Match characteristics of professional outfield amputee soccer players during official amputee soccer matches

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate physiological responses and movement profiles of amputee soccer players during official matches. Material and Methods: Five outfield amputee soccer players with a 9.20±0.81 years of amputee soccer experience (age 28.60±5.32 years; height 1.71±0.05 m; body mass 71.54±9.39 kg) volunteered for this study. Physiological responses [blood lactate (BLa), heart rate (HR) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE)] and activity profiles [peak speed, total distance covered (TD), TD at five speed categories (SC), percentages of TD at five SC and time spent in four maximal heart rate (HRmax) zones] were analyzed during seven official amputee soccer matches. Results: Mean game BLa, RPE, HR and HRmax were 5.58±1.63 mmol.L-1, 9.43±2.62, and 151.77±16.05 bpm and 180.74±9.23 bmp, respectively. HRmax was higher in the first half than in the second half (p=0.02). Players covered 102.62±7.24 m.min-1 and this did not change between the halves during amputee soccer matches (p=0.40). TD at very low SC was 73.86±0.57 m.min-1 whereas TD at very high SC accounted only for 0.24±0.04 m.min-1. Similarly, the percentage of the TD at very low SC was 70.18±10.30% and the percentage of the TD at very high SC was 0.24±0.04%. Amputee soccer players spent ~31 min and ~15 min at high intensity and moderate HRmax zones, respectively. These accounted only about ~5 min at very low and low intensity HRmax zones during whole matches. Conclusion: These results showed that amputee soccer played at the professional level is a high-intensity exercise, which could be used to prescribe amputee soccer specific training regimes.

Match running performance profiles of amputee football players at the national level

“…The scientific literature about AF is relatively scarce, and their results cannot be directly compared. Often research on AF contains a minimal number of players and analyzes a limited number of matches or both, like in Esatbeyoglu et al 11 study. The results of the pilot study of Nowak et al 12 monitoring only four games is hard to compare to the other studies because of the shorter of 10 min match time and including GK in the analysis, which radically decreases the presented averages.…”