Extreme heat has become one of the defining stories of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Much of the discussion has rightly focused on player welfare and safety. But for coaches, practitioners and performance staff, another question sits alongside it:
What happens to performance when environmental conditions become increasingly demanding?
Recently, 292 Performance's Jamie Mitchell contributed to The Athletic's examination of how heat affects football performance.
The reality is that the effects of heat often appear before an athlete reaches a point of medical concern. As temperatures rise, the challenge is not simply one of comfort. Heat changes the physical and cognitive demands of competition.
Football is built around repeated high-intensity efforts. Accelerations. Recovery runs. Changes of direction. Pressing actions. Transitional moments.
These actions often influence the outcome of a match far more than total distance covered. One of the consequences of competing in hot conditions is an increased reliance on carbohydrate stores. As thermal strain increases, glycogen is used more rapidly, making it harder to repeatedly produce explosive actions.
As Jamie explained in The Athletic:
That muscle glycogen is essential to high intensity performance. So in the heat, as those levels get depleated fasted, those high intensity bursts, often the things that change a football game, become harder.
This is an important distinction. Heat does not simply make players tired. It can reduce their ability to access the actions that separate average performance from decisive performance.
For practitioners, this places greater emphasis on preparation, fuelling strategies and recovery planning.
The physical effects of heat are relatively easy to understand. The cognitive effects are often overlooked.
Football is a decision-making sport. Players are constantly required to interpret information, recognise patterns, solve problems and execute actions under pressure.
Those demands do not disappear when conditions become hotter. If anything, they become more challenging.
The brain is a central governor when it comes to fatigue in exercise
The brain is not simply responding to fatigue. It is helping regulate it. As thermal strain increases, athletes are required to manage not only the physical demands of the game but also the additional stress created by the environment.
Jamie continued:
People aren't used to operating with such a high thermal strain. It's a double whammy - you are more physically tired, so your decision making and coordination might be decreased. But then you're also more mentally tired because your brain is working on overdrive.
The implication is significant. Performance decline in the heat is not always a question of physical capability. Sometimes it is a question of perception, judgement and execution.
A pressing trigger recognised too late. A pass not played. In elite sport, these moments can decide outcomes.
There can be a tendency to frame performance in the heat as a test of resilience. In reality, preparation is often the more important factor.
Heat acclimation, fuelling strategies, hydration planning and recovery processes all help athletes perform more effectively in challenging environments.
The objective is not simply to tolerate heat. The objective is to continue making effective decisions, executing high-intensity actions and performing under pressure when environmental demands increase.
At 292 Performance, we view environmental conditions as a performance variable.
Just as practitioners plan for travel, fixture congestion or competition demands, they should consider the impact of heat on physical and cognitive performance.
Athletes do not perform in a laboratory. They perform within environments. Understanding how those environments influence decision-making, fatigue, fuelling requirements and match actions allows practitioners to prepare more effectively.
Because when temperatures rise, the challenge is not simply staying safe. It is maintaining the qualities that influence performance when they matter most.
This article draws on comments from Jamie Mitchell, Performance Scientist at 292 Performance, published in The Athletic feature examining the impact of extreme heat on football performance found here
