Taboo topics in football: forbidding players to touch women before the game Can you "applaud love"?

Sex before the game is usually forbidden by the coach. Although there are many scientific explanations for this topic, most players will still follow the habit and walk into the mysterious "forbidden area".

"If I had married another wife, I would have been selected for the national team 3 times more times than I do now!"

Not long ago, a former France international made no secret of admitting to the outside world that too much sex hindered his career progression. This dressing room taboo topic is about the physical and psychological condition of the players. Exploring such content requires interlocutors, but in the face of our inquiries, the vast majority of players do not want to speak, although we promise not to reveal their names.

Taboos and Restrictions

"Do you have sex before a game? How will this affect the performance of the game? ”

We sent hundreds of messages and made dozens of phone calls, but basically nothing was heard. Both current and retired players refused to reveal this little secret. Such exchanges may be anxiety-provoking. And judging from some of the "testimonies" we have painstakingly collected, this topic will even extend to the category of superstition.

This phenomenon has a long history. An iconic and great coach of French football, he recalled his playing career in the middle of the last century. "The coaching staff always warns us early in the season and repeats it during the season. We often try to see how long before the game has the greatest impact on our fitness status. The first day of the race? The first two days? Or longer? As a professional, you have to sacrifice your fun to be fully prepared for the game, and that's the advice I gave to my players as a coach. For men, sex can make you lose momentum, and that's the problem. ”

Jérôme Alonso received the same education. "At the end of the day, your teammates will tell you: 'The night before the game, I don't touch women.' In the '90s and early this century, Alonso guarded the gates for clubs like Marseille, Saint-Etienne and Paris Saint-Germain, and wherever he was, the coach would tirelessly advise him not to lose momentum before the game, "So don't have sex." ”

Midfielder Obrañac, who has played for Metz, Lille and Bordeaux, picked up: "Old-school coaches would have that requirement. So for a long time, I wouldn't have sex the night before the game. But at the end of my career, I didn't pay that much attention..."

In order to prevent players from violating the "ban", most coaches have only one trick: centralized management, one, two or even three days before the game, and locking players in hotels. The great coach mentioned above said: "I am certainly the coach in the history of French football who has the most concentrated management of players. But when I look at Europe, I'm certainly not the strictest. Previously, if AC Milan lost, the players could not go home, but concentrated until the start of the next game. Good players know how to stay in shape. ”

Find a balance

Conventional wisdom holds that ejaculation turns players into soft-footed shrimp. Hear from the experts! Jean-Pierre Montenard, a sports doctor who has focused on improving athletes' performance for many years and has published several articles on it, said: "At the beginning of the 20th century, it was thought that the loss of one drop of sperm was equivalent to the loss of 40 drops of blood and protein, so at that time someone would put a ring around the penis to prevent sex. This became a dogma that was passed down through generations until it became taboo. ”

As a result, professional athletes and coaches have a collective panic, and many champions will boast of their "restraint". Fighter Ali abstains from sex for six weeks before every major fight, and Jacques Anquitir has publicly stated that he will completely ban sex during the Tour de France. For football, the World Cup is a very good research subject, for a month, players have to fully comply with the decisions of the manager, such as during the 2014 World Cup, 6 national team managers publicly banned sex.

During the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, defending champions France did not abstinence, but ended up out early, and Brazil, who strictly enforced the ban, had the last laugh. However, none of the studies suggest a causal relationship between abstinence and good grades. At the 2006 World Cup, France coach Domenech let the players' female companions into the base camp twice, but Zidane still led the team to the final.

