Intra-Season Variations in Workload Parameters in Europe’s Elite Young Soccer Players: A Comparative Pilot Study between Starters and Non-Starters

Abstract

Background: The main purpose of the current study was to compare the within-season variations of workload, training duration, acute/chronic workload ratio (ACWR), training monotony ™, and training strain (TS) through session rating perceived exertion (s-RPE) between starters and non-starters. Methods: Seventeen under-17 European male soccer players (age, 16.2 ± 0.3 y, height, 1.8 ± 0.1 m; body mass, 66.5 ± 4.0 kg) divided in two groups: nine starters and eight non-starters, were evaluated over 50 weeks throughout the season. Results: In general, there were load variations for all players during the full-season. RPE tended to decrease during in-season and RPE, training duration and s-RPE did not present significant differences between starters and non-starters. TM and TS presented lower values for starters in mesocycle (M) 4 and M11 compared to non-starters. TS presented lower values for starters in M4 and M11 compared to non-starters, while in M10 a higher value was found for starters when compared to non-starters. ACWR showed differences between starters and non-starters in two of the mesocycles. Conclusions: This study showed that some mesocycles provided higher load for non-starters. This information can alert coaches that non-starter players are likely to try too hard in training to demonstrate their abilities, leading to non-functional overreaching, overtraining syndrome, and then poor performance.

Reference Values for External and Internal Training Intensity Monitoring in Young Male Soccer Players: A Systematic Review

“…Additionally, after conducting the research analysis of the present systematic review, a new study in U17 soccer players that analyze RPE and s-RPE measures was published [30]. That study [30] is in line with the interval range for RPE but higher values of 640 and 595 au were found for s-RPE during pre-and in-season with training durations around 96 and 95 min, respectively, which may justify the higher values. Moreover, Wrigley et al [25] noted a higher weekly RPE in the older age group (i.e., U18).…”

“…There were only one study analyzed Banister TRIMP and player status and found no differences between starters and non-starters [19] which was also corroborated by Martins et al [30]. Nonetheless, it is important to reinforce that the period of the season and microcycle can influence result interpretations.…”

“…Regarding internal training intensity, the main results showed a range interval range of 2.3 to 6.3 au for RPE between U14, U15, U16, and U18 [20,25] and 156 to 394 au for s-RPE between U15 and U17 [20,23]. Additionally, after conducting the research analysis of the present systematic review, a new study in U17 soccer players that analyze RPE and s-RPE measures was published [30]. That study [30] is in line with the interval range for RPE but higher values of 640 and 595 au were found for s-RPE during pre-and in-season with training durations around 96 and 95 min, respectively, which may justify the higher values.…”

In-season monotony, strain and acute/chronic workload of perceived exertion, global positioning system running based variables between player positions of a top elite soccer team

“…These results once again confirmed that the s-RPE method is a simple, valid, and well-established method [ 27 ], due to the fact that it can integrate different types of physiological stimuli referring to the internal load [ 7 ]. Moreover, a recent study on elite European players also found no differences on s-RPE considering monotony, strain and ACWR between starters and non-starters which supports the importance of using s-RPE and analysing player positions [ 16 ], albeit other study found some differences between starters and non-starters for the same measures in a under 17 soccer team [ 17 ]. These findings suggest that results should be carefully interpreted considering specific scenarios from the teams analysed.…”

“…The season was organized into 10 mesocycles (M: 1–10) according to previous studies [ 15 – 17 ] and to coaches’ decisions instead of two/three periods of the season that could influence results interpretation. The number of training sessions, number of competitive matches, and total amount of training duration for starters and non-starters is presented in Table 1 .…”