Jermain Defoe manages to stay as alert, fit and nimble as ever despite Sunderland striker turning 34 next month
Ex-Sunderland performance geru Mark Taylor spills the beans on the secrets behind the ace striker's age-defying success
JERMAIN DEFOE’S career was thought to be winding down when he left Tottenham for Toronto two years ago.
But back from the MLS and now in his second full season with Sunderland, the striker returns to White Hart Lane on Saturday as sharp as ever.
Defoe is 34 next month but Mark Taylor, who worked for Sam Allardyce as the club’s performance director, believes there are many more years and goals left in him.
Here, in his own words, Taylor reveals the secrets to Defoe’s age-defying success.
LIFESTYLE AND ATTITUDE
JERMAIN is without doubt one of the best professionals I have worked with.
For application and dedication, he has got to be in the top five.
He isn’t a drinker. He doesn’t socialise with drink. He’s not going to a nightclub having beers after a game. It would be water and protein, good nutrition and good sleep.
He hasn’t got a busy lifestyle. He is a family man.
It wouldn’t be unusual to see him come in on his day off, to get some massages or do a bit of cycling.
He’s never late and he was compliant to all the additional sessions we put on. Even if they were optional, Jermain would always be there.
We had a pilates guy come into the club last year to work on muscle balance.
It was not compulsory but he was buying into that twice a week.
BODY
JERMAIN hasn’t an recurring injury problems. He has good awareness and is very sensitive to know when he is tight and will inform the fitness coaches or medical team so he can do a different type of session.
Bio-mechanically he is very good. He reacts with the ground and doesn’t absorb too much load.
He moves like a hovercraft, not like an elephant. He glides.
He’s not on his heels and doesn’t get stuck so he can’t move.
The majority of his muscle mass is waist down, which is what you want. His body fat is below eight per cent, which is super elite.
RECOVERY
WHEN I came into Sunderland, we brought a whole body cryotherapy chamber into the club.
But we discovered Jermain had already been using one — he’d been hiring the equipment for recovery at his house.
It’s a transportable unit in a 20ft container and would be delivered then picked up a couple of days later.
There’s only one other player we know about who does cryotherapy at home and that’s Cristiano Ronaldo — he’s got his own unit at his house.
When we started doing cryotherapy at the training ground, Jermain led the compliance. He was going in and everybody else was following.
He was 100 per cent onside with all the things in the recovery cycle — good nutrition, rest, sleep, cryotherapy, massages and cycling.
SPEED AND STAMINA
WE found Jermain’s statistics were even better when he played up front on his own.
He was covering more distance, challenging for the ball more and was covering more than 1,000m in high- intensity sprints.
You normally have two types of striker — one that makes all the running and one who scores the goals.
Jermain had the goals and he had the physical stats of the guy working really hard. It’s a good combination.
He is as quick as ever and can repeat it more than when he was young.
TACTICAL AWARENESS
SOME players in their 30s make the same mistakes they did when they were 21. They don’t have the knowledge you would expect. But Jermain has that knowledge.
He is an expert striker. He has that talent, appreciation and knowledge — and you can see that he is still learning.
Other people thought he couldn’t play up front on his own, but he can. He has adapted his game.
He retains information and executes it on the pitch. Very rarely is he out of position or forgets a game plan.
With good players, you only have to tell them once.
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