THE IMPORTANCE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Research by HEAD COACH BABES GOVENDER 

Every soccer action is controlled by the nervous system. It must be said these action cannot be carried out without the muscles but muscles are just an aid to the nervous system realizes certain soccer objectives.

Playing soccer using the brain to solve soccer problems with the muscles serving as a means of putting the solution into practice.

​The human body is in a state of constant interaction with its environment. Players must recognize situation on the field of play so that they know what to do how to carry out the correct soccer actions when the team or the opposition owns the ball or when possession changes from one team to other.

​It is important to understand the nervous system functions

The nervous system consists of two parts the central nervous system (CNS) to which belong to the brain and the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) CONTAINING NERVE FIBRES THAT CONNECT sensors and muscles with the spinal cord. The nervous system is a stimulus –processing (sensory) and stimulus –generating (motoric) organ.

All movements are coordinated utilizing motoric and sensory processes.

Sensory Processes perception of Soccer situations.

Players are confronted with numerous situations during the game. Before he makes the right decision he must first recognise such a situation. The eyes are naturally the most important aid to perception.  Perception is more than sight. However, there are many more sources of information than our eyes. The ears play an important role. Hearing is, therefore, a crucial channel for acquiring information.

The skin contains tactile sensors which are responsible for our sense of touch. This sense tells a player when for example an opponent is close behind him. There are a whole lot of sensors that provide a soccer player with information about his movements and the constantly changing situation around him on the pitch.

The job of the nervous system can be regarded as having a conscious and an unconscious component. The conscious component relates to all bodily relates to all processes that require a degree of conscious thought, and the unconscious component relates to all bodily processes that occur automatically (e.g. heartbeat blood pressure)
 
As coaches, we know which of the body’s physiological system allows soccer work to be performed.

​The oxygen transport system ensures that oxygen and or/nutrients are delivered to the oxygen system, phosphate system and the lactic acid system. These systems ensure that the muscles that carry out soccer work are supplied with energy.

By conditioning each of the above systems in a soccer context a players loading capacity can be increased. The oxygen system plays a major role in helping players to recover from periods of peak exertion.

Aerobic conditioning makes the heart bigger and stronger. The muscles are also better able to absorb oxygen from the blood.
The phosphate system contains a small amount of stored ATP. This amount is only sufficient for about 2 seconds of the maximum exertion. The system also has access to phosphocreatine which can be quickly converted into ATP. This can fuel a few more seconds of intensive exertion.

The ATP reserve is crucial to starting speed.

Phosphocreatine plays a key role in acceleration capacity speed endurance and repeated short sprint capacity.

The principle of this system is that glycogen is converted to ATP in the absence of oxygen. The disadvantage is that lactic acid is formed. Lactic acid disrupts all types of processes in and around the muscles and causes fatigue to set in sooner than usual.
During soccer action all three energy systems are active. Depending on the types of action one may be more active than another.

Question
How important is knowledge of physiology for coaches?

This is one of the coaches moral obligation to know how the human body functions. After all, coaches are working with players and mistaken training methods can cause them physical injury. If you are not familiar with the effects of intensive training methods, you should stay clear of them otherwise you are putting your player’s health at risk.A knowledge of physiology, therefore, improves your chances of success.

You can train your players more purposefully.