Understanding the Relationship Between Coach and Athlete Perceptions of Training Intensity in Youth Sport

Abstract

To alleviate issues arising from the over/under prescription of training load, coaches must ensure that desired athlete responses to training are being achieved. The present study aimed to assess the level of agreement between the coach intended (pre-session) and observed (post-session) rating of perceived exertion (RPE), with athlete RPE during different training intensities (easy, moderate, hard). Coach intended RPE was taken prior to all field based training sessions over an 8 week in-season period. Following training, all coaches and athletes, whom were participants in hockey, netball, rugby and soccer were asked to provide an RPE measure for the completed session. Sessions were then classified based on the coaches intended RPE, with a total of 28, 125 and 66 easy, moderate and hard training sessions collected respectively. A univariate analysis of variance was used to calculate within-participant correlations between coach intended/observed RPE and athlete RPE. Moderate correlations were found between coach intended and athlete RPE for sessions intended to be moderate and hard whilst a small correlation was found for sessions intended to be easy. The level of agreement between coach and athlete RPE improved following training with coaches altering their RPE to align with those of the athlete. Despite this, moderate and small differences between coach observed and athlete RPE persisted for sessions intended to be easy and moderate respectively. Coaches should therefore incorporate strategies to monitor training load to increase the accuracy of training periodisation and reduce potential over/under prescription of training.

Untitled

“…Banners (2017) conducted similar research monitoring 3024 training sessions in cross-country runners and noted that both male and female athletes tend to regress to moderate intensity training. Brink et al (2014) found weakmoderate correlations between sRPE predicted by coaches and that performed by young soccer athletes, while Scantlebury et al (2017a) found similar results regarding to the correlation of sRPE predicted by coaches and performed by young athletes of hockey, netball, rugby and soccer. On the other hand, Redkva et al (2016) investigated the correlation between sRPE predicted by coaches and performed by professional soccer athletes in physical, technical and tactical training, which demonstrated a moderate-strong correlation between coaches' prediction and athletes performing, and found no difference in the sRPE between coaches and athletes in any of training models investigated.…”

“…between ITL predicted by coaches and performed by athletes in sports, such as soccer (Brink et al, 2014, Redkva et al, 2016, Scantlebury et al, 2017a, rugby (Scantlebury et al, 2017a), tennis (Maurphy et al, 2017, netball (Scantlebury et al, 2017a), endurance running and cross-coutry running (Banners, 2017) , but there is a gap in the literature about same research in relation to other modalities, especially in relation to collective gymnastic. Modalities usually offered in fitness club such as indoor-cycling, as well as in non-athletes, active individuals who practice certain physical activity with other objectives that are not competitive.…”

“…Contrary to the cited studies, present study and a study developed by Redkva et al (2016) may be related to level of conditioning and time of experience in the modalities. Since in the studies that demonstrated differences between coaches and practitioners, the subjects were amateur athletes , young athletes (Brink et al, 2014;Banners, 2017;Scantlebury et al, 2017a) or physically active individuals (nonathletes) in the present study. Only Redkva et al (2016) study conducted research with professional athletes, which raises the hypothesis that level of experience in the modality, relationship levels between coaches and practitioners and physical conditioning level may interfere in the accuracy between planning and conducting training sessions.…”

Is the rating of perceived exertion planned by the personal trainer similar to subject’s perception? A pilot study

“…This is a 0-10 item scale tool and hypothesizes that the physiological responses of physical stress are followed by average perceived answers 14 . Results found using RPE scale have been effective in positive adaptations, both in high performance [15][16][17] and in the health scope 9,18,19 . RPE scale is also a simple and low-cost strategy to training load monitoring and control 20 .…”

“…However, for example, in the Sciences of Sport have been reporting a gap between what has been planned by the coach and that perceived by the athletes [15][16][17]21 . Brink, Frencken 21 have demonstrated that juvenile football players have perceived the training more intensely than what has been planned by the coach 21 , which can favour overtraining 17 .…”