Associations between wellness and internal and external load variables in two intermittent small-sided soccer games

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the associations between wellness and internal and external load variables during two intermittent small-sided games (SSGs). Ten male amateur soccer players (age: 19.8±1.6 years; experience: 8.3±2.1 years; height: 177.4±3.8 cm; weight: 71.7±4.2 kg) voluntarily participated in this study. The 5 × 5 format was played in 3 × 6 min and 6 × 3 min regimens. Muscle soreness (DOMS), stress, fatigue, and sleep quality were rated before each session. Perceived exertion (RPE); mean heart rate (HRmean); total (TD), jogging (JD), running (RD), and sprinting (SD) distances; player's training load (PTL); and total accelerations (TAc) were monitored during SSGs. In the case of the 3 × 6' regimen, large negative correlations between DOMS and TD (-0.68, [-0.89; -0.20]), JD (-0.66, [-0.89; -0.17]) and SD (-0.63, [-0.88; -0.12]) were found, and very large negative correlations between DOMS and PTL (-0.84, [-0.95; -0.53]) were found. Very large (-0.73, [-0.91; -0.30] and large (-0.61, [-0.87; -0.09]) negative correlations between DOMS and HRmean and PTL, respectively, were observed during the 6 × 3' regimen. Regarding the associations between load variables, during the 6 × 3' regimen, RPE was very largely correlated with TD (0.77, [0.37; 0.93]), JD (0.70, [0.25; 0.90]) and largely correlated with TAc (0.67, [0.19; 0.89]). In the 3 × 6' regimen, large correlations were found between RPE and SD (0.62, [0.10; 0.87]) and TAc (0.61, [0.09; 0.87]). Overall, PTL was nearly perfectly correlated with TD (0.96, [0.86; 0.99]) and JD (0.94, [0.81; 0.98]), very largely correlated with TAc (0.87, [0.61; 0.96]), and largely correlated with RD (0.72, [0.29; 0.91]). The results of this study suggest that wellness status may influence workload in SSGs; in particular, DOMS may be moderately-to-largely detrimental to both internal and external load variables. Moreover, it was confirmed that RPE is moderately-to-largely correlated to objectively measured external load variables.

Keywords: Association football; GPS; Load monitoring; RPE; SSGs; Well-being.