Accuracy Standards of Wearable Technologies for Assessment of Soccer Kicking: Protocol for a Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Wearable technology is widely applied in performance monitoring, an integral part of sports and exercise sciences. The kick movement in soccer exemplifies a sports technique that could benefit from appropriate biomechanics assessment methodologies. However, the accuracy of wearables in quantifying soccer kick mechanics, particularly under field conditions, remains unclear.Objective: This article presents a protocol for a systematic review to discuss the measurement properties (validity, reliability and/or accuracy aspects) of wearable technology systems explicitly used to measure ball-kicking features in soccer.Methods: This review protocol was pre-registered in the Open Science Framework. Two authors will perform searches in major electronic databases using specific keywords combinations in PubMed, Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine, Web of Science, ProQuest, IEEE Xplore, EBSCOHost, and Scopus. Following a specific PICO framework (population: soccer players and/or collected human data in football-related environment; intervention: at least one wearable used; comparator: criterion measures, repeated testing sessions and/or actual values; outcome: ball kicking data), studies will be screened based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the included studies will be assessed using the COSMIN checklist (in studies concerning validity/reliability) or the QUADAS-2 tool (in studies concerning accuracy). Data extraction will be conducted to determine the level of evidence according to the "best evidence synthesis method" and evidence gap map will be constructed. Cohen's kappa coefficient will be used to estimate the inter-evaluator agreement.Results: This ongoing systematic review has completed database searches and is currently in the screening phase. Depending on the number and consistency of studies, results may be presented via meta-analysis or qualitative synthesis, with sub-group analyses considering factors like gender, age, and playing level. The final results are expected by June 2024,