High Expectations for the Football World Cup

 

by Rebecca Roberts - 07.06.10

The 2010 Football World Cup kicks off later this week in South Africa as national squads from across the globe put their final days of preparation together.

Amongst the many factors facing teams over the coming weeks the impact of environmental factors, such as altitude, will need to be addressed to reduce their overall effect on performance.

Matches will be played at a variety of heights, with matches typically reaching higher levels as teams progress through the competition. Dr Steve Ingham, Head of Physiology at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) talks about what the likely effects of altitude will be on teams as well as the techniques which will be put in place to combat them.

“Of the potential venues for England’s group stage World Cup matches, three are at ‘low altitude’ (1400m to 1800m)” says Dr Ingham, talking at the Science Media Centre earlier today.

“Individuals respond differently to a reduction in the partial pressure of oxygen. For every 100m altitude above sea level, athletes experience between a 0.5 to 1% reduction in maximum oxygen uptake, which reduces endurance (time to exhaustion) performance  of 1 to 1.5% for the same increment in altitude.

“Repeated sprint performance reduction is less quantifiable, but overall efforts will either need to be shortened or extended recovery times employed to avoid excessive fatigue.

“One-off sprint performance will be enhanced due to reduced air resistance, but it is likely to feel ‘harder’. This is because receptors will sense the reduced oxygen pressure and provide feedback to the brain” he adds.

However, the impact  on squads preparing for the World Cup is not just for those travelling to a higher altitude. For those who live at a higher level, the need to acclimatise to a lower altitude is also important to performance. 

“If you were to take a high altitude resident, such as those in South America for example, and test their performance at a lower altitude, we would see a negative impact on performance” explains Dr Ingham.

“This is why the best strategy for competing at altitude is to acclimatise at the specific height of the competition venue,  because training at a level which is too high or too low could impact on the process.  Too high and training volume and intensity is impaired; too low and acclimatisation will not fully occur.

“England’s pre-acclimatisation preparations in Austria will have been a stepping stone to their acclimatisation in South Africa. For altitudes of ~1400-1800m, the major physiological response is the increase breathing at a given intensity. 5-7 days of acclimatisation at this altitude will be sufficient for ventilatory adaptation, and a full 2-3 weeks enough to almost restore sea-level performance” he adds.

The effects however are dependent on the individual and the game itself could also be impacted by the effects on the ball.

“Players will find it harder, but ultimately acclimatisation is a very individual process. The players will be required to either pace themselves to account for the reduced recovery capacity in matches or will experience greater intensity workloads are the same as normal games. In the latter case effective recovery strategies between games will be necessary.

“A further factor that few are considering is that at altitude the ball faces less resistance through the air, so is likely to move faster and therefore travel further, so as well as the acclimatisation of athletes there will also be some sensory-anticipatory adaptations to be made to maximise performance” he says.

The EIS works across a number of Olympic & Paralympic sports to develop applied sports physiology strategies and has four EIS Physiology Labs across the network. For more information about the physiology support service at the EIS, click here

Photography © Getty Images