Influence of Congested Match Schedules, Pre-Match Well-Being and Level of Opponents on Match Loads during World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing (1) the effect of congested match schedules on match loads and well-being as well as (2) pre-match well-being and level of opponents on match loads in elite women’s rugby sevens. Eleven players of the Brazilian women’s rugby sevens national team were investigated across three 2019-20 HSVC World Rugby Women’s Seven Series tournaments to assess: (1) within-tournament match-to-match changes in various external and internal match load measures; (2) daily changes in players’ well-being collected before the commencement of a tournament (day one) and during or post-tournament (day two to day four); and (3) the effect of pre-match well-being and level of opponents (high vs. low level) on match loads. Results revealed no between-match significant differences (p > 0.05) in most of the investigated match load measures. A congested match schedule negatively affected perceived fatigue (p < 0.001), muscle soreness (p = 0.004) and overall wellness (p < 0.001), with post hoc analyses showing decreased values on day four compared to previous days (small-to-moderate effect sizes). Finally, pre-match well-being and level of opponents did not affect match loads (p > 0.05). These results highlighted the necessity to embrace a multidimensional approach when adopting monitoring systems in elite women’s rugby sevens during tournaments and to consider various contextual factors possibly affecting match loads, besides those investigated.

Relationship Between Athlete-Reported Outcome Measures and Subsequent Match Performance in Team Sports: A Systematic Review

“…All these factors should be considered in future research using AROMs. On the other hand, we observed a very good methodological quality in many studies (Table 2), as well as robust numbers of data points collected, with only 3 studies with <100 observations (12,32,37).…”

“…Regarding match-related statistics (Table 3), 7 studies (14,25,37,38,49,52,55) found significant effects or associations, whereas 2 studies (46,48) did not find any effects or associations. For physical performance indicators (Table 4), 3 studies (19,28,32) found significant effects or associations, whereas 4 studies (3,12,14,29) did not find any effects or associations. Regarding perceived match demands (Table 5), 1 study (46) found effect or associations, whereas 1 study did not (12).…”

“…For physical performance indicators (Table 4), 3 studies (19,28,32) found significant effects or associations, whereas 4 studies (3,12,14,29) did not find any effects or associations. Regarding perceived match demands (Table 5), 1 study (46) found effect or associations, whereas 1 study did not (12). Regarding other measures of performance (Table 6), 2 studies (14,48) found significant effects or associations, whereas n 5 2 studies (46,49) did not found any effect or association.…”

“…Thus, 15 additional full texts were screened, and 1 was included in the review. Finally, 15 studies were included in this review (3,12,14,19,25,28,29,33,37,38,46,48,49,52,55). Table 2 presents the results of the quality assessment.…”

Differences in Weekly Training Load, Well-Being, and Hormonal Responses between European- and National-Level Professional Male Basketball Players during the Pre-Season Phase

“…Post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni correction was used in case of significant differences. All LMMs were analyzed using Jamovi software (the Jamovi project, version 2.3.3, 2022, Sydney, Australia, which was previously used in basketball research [ 9 , 16 ]. Available online: ).…”