The Quantification of Acceleration Events in Elite Team Sport: a Systematic Review

Abstract

Background Wearable tracking devices are commonly utilised to quantify the external acceleration load of team sport athletes during training and competition. The ability to accelerate is an important attribute for athletes in many team sports. However, there are many different acceleration metrics that exist in team sport research. This review aimed to provide researchers and practitioners with a clear reporting framework on acceleration variables by outlining the different metrics and calculation processes that have been adopted to quantify acceleration loads in team sport research. Methods A systematic review of three electronic databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus), was performed to identify peer-reviewed studies that published external acceleration load in elite team sports during training and/or competition. Articles published between January 2010 and April 2020 were identified using Boolean search phrases in relation to team sports (population), acceleration/deceleration (comparators), and competition and/or training (outcome). The included studies were required to present external acceleration and/or deceleration load (of any magnitude) from able-bodied athletes (mean age ≥ 18 years) via wearable technologies. Results A total of 124 research articles qualified for inclusion. In total, 113/124 studies utilised GPS/GNSS technology to outline the external acceleration load of athletes. Count-based metrics of acceleration were predominant of all metrics in this review (72%). There was a lack of information surrounding the calculation process of acceleration with 13% of studies specifying the filter used in the processing of athlete data, whilst 32% outlined the minimum effort duration (MED). Markers of GPS/GNSS data quality, including horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP) and the average number of satellites connected, were outlined in 24% and 27% of studies respectively. Conclusions Team sport research has predominantly quantified external acceleration load in training and competition with count-based metrics. Despite the influence of data filtering processes and MEDs upon acceleration, this information is largely omitted from team sport research. Future research that outlines acceleration load should present filtering processes, MEDs, HDOP, and the number of connected satellites. For GPS/GNSS systems, satellite planning tools should document evidence of available satellites for data collection to analyse tracking device performance. The development of a consistent acceleration filtering method should be established to promote consistency in the research of external athlete acceleration loads.

Integrative Proposals of Sports Monitoring: Subjective Outperforms Objective Monitoring

“…However, as technology, beginning in the early 1980s, began to rapidly evolve, new possibilities to assess internal and external training loads during training and competition became available [ 1 ]. Today, new wireless technologies are expanding to provide simultaneous data related to biomechanical, physiological and performance variables [ 2 – 5 ].…”

Concurrent Validity and Reliability of Different Technologies for Sprint-Derived Horizontal Force-Velocity-Power Profiling

“…When comparing different GPS/GNSS manufactures, it is important to consider the proprietary differences between the technologies, including on-board sensors and filtering techniques to understand the capabilities and limitations of each system (11). First, both systems tested in this study included GPS and GNSS supporting consistent sensors usage.…”

Seasonal analysis of match load in professional soccer players: An observational cohort study of a Swiss U18, U21 and first team

“…While there is no doubt accelerations and decelerations should be considered in any professional load management and thus evaluation of match loads ( Harper, Carling, & Kiely, 2019 ; Palucci Vieira et al, 2019 ; Delves, Aughey, Ball, & Duthie, 2021 ; Miguel et al, 2021 ; Silva et al, 2022 ), it is less clear how to quantify such loads ( Harper et al, 2019 ; Silva et al, 2022 ). As it is common in various studies and recommended in the literature, we employed threshold-based counts ( Harper et al, 2019 ; Delves et al, 2021 ; Miguel et al, 2021 ).…”

“…While there is no doubt accelerations and decelerations should be considered in any professional load management and thus evaluation of match loads ( Harper, Carling, & Kiely, 2019 ; Palucci Vieira et al, 2019 ; Delves, Aughey, Ball, & Duthie, 2021 ; Miguel et al, 2021 ; Silva et al, 2022 ), it is less clear how to quantify such loads ( Harper et al, 2019 ; Silva et al, 2022 ). As it is common in various studies and recommended in the literature, we employed threshold-based counts ( Harper et al, 2019 ; Delves et al, 2021 ; Miguel et al, 2021 ). However, regarding accelerations, Sonderegger, Tschopp & Taube (2016) showed that if the running speed immediately prior to an acceleration being initiated and the maximal acceleration capacity associated with it is not considered, a number of high-intensity accelerations could be missed.…”