they could? You say yourself that most of them hate distance running, so unless they have a real reason to run as fast as they can, it would be reasonable to assume that they'd just jog the thing.

Hitmen wrote:

Easily!! Under 20 is very slow. We had a soccer player on my high school team that had never run track and ran 10:00 for 3200m with no training.

I would guess that most of the best could run under 16-16:30.

What relevance has this? The difference between HS players and world class players isn´t the ability to run a fast 5k, but speed, power, agility etc.

copa mundial wrote:

. They have shit endurance, shit speed, shit mobility. Of course they now how to handle a ball and are able to read a game and have a lot of self confidence. Some of the best players had the worst test results ever.

...

Most players would have troubles breaking 20 miin with soccer specific training. Of course if they would specialise in running we would see faster times. But why would they?

Ridiculous.

I could run a mid 18 5k in high school weighing 175 lbs at 6'1" as a defender by running maybe 25 miles a week. Slow for a runner...but I could move backwards and side to side a little bit better than most CX guys.

I played with a guy who is a top scorer in MLS and played in the world Cup and he was faster over that distance than I was.

Now I wonder how many of these soccer players you tested for a 5k were racing it.... did their million dollar contacts depend on their times?

goal pace wrote:

I don't agree. Goalkeepers also run a lot. And jumps around. In training it's like a 2 hours long run every day. They should easily get under 20 too.

^this

Of course most male soccer players can run sub 20. Even most female players should get close to it. With correct pacing I'm sure Hope Solo can break 20.

Lactate testing on the treadmill or track until exhaustion. I have seen goalkeepers who had to finish the test at 7:00 min/mile pace. Normally they finish at 6:00 min/ mile pace. Good players can run until 5:20 min/pace for 5 minutes. Of course this is an all out effort with heart rates in the 200s and 10 mmol lactate. Threshold of the best players is around 6:00-6:40 min/mile (4 mmol). So they shouldn't be faster than 17:00-18:00 min.

Can you give us a sense of the structure of the test so we know what the pace that they finish at means?

What do you think would be the median 5k time for the english premier league?

James Milner could run sub 15k guaranteed.

I think football players are probably similar to tennis players. They're built for very short, sharp efforts with incredible power and acceleration with long rest periods. Andy Murray is one of the fittest guys on the tennis tour and yet his 'hard track training' in Miami in the off season is like 10x400 in 80 seconds with equal rest (http://www.menshealth.co.uk/fitness/cardio-exercise/andy-murrays-track-session). Good compared to the average, out of shape office worker but terrible for a decent endurance runner. Running at a super high effort for 5km is a bloody long way for sprinters. Have you never done a distance session with a sprinter? They may be able to smash a 48 second 400m but my God they are terrible after just a few mins of running hard.

Soccer players, tennis players... they're fantastic athetes, over short distances, very explosive and powerful. But a mile is a long way for them. 3 miles is like a marathon, you'd be astonished at how bad some of the best guys would look after just 10 mins really hard effort.... Think of the CrossFit games...

Besides other kind of endurance tests we do a standard lactate test procedure on a treadmill. You start at 8 or 10 km/h an run for 5 min, then 30 seconds rest for lactate measurments, next step ist 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 km/h each for 5 minutes. You run as long as possible. Good players can run 18 km/h for 5 minutes. They max out her at max hear rate an high lactacte reading 8-15 mmol. Some exceptional players, at the least the ones I tested could run another 2-3 minutes at 20 km/h. No one ever finished 20 km/h. I'm sure there are better players out there, of course, but a 15 min 5 k is a long way.

The average treshold (4mmol) of the german national squad in 1998 was 15,6 km/h. I don't know how threshold was tested. Maybe it was just 3 minutes of running each step which gives higher treshold readings. But germans are always known to be physical very strong and top prepared. If we assume the data is correct then I'm expecting about 18-19 minutes 5k. The median in premier leaque would probably the same, I guess around 19 minutes. And I'm convinced there are premier leaque players out there how can't break 20 minutes.

Roonaldo wrote:

I watch a lot of English Premier League Soccer and was wondering....These guys are obviously in great overall shape and run a lot in training and games. Could the average elite player easily knock out a sub-20 5k? Faster?

I might be out of touch, but can't most people with 2 legs run a sub 20 5k?

In high school I didn't even play a sport before going out for the track team, and I ended up running 15:40 xc. I'm sure someone with a soccer background could run AT LEAST 14:00.

The hubris of joggers is incredible. Just this week, I saw a St. John's University soccer player jogging 20 laps around track at about 6:50 pace. The temperature was around mid 80s. I didn't even hear him breathing. Get over yourselves.

Moo Goo wrote:

The hubris of joggers is incredible. Just this week, I saw a St. John's University soccer player jogging 20 laps around track at about 6:50 pace. The temperature was around mid 80s. I didn't even hear him breathing. Get over yourselves.

You watched him run for 35 minutes on a track? What is wrong with you?

You've never run around a track and seen other people doing laps?

What is wrong YOU?

Glad this sport is changing the cultural landscape of sport..

I'll never give it a chance but Im older.

My experience as a high school XC and track coach was rich kids, dentists kids, lawyers kids, playing this..

In the soccer off season when they ran track, they were the ones you always caught loafing in the hurdle shed.....

Also noticed though through reading Marc Bloom's top footlocker list that most of our great runners came from the soccer ranks SO...

Change is good.

I need clarification: Would we assume some period of training and a desire to run a max effort 5k at the end or are we talking about them just running one on their soccer training?

If the former, I expect guys between 16:00 and 22:00 minutes. (Slower than that for the 6'6" goalkeepers, but whatever).

If it is just on soccer training, then 17:00 would be great, a lot of guys would be around 19:00 to 22:00 and I think you would see terrible splits (flying then dying).

And Mike Rossi cheated.