If you are intending to score in a FIFA World Cup match, should you score the night before? This is the question that prompts coaches to set rules, players to seek understanding from wives and lovers, and fans to debate fervently, with many adamantly believing that abstaining from sex improves athletes’ performance on the field.
The age-old argument was triggered anew by Mexico coach Miguel Herrera, who told newspaper Reforma last month that he expects his players to refrain from any “horizontal samba” during their stay in Brazil, where the tournament opens next week.
The remark sparked a lively debate in the media, prompting Herrera to clarify that he was not banning sex, just urging his players to behave prudently, as proposed by his Brazil counterpart, Luis Felipe Scolari, who has cautioned against attempting any bedroom “acrobatics.”
Yet not everyone is so reserved. Colombian soccer icon Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama lived up to his candid reputation by saying that the teams he captained in the 1990s would have made it further in World Cup play had the players not been forced into chastity.
Theories linking sex to athletic performance date to at least the ancient Greeks, who believed that safeguarding a man’s sperm was important for spurring the aggression needed to perform well in the arena. However, there is little scientific evidence to support abstinence as a performance enhancer.
A 1995 study in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness said that performance on a treadmill test was unaffected by whether the participant had coitus 12 hours before.
Experts say lovemaking is not strenuous enough an activity for otherwise healthy people to have an effect on sporting performance. A University of Montreal study last year found that men burn about 100 calories on average during sex — or about the equivalent of 20 minutes of yard work.
Many athletes and experts even swear by a little nookie the night before a big game, claiming it relieves stress and induces restorative sleep.
More than sex itself, what worries coaches is all-night revelry and boozing. Scandalous reports about carousing athletes are not uncommon, such as those of a party with prostitutes involving Spain players at last year’s Confederations Cup in Brazil.
“It comes down to coaches not trusting the little devils,” said Pamela Peeke, a physician and spokeswoman for the American College of Sports Medicine.
In September 2010, two Mexico players were suspended and several fined for indiscipline over a post-game party.
Local media reported that prostitutes were involved and sports analysts speculate that a six-month suspension given to Carlos Vela — widely considered Mexico’s top striker — is why he declined to play for the national team this year.
Many European teams, like Germany and Spain, strictly ban on sex before matches, allowing wives and girlfriends to visit players only on off days.
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