Looking back at this summer’s two major tournaments
raised some very interesting points in several areas. In
this article I will look at how football could perhaps
learn from tennis and how you could learn more about
the content of your PE theory lessons.
Endurance
Not many people would consider tennis to be an endurance sport but the men’s
final, between Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal actually lasted 4 hours 48
minutes, the longest ever final match – more than twice the time a marathon race
usually lasts! However, this did not beat the Wimbledon record which was set in
1969 when Pancho Gonzales (then aged 41!) beat Charlie Passarell in 5hours and
20 minutes! The first set score was 22-14 and the third set 16-14 and in total there
were 112 games played. It was as a direct result of this very long game that the tie-
break was first introduced for all but the final set to cut down on marathon sets!
F
ootball Discussion
Ho
w im
por
tant do you think it is f
footballer’s to ha
ve
good endurance?
or
Ho
w muc
h inf
luence do you think this
has ov
er a team winning a tour
lik
e Euro 2008? Did it help Spain defnament
Ital
y on penalties or Russia beat eat
Holland in extra time?
Whic
h pla
yer do you think has the best
endurance?
Are there an
y other g
is the possibility that the total time
ames where there
spent pla
ying could ex
race time? What other spor
ceed a marathon
ha
ve
an
y specif
ts do not
ic time limit whic
allo
w this to happen?
h could
SEPTEMBER 2008 : SPORT IQ 14-16 11