This week it has been revealed that Thomas Tuchel is already prepping the England squad for hot and humid conditions at the World Cup 2026 in North America. As part of this, heated training tents will be used at the England Training camp to simulate the hot and humid competitive environment that England players can expect next year.
John Dickinson, Professor in Sport and Exercise Sciences at Kent’s School of Natural Sciences – where he leads the running of a sports environmental chamber – comments on the importance of such preparations for athletes competing in tough conditions.
Professor Dickinson said: ‘We know that training and competition performance can be impacted by the heat and humidity. Athletes who do not prepare for the heat and humidity will likely experience a significant drop in performance and in addition put themselves at risk of heat illness e.g. heat stroke.
‘Athletes who know they are going to compete in hot humid conditions can prepare for this by doing a specialised type of training called acclimatisation training. This involves the athlete training in similar environments to those expected in competition. The outcome of acclimatisation training is the body goes through number of adaptations that improves its ability to regulate body temperature, optimise sweat response and increase efficiency of blood moving around the body. This all adds up to the heat having less of an impact on performance and reduces risk of heat illness.
‘Usually, acclimatisation training is performed for 2-3 weeks in the build-up to the event, but the England football team are trying it a year out from competition. Although the effects of acclimatisation training done this year will likely not last until next summer, there are some advantages of exposing the players to the competitive environment:
- Players and support team can see the individual responses to exercising in the heat. Everyone has a slightly different response and this may identify players who may need more support than others
- Players can start to understand how the heat may impact their body and therefore may have more buy-in to the training and nutritional strategy adopted prior to the World-Cup next summer.
- Individual hydration strategies can be developed based on sweat and body mass loss during practice training sessions in the heat.
More about Kent’s sports environmental chamber
Kent’s sports environmental chamber can provide a sense of how it feels for athletes competing in tough conditions. The environmental chamber is typically used by athletes, to give them the chance to train in a range of conditions – from freezing cold (-20) to the heat of the Sahara (it can go up to 50 degrees), as well as increased humidity and altitude (as high as the alps). Training in these conditions in the weeks leading up to an event – such as the Marathon Des Sables – can give athletes a chance to acclimatise before arrival as well as giving them the edge. More and more athletes are adopting heat training strategies to get ahead of competition, and Professor Dickinson has worked with a range of athletes such as Olympians in the facility.