Anthony Taylor fitness tips and exercises

Anthony Taylor fitness tips and exercises for you in this blog post. The Premier League match official has given some insights in his training sessions on the Premier League website and below I’ll explain them to you

Referee training exercise 1

One of the drills involves running four lengths of a football pitch continuously.

“You have to sprint half the length of a football field and jog the other half,” he explains on the Premier League website.

“Then you sprint 80 yards and jog 20, then sprint 95 yards, and jog five. Then you finish by sprinting the full 100 yards. After two minutes of rest you go again. Three more times.”

You can see an image with your runs below the video.

Anthony Taylor match simulation session

Match simulation sessions are run by referees when they don’t have games, for example in their preparation before Euro 2020 as referee. They didn’t have games after the competition and this is how they can stay fit and challenge them physically like in a football match.

“You want to try some of the match replication sessions. They last an hour and 10 minutes”, says Anthony Taylor. You can also do them before the start of your season and friendlies. Here are tips to start training in pre-season after a resting period.

You don’t need much for this exercise, but ideally you run it on grass. Tarmac is much heavier for your knees. “You do 12 sprints, then you run two kilometres in eight minutes and then you repeat that four times. This gives you the similar demands you would get in a game.” Anthony Taylor didn’t mention the rest period between the sessions. Make sure you jog a lap around the pitch between sprints and the 2km and take a few mins rest after a session, depending on your own fitness level and ability.

Match-simulation session for referees

Want more on match-simulation sessions? Uefa fitness expert Werner Helsen shares a great example too.

Anthony Taylor fitness and rest tip

Callum Jones talkes with referee Anthony Taylor before season restarts again after the corona lockdown. And amateur referees might have more time off now, as there are normally no games in June and July. “Make the most of your time at home. Don’t be centered on football all the time”, he says. “Try to get your balance away from football.”