In fact, it all depends on the feeling that the players want to look for when they walk onto the pitch. Gérard Kiesek, an emergency physician who has published several books on the subject, explains: "Abstinence helps boost testosterone, attack hormones, and create a little bit of depression. "There are different choices for the personal feelings you need to play." If more aggression is needed, abstinence can be done for a period of time to boost testosterone. Conversely, sex can release oxytocin, endorphins and hormones, allowing players to relax and have a better state of mind. Finding the balance is always the most important thing. Of course, everything depends on the individual. ”

The feedback we get is very different. Oblaniac told us that the relaxation that orgasm brings makes him want to sleep. "I don't think it's good to go to the game with that feeling. I want to stay excited, always under pressure, keep the adrenaline pumping. "Pierre Bubi, who has played for teams such as Evian and Nîmes [who currently works as a commentary consultant for the newspaper de la Liga TV], has the opposite view." In this regard, I have no superstition at all, and I will not calculate. If I was with my girlfriend on the morning of the game and she teased me, I would definitely attack and not think about whether it would affect the game. When it comes to performance, I know why I play well and why I play badly. When I'm under pressure, I use a cigarette to relieve it. ”

Alonso recalled: "The day before the race, I didn't want to have sex at all. I only have the game in my head and I feel a little anxious. I just want to be quiet and watch the documentary... 24 hours before the game, it's best not to bother me, including 'sex'. So, I've always loved pre-game concentrations, and my rejection of pre-game sex is psychological, not physical. ”

scales

With the changes of the times, modern coaches have much looser control over this aspect than old-school coaches. Banyaman Niwe once talked in an interview with the "Team Newspaper" about the days spent with the famous coach Guy Ruh in Auxerre. "My wife goes to school in Dijon, leaves home every Sunday and comes back on Friday night. So, Guy said to me: 'You don't go back to see her on Friday night, I know what to expect, you guys won't stop all night!' ’”

Alonso told us that today's coaches are more particular about ways and methods. "They'll say, 'I'm not going to forbid you to do anything, as long as it's not overdone.'" Lens coach Frank Ace summed up the change this way: "I don't worry about that, I don't make rules. I already have so many things to worry about, team harmony, keeping the team alive, managing players who are a bit egotistical... This kind of very private thing, let them control it themselves. ”

One thing to note: Sex can be physically harmful. Of course, this is not comparable to sports injuries in the true sense. "When having sex, you burn 6 calories per minute, which is half what you burn when you play football," Mondenal emphasized. ”

To find out, several Canadian academics dressed 21 couples in 2013 with data-collecting bracelets. The results showed that the average energy expenditure per minute of sexual activity was only 3.6 calories, about between brisk walking at 4.8 kilometers per hour and jogging at 8 kilometers per hour.

One doctor also said ironically: "Sex doesn't actually cost you too much energy, because the average human sex time is only 5.4 minutes." ”

"The only physical risk is a sprain. Therefore, I will ask my disciples to try less difficult acrobatics. "Italian coach Antonio Conte, who left Tottenham this year, has a unique insight into this. In an interview with Team Newspaper magazine in 2019, he said: "The sex time should not be too long, and players should avoid 'effort' as much as possible, preferably below the female partner." In addition, it is better to be with your own wife, because you do not need to put on a particularly good performance. ”

The key is still time. Sex must not interfere with sleep because players need quality sleep to restore physical fitness. And what about masturbation? Alonso smiled and said: "Yes, this is also a sensitive topic. Everyone has used this for help because we have too much time to be alone and sometimes need to de-stress... The players don't talk about this but it does exist and I don't think it's unhealthy. It's hard not to fly when you're in a two-week training camp, we're all men, have desires, have needs, want to release testosterone. There are no women in the camp, so we have to do something..."

Some coaches agree with this approach, such as former Bosnian national team coach Sušić. During the 2014 World Cup, he publicly stated: "There is no sex here, the players can only solve it themselves, and it is no problem to play a plane occasionally!" "It's really a proven approach, especially when travelling long distances and closed training camps.

To find out the answers to all these questions, Juan Stetszel, a doctor working in Geneva, Switzerland, conducted a study. He invited 15 high-level athletes to the test, eight team athletes, five sprinters and two weightlifters. The data compared testosterone and concentration levels over a two-day period, once having sex and once not. The conclusion showed that there were no negative effects during sex, as long as it was not within two hours before the start of the match.

"Sex is like releasing power from a battery, but the hormones are automatically charged." Kiesek said with a smile.

Written by Theo Trudy

Compilation: Xiangbo

This article was originally published in Football Weekly Issue 869

Release date: 2023.6.25

The image comes from the Internet