It’s about time I start to blog about how to be like Ronaldinho. So we start with the fundamentals of fitness. Probably one of the hardest things to do as a football player is to build your fitness levels because it requires great discipline and motivation. I personally train with my teams three times a week and I dedicate the other two days for personal training, that is, the weakest areas in my game. I encourage you to do the same, I’m not talking about training 5 times a week, but rather working on the weakest areas of your game. Whether it be using your left foot, heading the ball, volleying or ball control, there are many different exercises and techniques you can use to overcome them, and many of these are outlined in my book.

Moving On

I’ve gone off a tangent again, but back to fitness. The most effective way to gain fitness is to constantly be running and pushing yourself. Do you walk to the bus stop? Do you walk home? Change it up and run home, be a little bit late so you run for the bus stop to catch that bus You don’t have to do that last one and I for one, do it unintentionally every time. When it comes to the field, it totally depends on the position you play.

What Position Do you Play?

This is very important when trying to build your fitness because different positions require different levels of fitness and fatigue thresholds. Let me explain. The forwards (Samuel Eto’o and Messi) need to sprint and be the fastest they can be when running after the ball so they can go ahead and score for their team. Therefore, sprinting exercises and isometric exercises serve a much better purpose than say running a high volume of laps around the field. Whereas, midfielders, attacking and defending alike (Pedro, Iniesta, Ronaldinho) are known as the engine of the team. Therefore, they are work horses, running around for the entirety of a game, which requires both sprinting and long distance running, because both are required during the match. Defenders (Puyol, Thuram) on the other hand are on par with the strikers in terms of sprinting because they need to keep up with the strikers of the opposition.

Stick With It

So now you know what is required of you. If you’re a forward or defender, work on your speed and frequency (the amount of sets you do). If you’re a midfielder, work on both your speed and distance (how long you can run for). Both have their difficulties and challenges. The best way to test your fitness is to try and beat the amount of sprinting sets you do every week or the amount of laps you can do. I’m going to say it again, it is not easy, but with perseverance and the desire to be running full of breath throughout the entire game, thats enough motivation for me Oh and by the way, how often do you see Ronaldinho hunched over trying to catch his breath during a game? Think about it

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