May 2016. An iconic month that reminded the world why football was and will always be the king of sports. Seven years ago, everyone was trying to figure out how… Fearless from the Premier League, Leicesterwon the English championship.

Even their own players gathered in the same house to watch Tottenham’s decisive draw against Chelsea. For an hour they jumped up and down, uttering inarticulate cries, unable to understand them.

Claudio Ranieri, who retired two years earlier from the bench in the Greek national team with the seal of failure and obsolescenceachieved with the “foxes” one of the biggest surprises in football, which will forever remain in the history of this sport.

Was it a ‘star’, planets aligned, a conspiracy of the universe, or maybe there was something deeper behind the latest ‘miracle’ we saw in European stadiums that couldn’t be traced and illustrated by this?

Even the very club that theoretically had the know-how is now fighting to stay in the Premier League.

Behind the Leicester fairy tale, there was a great deal of expert and scientific work by the Italian, his partners, organization owners and Leicester players, who managed to compensate for their shortcomings in relation to rivals with sweat, but, above all, with great obedience.

Clubs of the same size across Europe, clearly unable to play fantasy football and having highly paid stars on their roster, were not an example of Leicester’s “miracle” to be able to look big players in the eye. Perhaps they mistakenly thought that these things can only be done once.
But the transformation of “foxes” had an explanation. That season, they were fully supported by innovative sports science and technology, which was carefully integrated into the decision-making process. Thus, an ideal model of success was created, the like of which has not existed since.

Small composition, big runs

As former Liverpool fitness coach Darren Burgess told the BBC, “Managers don’t listen too often.” However, Ranieri not only listened that year, but also proposed, beyond his wishes, the scientific group with which he worked.

Result; The team that, with a small squad compared to the competition and with 14-15 players involved in almost every game, has received the fewest injuries, excels in counter-attacking tactics on the pitch, ranking third from the bottom in possession percentage in the category.

Of course, for this, the players had to be ready. sprints on a regular basis without body falls. The most typical example was the club’s striker Jamie Vardy, who had the highest speed in the Premier League that season (35.44 km/h) and was able to run up to 500 meters in every game.

Leicester’s early exit from the FA Cups, combined with his lack of commitment to Europe, gave the club an additional advantage over other title contenders as they were able to schedule their training week with a high degree of control.

The standard weekly post-match training initially included a 48-hour recovery process without particularly hard training to avoid injury to already overworked players. Unlike other clubs, the schedule includes a day off in the middle of the week (Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether the match was Saturday or Sunday).

Towards the end of the week, the plan focused on sprint drills to show the players maximum speed, although speed training is usually done early in the week on the grounds that players need to be “fresh”. Ranieri, after consulting with his team, did just the opposite, although it seemed like a sure way to fail. Every Thursday, at the end of his toughest week, he would have his players run 40 meters in order to reduce future muscle injuries. Which he did, if you compare the statistics of the Premier League at the end of the period when Leicester were the team with the fewest players.

It was a key part of preparing for the summer. “building” strength in the hamstrings, using a special leg press in which they could lift 350-500 pounds. A key equipment tool was also the NordBoard system, which made it possible to improve and measure the strength of the hamstrings, sometimes even doing post-match exercises in the locker room on it.

Beetroot juice and -135C

Then there was the famous beetroot juice which Leicester football players consumed almost daily. According to scientists from the University of Exeter, its consumption improves cardiovascular endurance, improving sprint performance by 16% and the ability of players to make decisions during matches.

OUR cryotherapy was another important part of the preparation. When Vardy’s team’s top scorer injured his hip in November, it looked like his streak of goals in back-to-back games had come to an end. The fact that he continued to play was due to the cryotherapy ice chamber, in which the players were exposed to temperatures as low as -135°C for four minutes!

Before entering the lobby, where the temperature is -65-70 degrees Celsius, they put on protective headbands covering their ears, as well as respirators. As their bodies adjusted to the temperature, three players at a time entered the main… cooler, where the temperature dropped even lower.

“It’s absolutely frosty, but helps to recover. I don’t know exactly what the team that accepted me did, but they worked to ensure that I was in full shape, week after week,” said the Leicester goalkeeper.

“Every player logs in at least once a day, spending a maximum of five minutes there. It’s much more effective when there is little time between games,” explained Leicester physio Dave Rennie, noting the benefits of increased blood flow to the muscles of the players.

“Players who use cryotherapy train harder and it also helps them sleep better. Cryotherapy is much more than just a cold bath. Players love it because it’s dry ice, so it’s not as harsh on the skin as ice baths.”

Leicester’s medical team also sped her up. recovery procedure using ice packs massage your players. “Sounds scary, but it lowers the body temperature and gives the same stimulation as a massage. At the same time, there is a visual sign in the minds of the players that the recovery process has already begun,” said Reni.

Observation of the training and movement of the players was always recorded through GPS vests which showed how far they ran, intensity level, acceleration, deceleration and change of direction.

Other technologies have also been used, such as Polar Team2 heart rate monitors.
Everything was under control, even the hardness of the training ground on a daily basis to avoid possible injuries.

If explosive players like Vardy trained too hard and had to forgo some training, Ranieri was always ready to listen its special partners. Its players filled out a daily questionnaire on an iPad. They were asked how they felt after yesterday’s workout. If, for example, many of them complained of mild soreness in the quadriceps, the team next time adjusted the workout to avoid a similar problem.
In the questionnaire, the player also answered how he slept, whether he was disturbed at night, and all this so that his diet could be adjusted and he could rest as best as possible.

Psychologist Ranieri

Ranieri at Leicester, along with his assistant Paolo Benetti, coach Andrea Atcalin and goalkeeping coach Giorgio Pelizzaro, proved to be effective. excellent psychologistturning training into an exciting process for their wards.

He followed many Holistic approach focusing on understanding each person individually, but with the ultimate goal of keeping them all focused and united. After training, he awarded his team many times, take her to a pizzeria or barbecuebut trying to avoid discussions about winning the championship until the last games.

“There are two psychologists in the club. One is me and the other is Claudio. The way he talks to the players is exactly the same as the way he talks to the media. This unambiguously focuses them on the process, not the result. This has made the players the team personalities needed to boost the morale of the rest, even if they have to fight each other in training or crack each other’s balls on the head, ”said Leicester psychologist Ken Way.

Injured players attended training sessions on exercise bikes, and players were held accountable for their own actions. The results of the sprint were presented to the team en masse, and in the middle of the week the players watched clips of each other’s performances. An environment was created in which everyone talked to each other without sweeping the problem under the rug.

After all, it was about one meeting of minds. Ranieri wanted his players to be properly trained. The medical staff wanted to minimize the risk of injury, so finding the sweet spot seemed like an end in itself. The players knew their role on match day and never put themselves at risk of injury in preparation. Everyone was happy. Everything was organized with a unique blend of understanding that we are unlikely to ever see again in a football club.