Soccer players run an average of six miles during their 90 minutes of gameplay. Their time on the field requires maintaining aerobic fitness, harnessing explosive power for sprinting, and quickly using motor and decision-making skills to outperform their opponent.
Accomplishing all of this — endurance, speed, and the brain/body connection while working under pressure — is no easy feat.
With FIFA World Cup 2026™ matches in full swing, Bryant experts in Exercise and Movement Science and neuroscience are exploring the physical, nutritional, and neurological components that support peak performance at the professional level.
“Peak performance typically occurs after a period of recovery,” explains Jason Sawyer, Ph.D., Exercise and Movement Science program coordinator and associate professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. “It's where the athlete feels their best and their physical outcomes are at a maximum.”
The brain’s ability to quickly adapt to challenging, high intensity situations is a critical piece of the puzzle.
“In soccer, you're moving around opponents, you have different weather conditions, and the ball's coming at you from different directions, so there's a lot of coordination across multiple brain regions to be successful,” says Kristin Scaplen, Ph.D., a neuroscientist within the School of Health and Behavioral Sciences’ Psychology department.
Tapping into personalized training
Long before players step onto the pitch ready to outplay their competition and hopefully take home the World Cup trophy, they are actively engaging in periodized strength and conditioning programs to give them an advantage on the field. Sawyer explains that this structure breaks athletes’ training schedule into distinct phases — such as aerobic fitness, sprinting speed, linear speed, strength training, and agility — to progressively develop their skills while avoiding plateaus and overtraining.
“Each period is going to focus on different physiological characteristics that will be important for their matches,” Sawyer says, adding that coaches and support staff will also tailor training strategies to a player’s position, physiological attributes, and weaknesses.
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Shortly before the World Cup, players reduce their overall workload and begin shorter and more focused practices and strength and conditioning sessions that allow them to peak on the field.
Sawyer notes that load management is monitored closely throughout high-stakes training sessions. With professional soccer championing the use of GPS technology within its training programs, coaches and support staff can actively track an athlete’s mileage, accelerations, decelerations, changes in directions, and intensity through heart rate monitors.
“That gives coaches a sense of player load and how much systemic fatigue they are experiencing,” says Sawyer, noting that this can help coaches navigate how to strategically use their players.
Firing up key brain regions
From quick fake outs to rapid passing sequences, soccer players rely on the brain’s primary motor cortex to execute goal-directed movement.
Located in the frontal lobe, this region is responsible for initiating and controlling voluntary movements. In a sport with 22 people on the field and constant changes in possession, Scaplen explains that knowing where the body is in space, where it needs to go, and how to get there are three critical elements of successful movement.
“There is research showing that connections between the motor cortex and the parietal cortex are stronger in elite athletes than the average person,” Scaplen says, adding that the thalamus aids in transmitting information in and out of the brain.
For an athlete to decide what they want to do and understand where their body is in space, the posterior parietal cortex integrates sensory inputs that help players move fluidly and respond in real time.
Leveling up food, water intake
Due to the amount of calories World Cup players are burning at practice and during games, Sawyer notes that athletes are likely consuming 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day to refuel. He explains that nutrition and hydration are vital elements of maintaining peak performance. For instance, protein will help athletes build new tissue, healthy fats will provide individuals with more energy, and carbohydrates will restore depleted glycogen levels, which really jumpstarts the recovery process.
Additionally, due to high temperatures during gameplay, FIFA World Cup 26™ has changed its cooling break policy to include a mandatory three-minute stoppage at the 22-minute mark of each half in all competitions.
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“Every time out during these matches, they should be drinking,” Sawyer says, noting that even a 2 percent level of dehydration can significantly impact performance by slowing decision-making and increasing the risk of injury.
Because of athletes’ high sweat rate from exercising over a long period of time, Sawyer notes that electrolyte beverages will be beneficial to players in addition to water. He notes that the key to an effective electrolyte drink is to make sure the beverage has sodium, potassium, and a little bit of sugar to help players maintain glycogen levels.
Making complex skills automatic
As athletes reinforce certain skills and phase out less effective ones, the brain’s basal ganglia processes and stores this information.
Scaplen explains that when an individual is first learning a sport, the prefrontal cortex is activated as they work through movement patterns. With practice, these behaviors become automatic, and control shifts from the prefrontal cortex to the basal ganglia, which plays a critical role in response time, the sequence of movements, and the refinement of motor signals. As a result, athletes become faster and more accurate. From a neural perspective, their brains operate more efficiently to execute these well-learned skills.
“All of this is a form of memory called procedural memory. Through practice, athletes build and strengthen procedural memories that store patterns of movement, timing, and decision-making. As a result, during competition, they aren’t consciously thinking through every action. Instead, they are rapidly retrieving those memories and applying them appropriately during the game,” Scaplen says.
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She adds that regions of the cerebellum refine timing and sequences of motor movements. Additionally, many athletic teams are adding sports psychologists to their support staff to aid in visualization and mental preparation.
Ultimately, combining neural efficiency with refined physical execution is key for elite athletes. Through reacting quickly and moving strategically, peak performance is a defining factor for players participating in global competitions. It could mean the difference between keeping pace and standing out.