International women's soccer competition requires teams to compete in as much as four games a week. Research has focused on the change in match running.
CHANGES IN MATCH-PERFORMANCE AND WELLBEING DURING A PERIOD OF FIXTURE CONGESTION Joshua
1,2,3 Trewin ,
Cesar
1,2,3 Meylan ,
Ming-Chang
3,4 Tsai ,
Matthew
5 Varley ,
John
1,6 Cronin
Performance Research Institute New Zealand, AUT University, NZ, 2Canadian Soccer Association, Ottawa, Canada, 3Canadian Sports Institute – Pacific, Vancouver, Canada, 4Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 5Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, 6School of Exercise, Health and Biomedical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.
1Sport
INTRODUCTION International women’s soccer competition requires teams to compete in as much as four games a week. Research has focused on the change in match running performance of teams without investigating associated player wellness and neuromuscular fatigue.1-3 Accumulated load may account for declines in matchrunning performance, however, this has also yet to be examined.
Changes in match-running from match-to-match are shown in Figure 2. A moderate decline in LSR (ES = -0.76) was observed from game 1-4, whilst a trivial change in HSR was observed. Further, analysis indicated that the changes observed were reduced to almost zero when accumulated load of previous matches was accounted for. The only exception to this was games 2 and 3, where the decline in performance of TD and LSR was partly independent from accumulated load.
Therefore the aim of the current study was to examine the changes in match performance, wellness and neuromuscular fatigue during a period of fixture congestion in elite female soccer players, both in absolute terms and taking in to account accumulated load..
Figure 1: Timeline of matches, wellness and jump testing data collection throughout the tournament .
Jump analysis revealed no meaningful changes throughout the period of fixture congestion.
METHODS
RESULTS
The match-running of Canadian national team players (n = 18) was monitored during four matches of an international tournament played in a seven day period using global positional system (GPS, Figure 3) technology sampling at 10-hz (Minimax S4, Catapult Innovations, Australia) (Table 1). Only players who played in all four games were analysed (n = 7), with values normalized to minutes played.
Figure 3: GPS Unit shown in the correct fixed position.
The decline in LSR may be a subconscious strategy by players to sustain HSR actions from game 1-4. These actions have been linked with key moments within a match, such as creation of goal scoring opportunities.5 Normalized player wellness should be to tracked during congested fixture periods, rather than NMF. Particularly, strategies to enhance sleep should be implemented to optimize recovery between matches.
Table 1: Metrics analysed throughout the congested fixture period
Motivation Stress Mood Soreness
NMF Outputs Force at zero velocity
REFERENCES
Takeoff velocity Relative mean concentric power Relative mean eccentric power Eccentric concentric power ratio
Sleep quality Hours of sleep Key: GPS = Global Positioning System; NMF = Neuromuscular Fatigue analysed via force plate jump analyses.
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Practitioners and researchers are advised to consider accumulated loading during congested fixture periods. Accumulated load may account for changes in match-running performances, specifically where players play back-to-back matches.
Statistical analysis was completed using one-way repeated measures ANCOVA mixed model controlling for accumulated fatigue with Tukey post-hoc procedure to control for type I error in making multiple comparisons. Changes were assessed using the standardised change in the mean, Cohen’s D.
Wellness Questions Fatigue
Coach ratings and RPE were meaningfully different between games.
CONCLUSIONS
A timeline of the data collection period is shown in Figure 1. Player wellness (Table 1) was collected daily using ratings on a 10-point scale. Neuromuscular fatigue (Table 1) was assessed via jump analysis using a portable force plate sampling at 200-Hz (PS-2142, Pasco Scientific, USA). All wellness and jump data were standardized to pre-tournament data collected within three months. A postmatch coach rating and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were collected on/from all players using a 10-point scale. The RPE score was multiplied by playing time (session RPE)4 and used to examine the effect of accumulated loading on match-running performance.
GPS Metrics Total Distance (TD) Low-Speed Running (LSR,
