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Leading names from football, cricket and ice hockey explain the differences between being fit and being ready to play in a professional game.
“The difference is huge,” says West Ham defender Ryan Fredericks. “You can spend as long as you want – years, even – running up and down the pitch or running around cones, but 10 minutes in a Premier League match is 100 times harder than any of that.
“You can’t fake anything on a Premier League pitch. You have to react to so many things – mentally, as well. If you get caught out, you’re stuck.”
He says speaking with Betway “Confidence is closely related to being match fit,”. “No player is free of niggles or little injuries, but I never ever went into an England match without being confident that I had put in the perfect preparation for it. Perfection in my practise was the reason for my consistent performances.
“I was always asking myself a series of questions: How do I feel in training? Have I got the ability to defend the best ball that a bowler could run into bowl at me when I walk out into middle? Or have I not? If so, where do I need to focus my attention?
“I needed to know every single day that I played that I had done the most meticulous preparation so that when I crossed that white line I could execute the skill. I think I was one of a small group of people who thought about it like that.”
You may have read about the term ‘match fit’ in the newspaper in the sports section while describing a certain kind of player and without giving it much thought what that word actually means, you just move on thinking that it is someone who is fit for a match. Well, as much as it is true, today we will discuss the significance and importance that lies with the word “match fit” and why only certain sports figure talk gets attributed by this particular title.
Why does this particular word have the utmost significance to it?
The meaning of the ‘match fit’ does not only cover the fact about someone who is fit to play because it only covers the half-truth. A player who is in the fields and has an interest in the gaming world, be it soccer or rugby or cricket or anything for that matter has to be fit so it applies to almost every player but this significant title is only given to few selected players who have been laid off for a long time off the field because it takes a lot to get that ‘match fit’ shape.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, the person who is match fit means he is agile, acrobatic, athletic, healthy, ripped, and determined which is all developed by fighting against the opponent team. This vigor and sporty attitude that is seen by the ‘match fit’ player is the essence of his zeal.
The physique of that person is toned and shaped right and worked out to a degree that it adapts the able-bodied structure. All these phenomena have to be attributed to that player in order to be indicated to the tile ‘match fit.
What are the aspects of a Match fit player?
A match fit player has to be very much agile and vigorous. He or she has to be quick and strong, able-bodied, and toned. We have already discussed all this previously but what is the aim of this particular training? Someone who wants to be like a Match fit player has to train a lot and the benefits of being a match fit person do not only stay constrained to being only physically agile.
It crosses the barrier where one has to exercise mentally too so that they become mentally strong along with physically strong. They have to practice to be mentally as well as physically strong. But it won’t work if you don’t strengthen yourself emotionally too. So a person who wants to be match fit has to be mentally, physically, and emotionally strong. So what do we mean by it? Let’s discuss this.
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Physical strength: The person has to have the passion to become someone who has the vigor, zeal, intensity to be strong by training hard and working out hard. Not only that, but he also has to adopt a healthy lifestyle where junk foods are a big no-no. It is necessarily a rigorous method of work out where you have to focus on your nutritional intake too. Make sure that you are injury-free.
Taking injury, again and again, may weaken your immunity system. So if you are going to work out, make sure you do it with professional help. Those centers that train people to make you match fit expose you to an extreme training session along with the high-intensity match out which will weigh out your ability. Practice will only make you stronger.
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Mental strength: Many people have strayed from the path to get to the goal, they have sought the wrong kind of help to get there, the line of success can be blurry when one gets too drowned in the thought of just winning. It might break them so one has to have a line is drawn which they must not cross. Living a healthy and balanced life is the key here.
An injury not only hurts us physically but mentally too so you have to heal from that too. Do not push yourself too much. Being aware of what is in store for you if you win is the right thing to do but straying away from that path is wrong so you have to have healthy mental health which many centers strive to help you accomplish.
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Emotional strength: Emotional strength means not giving up when you think you cannot hold it anymore. Emotional strength means being someone who won’t give in to anxiety anymore. You have to live a happy and content life. Socialize with your loved ones, have a positive outlook towards life, be more friendly. You have to be compassionate towards your goal without losing sight of it. You have to be easy.
Fredericks is referring to the difference between being fit – injury-free, in good nick – and being ready to play in a professional, competitive sports match. It is what every athlete is aiming for after an injury or break from the game.
“There are different aspects to it,” says Richard Collinge, Head of Medical Services at West Ham United.
“The science behind it all is now a major guide as to objectively clearing a player to return to training and then to return to a match, but the player has to also be psychologically ready.
“Those two things have to match, otherwise that player is not going to be ready to play.”
“I consider it a tripod of performance – physical, mental and emotional,” says Dan Garner, who has coached UFC champions Ronda Rousey and Michael Bisping, as well as three Super Bowl winners and an Olympic gold medallist, and is now head coach of the Hockey Training programme, based in Ontario.
“What happens if one leg of a tripod is knocked out? It collapses. In order to determine whether someone is actually ready, they would need to be mentally, emotionally and physically ready.”
Conclusion:
All these strengths altogether will make you very strong and that will get you the title of the match fit. If you achieve the mental, physical, and emotional strength by practicing then you will enter into the ‘zone’ that will help you only gain success. That is very few soccer and rugby players are given the title of ‘match fit’.
