Changes in Acceleration and Deceleration Capacity Throughout Professional Soccer Match-Play

Abstract

Russell, M, Sparkes, W, Northeast, J, Cook, CJ, Love, TD, Bracken, RM, and Kilduff, LP. Changes in acceleration and deceleration capacity throughout professional soccer match-play. J Strength Cond Res 30(10): 2839-2844, 2016-As the acceleration and deceleration demands of soccer are currently not well understood, this study aimed to profile markers of acceleration and deceleration capacity during professional soccer match-play. This within-player observational study required reserve team players from a Premier League club to wear 10-Hz Global Positioning System units throughout competitive matches played in the 2013-14 competitive season. Data are presented for players who completed 4 or more games during the season (n = 11), and variables are presented according to six 15-minute intervals (I1-6: 00:00-14:59 minutes, 15:00-29:59 minutes, 30:00-44:59 minutes, 45:00-59:59 minutes, 60:00-74:59 minutes, and 75:00-89:59 minutes, respectively). During I6, the distance covered (total, per minute, and at high intensity), number of sprints, accelerations (total and high intensity), decelerations (total and high intensity), and impacts were reduced compared with I1 (all p ≤ 0.05). The number of high-intensity impacts remained unchanged throughout match-play (p > 0.05). These findings indicate that high-intensity actions and markers of acceleration and deceleration capacity are reduced in the last 15 minutes of the normal duration of match-play. Such information can be used to increase the specificity of training programs designed for soccer players while also giving further insight in to the effects of 90 minutes of soccer-specific exercise. Interventions that seek to maintain the acceleration and deceleration capacity of players throughout the full duration of a soccer match warrant investigation.

Quantification of in-season training load relative to match load in professional Dutch Eredivisie football players

“…Whereas our study showed the total number of accelerations and decelerations above 1.5 m · s −2 (226 and 169, respectively) and 3.0 m · s −2 (61 and 58), other studies that considered matches in elite leagues (Bradley et al 2010;Varley & Aughey 2013;Russell et al 2014;Wehbe et al 2014;Ingebrigtsen et al 2015;Dalen et al 2016) used absolute thresholds of 0.5, 2.0, 2.5, 2.78, 3.0 and 4.0 m · s −2 . It is important to realize that even if there was agreement, comparison between acceleration variables measured with different tracking systems (and system versions) would be difficult (Buchheit et al 2014b).…”

“…Nevertheless, match activity based on samples of less than 90 min that are extrapolated to 90 min could possibly overestimate full match activity. However, when we extrapolate 60 min match samples to 90 min and compare those to the measured data in studies that divided their 90 min data in 15 min bins (Mohr et al 2003;Bradley et al 2009;Akenhead et al 2013;Russell et al 2014) we see that extrapolation leads to an overestimation of complete match data of about 4% for measures of total distance, high-speed running distance and acceleration and deceleration. Moreover, in our study, the inclusion of these 22 samples of less than 90 min led to values for the internal and external load variables that were only about 2% higher (ranging from -0.1% for running to 4.6% for medium deceleration) compared to our samples (N = 15) of complete (90 min) matches.…”

“…Indeed, numerous studies have provided detailed information about the external load of elite football players during matches (see Sarmento et al 2014 for a review), including acceleration and metabolic variables (Osgnach et al 2010;Varley & Aughey 2013;Russell et al 2014;Wehbe et al 2014;Ingebrigtsen et al 2015;Dalen et al 2016), since these variables have been considered both metabolically and mechanically relevant (Greig et al 2006;Stevens et al 2015). Only recently, however, several studies have described the in-season training periodization practices of elite football teams in detail, including a comparison of training days within weekly micro-cycles (Akenhead, Harley, & Tweddle, 2016;Malone et al 2015;Anderson et al 2016).…”

Unpacking the Black Box: Applications and Considerations for Using GPS Devices in Sport

“…However, due to the time taken to publish such studies, GPS devices are often used in sport before essential independent information on measurement precision is available. 6 Nonetheless, it appears that both the measurement validity and reliability of GPS devices has improved with recent developments (for review see Scott et al 7 ). In general, measurement precision has improved with increased sampling rate and is better in activities completed at lower speeds and with fewer changes in direction.…”

Repeated Acceleration Activity in Competitive Youth Soccer

“…Reductions in acceleration capacity are found between halves and transiently during the game. Between playing halves, a decline is reported in the number of efforts (Ingebrigtsen, Terje, Hjelde, Drust, Wisloff, 2015;Russell et al, 2014;Terje, Ingebrigtsen, Gertjan, Harvard, Wisloff, 2015) and the cumulative distance (Terje et al, 2015;Akenhead, Hayes, David J. Barron, Steve Atkins, Chris Edmundson, Dave Fewtrell Thompson, Duncan, 2013;Barron, Atkins, Edmundson, Fewtrell, 2014).…”