| Conditioning practices in the sport of football have changed over the course of its 135-year history. Influences of change can be traced back to the United States military, changes in the substitution rules, employment of strength and conditioning coaches, the principle of specificity, and the success among programs. Conditioning methods used by football coaches and players included continuous running, interval training, agility drills, speed development, and metabolic conditioning drills.; Work-to-rest intervals during six Division IA televised football games were measured. Average duration of a play was 5.23 +/- 1.61 sec. There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the duration of a run play (4.86 +/- 1.42 sec) compared to a pass play (5.60 +/- 1.71 sec). The range for a run play was 2.22 to 11.02 sec, and the range for a pass play was 1.44 to 15.01 sec. The average duration of rest between plays with extended rest intervals was 46.9 +/- 34.3 sec and 36.09 +/- 6.71 sec without extended rest intervals such as time out for television, injury, measurements, and so on. The average duration of rest between series was 11:30 +/- 4:19 min.; The relationship between aerobic capacity and anaerobic performance was measured by correlating VO2max and fatigue slopes of repeated maximal 5-sec power tests on a cycle ergometer, designed to simulate football competition. Subjects (n = 24) were members of The University of Alabama Crimson Tide football Team. The 5-sec power testing was composed of three series of varied repetitions (12,6,3) of maximal effort sprints simulating a series varying in the number of plays. Resistance on the cycle ergometer was set at 10% of body weight. Each sprint was separated by 40 sec of rest, and each series was separated by 11 min of rest. The results indicate that there was no relationship between aerobic capacity and fatigue slopes in this paradigm. |
