The Ref Stop

Dutch Referee Blog - Scottish ex-FIFA referee Bobby Madden shares his go-to fitness exercise

Scottish ex-FIFA referee Bobby Madden shares his go-to fitness exercise. He ran it every fortnight and even now he sometimes does it. “This exercise builds aerobic capacity and speed endurance, which increases your V02 Max”, says Madden. Your body will thus be better in recovering from and adapting to physical stress and exercise volume. “Fitness is more important for referees as it’s ever been”. PS: did you know Bobby Madden recently started a referee podcast? Read more about So Near and Yet So VAR. Explanation of the exercise The excercise is as follows: You run 400m, either 1 round on the track or approximately 4 pitch-lengths (check size of your pitch, mine is 105) Recover for 1 minute Repeat this 12 times in total How does it help you as a referee? The excercise is beneficial for: Improvement of general fitness Run a faster 5km You’re better able to recover faster Bobby Madden was a junior athlete for Scotland until the age of 19. He could run the exercise in 1:06 to 1:08 per lap. When you get older, you need to train differently, he admits. “But i’s still my go-to exercise”. I’d love to hear what your lap time is with a 400m lap. I’ll try to run it during the weekend and let you know as well.

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Jan ter Harmsel said:
Scottish ex-FIFA referee Bobby Madden shares his go-to fitness exercise. He ran it every fortnight and even now he sometimes does it. “This exercise builds aerobic capacity and speed endurance, which increases your V02 Max”, says Madden. Your body will thus be better in recovering from and adapting to physical stress and exercise volume. “Fitness is more important for referees as it’s ever been”. PS: did you know Bobby Madden recently started a referee podcast? Read more about So Near and Yet So VAR. Explanation of the exercise The excercise is as follows: You run 400m, either 1 round on the track or approximately 4 pitch-lengths (check size of your pitch, mine is 105) Recover for 1 minute Repeat this 12 times in total How does it help you as a referee? The excercise is beneficial for: Improvement of general fitness Run a faster 5km You’re better able to recover faster Bobby Madden was a junior athlete for Scotland until the age of 19. He could run the exercise in 1:06 to 1:08 per lap. When you get older, you need to train differently, he admits. “But i’s still my go-to exercise”. I’d love to hear what your lap time is with a 400m lap. I’ll try to run it during the weekend and let you know as well.

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Like the sound of this, will try during a rare period where I have time between games
 
Tried this one yesterday. Heat didn't help, but I found it a killer. For me, 400m is a difficult distance. 300m push hard and stop is not so bad and 2 laps is a different pace altogether, but there is something about that last 100m of a one lapper that always gets me. The 1 minute rest between reps is plenty to get breath back, but not to reset the legs. Hats off to anyone who can do 70 seconds by rep 5-6.

Having said that, I can see why it is excellent for pushing Vo2 max and will add it to my rotating roster of midweek painfests
 
To be fair, most treadmills won't go at 70 second lap pace on max speed. (equivalent to 2min 55sec per km). Most treadmills max out at 20kph (3min/km) which is equivalent to 72 second laps.
I'd like to think I could give it a go! But I don't have access to a track or measuring equipment for a pitch. Might have to try and get on the quick treadmill at the gym!
 
To be fair, the key thing here is the multiple repetitions of 'fast' 400m, rather than the specific time achieved which will vary hugely from person to person. It's just an effective (and punishing!) way to ensure anaerobic workouts are added into the overall mix.
 
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