Each person regardless of if you play sport or not has physical limits, related to genetic make up (ie different percentages of red and white (type I and II) muscle fibres while you can condition the body to make the best of what they have there is a natural limit. Red (or slow twitch) muscle fibres work the anearobic system, white (type I fact twitch) the power system no matter how you train them you at the end of the day still only have what you have and this can be the deciding factor in if you are going to be a success at any physical event long before you ever pick up a ball.

Type II fibres can be trained and this could help if a person is very powerfull but gassed too soon but again there are a limit to these fibres.

In simple terms Feka for example will have a natural high percentage of fact twitch fibres, whereas a player with high endurance who can run all day Sean Long for example will have a higher natural percentage of red twitch fibres.

Training can only do so much everyone has individual limits and recovery rates which will account for the variation, as will the game plan, ie a coach sending a player out with a high intensity work load for 10 mins then bringing them off for a rest, a player like this is always going to look gassed as they are putting in a more intense effort.

Strongly disagree.

how does match fitness for boxing and rugby compare to match fitness for other sports?
football? cricket ? snooker ? darts

Sorry Brett you are wrong, you can never exactly simulate the demands of a game, you will get close and we get closer every year as research progresses but you will never nail it, it is what makes training training and playing playing.

I guess thats a good point, i never really thought of type 1, type 2 fibers being invloved in aerobic fitness.

I guess thats why they say cant make a sprinter, that you are born one!

Exactly you can have the best training in the world but if you lack the genetic gifts you are only going to get as fast as your limitations allow regardless of how hard or well you train.

in that case then , one day we will get to the stage where you can get match fit in a gym.

all it takes is a few simulators to hit the body as if its being tackled, and other similar machines.

they said we would never make a nuclear weapon at one time as well.

as science progresses, so does progress.........or summat.

only thing i can think of against my own theory is that as we progress, the game will progress (as its been doing) and players will get fitter and need to be more match fit to cope, thereby always keeping one step in front of scientific advances.

Your body doesn't know you are playing RL.


If you simulate everything then you will become "match fit".


However, as I have said, given it's much easier to get 95% there and finish the last 5% off by actually playing the game, why would you?

It doesnt carry over very well from sport to sport, when lance armstrong completed the new york marathon, he said it was the hardest thing he had ever done!

they both come on sky SPORTS......along with fishing, but not dominoes.

i do agree somewhat Pemps....there are some borderline sports imo...the above, curling, golf, speed walking, normal walking .......question is..where do you draw the line between sport and pastime?

buts thats maybe for another thread (close season?).

left you a PM jonh.