Midfield Madness

A lot of the leading teams in the English Premier League (EPL), the top league in England, use video software called ProZone. ProZone software uses video to detail every movement of every player, every 1/10th of a second. This allows the clubs to analyze team and individual performance. Some of those stats will make you understand why you're running suicides in your spare time.Midfielders did the most running of all (big surprise), averaging over seven miles a game.Center backs covered the least ground but were still running just over six miles in a match. To put this in perspective run from Wilson Field to the pool at Cedar Rock and you've only gone a tad over five miles. But like I said it is not enough to be in aerobic shape. The report showed that the amount run in a match has changed very little in the last four years but the amount done at speed has more than doubled.What ProZone calls "high-intensity activities",runs made by players at three quarters of sprint space or better has increased from 627 per team per match in 2002-2003 to 1,209 in 2005-2006.It should also come as no surprise that the right midfielder did the most "fast" running.The right winger had an average of 147 "high-intensity" runs per game and covered over 300 yards flat out.

Now don't let this discourage you because the midfielders had an average of 40 seconds recovery time between those "high-intensity activities".