Environmental NGOs in Spain are well known policy actors. Since the nineties some of them have been invited to participate in governmental committees and/or to provide expertise to Parliamentary committees. They have also an important role in mobilizing public opinion to defend and protect the environment. We know less though about how do they intervene in the judicial arena. In the framework of a growing role of the Courts in the field of environmental governance, the goal of this paper is to analyze to what extent Spanish NGOs resorted to the judicial arena, specifically the Supreme Court, to enforce international and European higher standards of environmental protection and advocated against wrong or inadequate praxis in the implementation of environmental regulations. Several non-judicial factors seem to have strengthened that trend in Spain: increasing environmental national and European regulation as well as the NGOs organizational capacity to make judicial claims in line with their policy preferences. Desde la década de los noventa, las ONG medioambientales de España participan en comités gubernamentales y/o como expertas en los comités parlamentarios; además de tener un papel importante en la movilización de la opinión pública. En cambio, sabemos menos sobre hasta qué punto recurren a la arena judicial. En el contexto de un creciente de papel de los tribunales en el campo de la gobernanza ambiental, el objetivo de este documento es analizar en qué medida las ONG españolas inician litigios, específicamente en el Tribunal Supremo, para exigir el cumplimiento de los estándares internacionales y europeos de protección del medio ambiente o en contra de malas praxis. Varios factores no judiciales parecen haber reforzado esa tendencia en España: el aumento de la regulación ambiental nacional y europea, así como la capacidad organizativa de las ONG para iniciar litigios en línea con su posición sobre una política determinada.

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The aims of this study were 3-fold: firstly, to present an integrative approach to external and internal load dynamics for monitoring fitness and fatigue status of specific in-court rink hockey training sessions in a standard microcycle; secondly, to assess the differences between training sessions and matches; the third and final aim was to assess the association between external and internal load metrics. The external load, using a local positioning system, and internal load, using the declared rate of perceived exertion, were measured during 23 in-season microcycles for nine top-level players. Training load data were analysed with regard to the number of days before or after a match [match day (MD) minus or plus]. In relation to the first aim, internal and external load metrics merged into a single integrated system using pooled data z-scores provided an invisible monitoring tool that places the players in the fitness-fatigue continuum throughout the different microcycle sessions. In this regard, MD-4 and MD-1 sessions tend to place, with a low dispersion, the players in a “low external and internal load” zone. On the contrary, in MD-3 and MD-2 sessions, as well as in MD, in which higher loads were recorded, most of the players were within a “high external and internal load” zone with a tendency towards dispersion towards the fitness or fatigue zones. Finally, and with regard to the second and third aims, an inverted “U-shape” load dynamic related to the specific goals of each training session was the main finding in terms of comparison between MD; a load peak between MD-3 and MD-2 sessions and a significant decrease in all the load variables in MD-1 sessions were found; and high-to-low correlations were found between external and internal load metrics. This study presents an integrative approach to the external and internal load of players for monitoring fitness and fatigue status during a standard microcycle in rink hockey that might provide team sport staff members with a deeper understanding of load distribution in the microcycle in relation to the match.

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