Weekly Load Variations of Distance-Based Variables in Professional Soccer Players: A Full-Season Study

Filipe Manuel Clemente; Rui Silva; Daniel Castillo; Asier Los Arcos; Bruno Mendes; José Afonso

doi:10.3390/ijerph17093300

Weekly Load Variations of Distance-Based Variables in Professional Soccer Players: A Full-Season Study

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 May 9;17(9):3300. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17093300.

Authors

Filipe Manuel Clemente^{1

2}, Rui Silva¹, Daniel Castillo³, Asier Los Arcos⁴, Bruno Mendes⁵, José Afonso⁶

Affiliations

¹ Escola Superior Desporto e Lazer, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Rua Escola Industrial e Comercial de Nun'Álvares, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
² Instituto de Telecomunicações, Delegação da Covilhã, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
³ Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Isabel I, Calle de Fernán González, 76, 09003 Burgos, Spain.
⁴ Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of the Basque Country, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Lasarte 71, 01007 Vitoria, Gasteiz, Spain.
⁵ Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisboa, Estr. da Costa, Cruz Quebrada, 1495-751 Lisboa, Portugal.
⁶ Centre for Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, R. Dr. Plácido da Costa 91, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

The aim of this study was two-fold: (1) to analyze the variations of acute load, training monotony, and training strain among early (pre-season), mid (first half of season), and end season (second half of season) periods; (2) to compare these training indicators for playing positions in different moments of the season. Nineteen professional players (age: 26.5 ± 4.3 years; experience as professional: 7.5 ± 4.3 years) from a European First League team participated in this study. The players were monitored daily over a 45-week period for the total distance (TD), distance covered (DC) at 14 km/h^-1 or above (DC > 14 km/h), high-speed running above 19.8 km/h^-1 (HSR) distance, and number of sprints above 25.2 km/h^-1. The acute load (sum of load during a week), training monotony (mean of training load during the seven days of the week divided by the standard deviation of the training load of the seven days), and training strain (sum of the training load for all training sessions and matches during a week multiplied by training monotony) workload indices were calculated weekly for each measure and per player. Results revealed that training monotony and training strain for HSR were meaningfully greater in pre-season than in the first half of the in-season (p ≤ 0.001; d = 0.883 and p ≤ 0.001; d = 0.712, respectively) and greater than the second half of the in-season (p ≤ 0.001; d = 0.718 and p ≤ 0.001; d = 0.717). The training monotony for the sprints was meaningfully greater in pre-season than in the first half of in-season (p < 0.001; d = 0.953) and greater than the second half of in-season (p ≤ 0.001; d = 0.916). Comparisons between playing positions revealed that small-to-moderate effect sizes differences mainly for the number of sprints in acute load, training monotony, and training strain. In conclusion, the study revealed that greater acute load, training monotony, and training strain occurred in the pre-season and progressively decreased across the season. Moreover, external defenders and wingers were subjected to meaningfully greater acute load and training strain for HSR and number of sprints during the season compared to the remaining positions.

Keywords: external load; football; performance; training monotony; training strain; workload.

MeSH terms

Adult
Humans
Running*
Seasons
Soccer*
Workload
Young Adult