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Being quick on the court at 36 is no easy task. Modrić’s running back routine could be responsible for his efficiency, despite his age.
Luka Modrić seems to have a secret: at 36 years old he is fast, agile, dynamic, undisputed player and hardly injured. How does he do it?
Everyone recognizes that his speed at Real Madrid to resolve, assist and run is superior to that of his teammates. In addition, as captain of the Croatian soccer team, he has played more than 100 matches.
Some whisper that Luka Modrić’s secret is his personal kinesiologist: Vlatko Vucetic. He is a professional who was a 5-kilometer track runner and athletics champion in Croatia.
His methods of running apply to different disciplines, including football. So, the training runner makes Luka Modrić unstoppable? We analyze it.
Vlatko Vucetic’s method applied to Luka Modrić
According to the kinesiologist, his training plan for all the athletes he prepares is based on 8 aspects:
- Health status and lifestyle.
- Morphological parameters.
- Motor skills.
- motor knowledge.
- energy capacity.
- Aerobic and anaerobic capacity.
- Cognitive factors and intelligence.
- Socio-economic status and family.
For the Croatian professional they are all important. They make the athlete as a whole and neglecting any of them is enough for there to be a drop in performance.
In any case, his strength is the scientific analysis of the people who decide to train with him. With technological methods and with the knowledge accumulated by his experience as runnermeasures certain parameters of body composition that give you an idea of what the athlete’s muscles and bones are like.
This data is combined with assessments of the athletes’ abilities in action. That is to say, it constantly analyzes how they run, how agile they are, in what state their reflexes are, if they are capable of stretching, if they jump more or less, if they react with speed, if they have power for a sprint.
Thus one arrives at a concept that is key in the Vucetic methodology: motor intelligence. This idea is not an invention of the kinesiologist, but is part of the medicine of sports that use a ball.
A magazine article sports culturefor example, names it physical intelligence either kinesthetic. It’s about knowing what to do with the ball when you have it, planning plays at speed and executing them with precision. Luka Modrić is an expert in it.
Today’s footballers need other skills
Now football is faster, more energetic, more powerful… Nowadays, most players have an individual conditioning coach. Some clubs don’t like that, but I don’t agree.
Football has changed and Vucetic knows it. Athletes in this sport can no longer be the same as they were 15 years ago. The tests are on the courts.
The best on the planet with the ball are fast, have a physique developed in a special way to perform and follow a nutrition routine prepared by professionals. Having a physique to be among the elite entails training with almost no vacations.
Luka Modrić receives routines from his kinesiologist even when he is on leave and no season. According to the same coach, he has encouraged him to play tennis, for example, because it is something that the Real Madrid player enjoys.
Cross training is becoming more and more frequent in football. They consist of practicing some discipline that complements some skill necessary for the field, but that does not involve the use of the ball. This is what Lewandowski does with martial arts, for example.
The cross training runner by Luka Modric
Vucetic was a runner with a great career. For this reason, his methods integrate routines and knowledge of the running.
One of the 8 points of the Croatian’s plan is to improve aerobic and anaerobic capacity. This is achieved with running sessions that alternate between intense or fast sets and longer onescareer support.
Blessed and collaborators, in a article of 2021compiled the scientific evidence that exists on the benefits of sprinting in soccer players. This is running above maximum recovery capacity in a short period of time. Then rest enough and return to intensity.
For most soccer players this is not part of the routine. As one recorded publication of British Journal of Sport MedicineTraining sessions are almost always based on running certain distances at a calm pace, thinking that this is how the 90-minute duration of a match is simulated.
Luka Modrić is explosive on the pitch because can do sprint for which he is prepared. At the same time, he manages the energies during the two halves of the disputes, running when it is necessary to do so and resting on the court. It is a strategy very similar to that of Messi.
Your muscles respond immediately because of the motor intelligence that you have worked with Vucetic. He is a runner inside a soccer field.
The elastic bands to avoid injury
In the words of the Croatian kinesiologist, the use of elastic bands is key to maintain flexibility and elasticity of muscle fibers. Exercises with these attachments are recommended in your routines.
For everyone, elastic bands are the best way to train. It is the best way to avoid injuries. If you look at Modrić’s last seven or eight years, he has had almost zero injuries.
But in addition to preventing injuries, bands are part of the best routines to enhance motor intelligence. This has been shown by a Phil Page studio that explains how these instruments correct muscular imbalances and increase sensory-motor perception; that is, the brain of the person who uses them becomes more efficient to recognize how their body is in space and how it can react.
Luka Modrić until the age of 40
More and more elite soccer players are over 30 years old and are still valid. Luka Modrić is another representative of this litter of athletes who maintain their physique and qualities without detriment to age.
According to Vucetic, his pupil could reach the age of 40 with ease, playing at this rate and performing for Real Madrid. It may be so.
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