INVESTIGATION – To approach the Euro in the best possible conditions, the teams set up a well-controlled organization to maximize performance and minimize the risk of injury.
The 2015-2016 season is long for the Blues. Antoine Griezmann and Raphaël Varane will not finish it in club until May 28, at the end of the Champions League final with their respective Madrid teams. For others, the end of championships and national cups can mobilize them until May 21. They will therefore only have a few days to rest before the start of Euro 2016, on Friday June 10 at 9 p.m., to kick off the match against Romania.
These two to three weeks of truce will, in addition, be filled by an altitude training course in Innsbruck (May 31-June 4), surrounded by two friendly matches against Cameroon and Scotland. A busy schedule, but the pace of which is not innocent, as explained to Why actor Sébastien Lopez-Guia, president of the Association of physical trainers of professional football (PFP). “There is a period of regeneration but the competition being very close, the influx must not come down. We cannot afford to cut completely. “
Aerobic activities – that is to say of a relatively low intensity that does not require particular respiratory or muscular effort – help regeneration. “They will undoubtedly ride a bicycle to favor the effort in unloading (not the weight of the body on the joints, knees, hips, ankles: editor’s note) ”, Adds Sébastien Lopez-Guia.
Personalization as the watchword
These activities are usually accompanied by more specific sessions. “It is important to keep a work of muscle strengthening, functional which allows the players to maintain their range of work and their tone. It is necessary to keep a nervous request which makes that the muscle remains alert, ready to react when a more intense workload is going to be applied to it, ”explains the specialist.
To best adapt the work to be done before the start of the competition, but also during, the medical team programs personalized care. “Depending on the age of the player, the minutes of play that he has performed over the previous two or three weeks, the care is adapted,” says Sébastien Lopez-Guia. During competition, there may be only half of the group on the field in training. The other half is treated individually, with physiotherapists and physical trainers, or some are placed at complete rest. “
A collective game
The implementation of this personalized care requires a good articulation of the different elements of the technical and medical staff. “In general, there is a consultation between the physical preparation, physiotherapists and doctors. Everyone brings their own arguments, and there is often monitoring during the effort, ”adds Sébastien Lopez-Guia.
During training and matches, players wear GPS and cardiac function monitoring systems to assess their movements and efforts, especially eccentric (which correspond to braking actions, particularly traumatic). Small devices can analyze a drop of blood taken from your fingertip to assess levels of CPK or lactic acid, which are two indicators of residual fatigue.
Post-match meetings are also important, as they allow you to schedule the two or three days leading up to the next match. These data are associated with a direct discussion with the player, who subjectively evaluates his own effort by assigning a score between 0 and 10, but also his sleep and any pain.
If the player has suffered significant shocks and has bruises, medication may be prescribed. But for classic sports pain, “we benefit from a wide variety of products that do not need medication,” says Lopez-Guia. The Berocca or the Guronsan for example were quite usual in the locker room a few years ago, but they have disappeared ”. Many healthy molecules are authorized by anti-doping agencies. Including gels containing taurine, caffeine, and nutrients.
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