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Kittel, Aden; Larkin, Paul; Elsworthy, Nathan; Lindsay, Riki; Spittle, Michael
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1754449
Video-based training is a commonly used method to develop decision-making in athletes and officials. This method typically uses match broadcast footage, yet technological advancements have made 360° Virtual Reality (360°VR) a possible effective tool to investigate. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of both 360°VR and match broadcast footage on improving decision-making. Amateur Australian football umpires (N= 32) participated in a randomised control trial. Participants completed a 5-week training intervention in either a 360°VR, match broadcast or control group. Decision-making was assessed at pre-training, 1-week post-training and 4-week retention points using reliable and valid 360°VR and match broadcast decision-making tests. Participants completed a short questionnaire detailing their perceptions of psychological fidelity, enjoyment, relevance, concentration and effort for each video mode. The 360°VR performed significantly better (p < 0.05) than the control group in the 360°VR retention test. No groups statistically improved over the intervention. Remaining pairwise comparisons for this test and the match broadcast test were not significantly different. 360°VR was rated significantly higher (p < 0.05) than match broadcast footage for psychological fidelity, enjoyment and relevance. 360°VR appears to be a beneficial training tool compared to a control, with stronger engagement from the participants than previously used match broadcast footage.
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1755051
We examined the practice activities employed by 53 youth football coaches working in youth academy professional top-division clubs from England, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. This is the first study to explore the microstructure of coach-led practice in elite youth football across multiple countries. A total of 83 practice sessions from under-12 to under-16 age groups was collected in situ. Sessions were analysed for the proportion of time in ‘non-active decision-making’ (e.g., unopposed technical or tactical skills practices, fitness training) and ‘active decision-making’ activities (e.g., small-sided games, skills practice with opposition), with the latter deemed superior for the transfer of game intelligence skill to match play. More time was spent in active decision-making (M = 62%) compared to non-active decision-making activities (M = 20%) and transitioning between activities (M = 17%). Players from Portugal and Spain spent a higher amount of time in active decision-making activities compared to English and German players, whereas, English players spent more time in unopposed technical-based drills and German players in improving fitness aspects of the game without the ball. Findings extend previous research assessing coach-led youth football practice in single countries by demonstrating differences in training activities between countries in Europe.
Dunton, Alan; O’Neill, Cian; Coughlan, Edward K.
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1745263
Introduction: The ability to successfully complete a pass in football can positively impact the result of the game. While previous work has identified the importance of perceptual behaviours before and during passing action, there is a paucity of research analysing the impact of training interventions on pass performance. Methods: A tri-phasic approach was employed to assess the impact of training with spatial occlusion goggles. Each phase was designed to assess participants’ ability to control and pass a football during a representative experimental task. The study design consisted of a pre-test, 2-week training intervention, post-test and 2-week retention test. Results: Significant improvements in response accuracy (p <.05) and response time (p <.05) were displayed across all three phases for those who wore occlusion goggles. Control error (p <.05) showed a significant improvement during phase one and phase two only. There were no sustained significant changes for those who did not wear the occlusion googles. Conclusion: Findings suggest that guiding the visual system away from the lower limbs while receiving a football and towards relevant information, the movement of a particular participant, within the environment can improve pass accuracy and speed of pass following a training intervention with occlusion goggles.
McGuckian, Thomas B.; Beavan, Adam; Mayer, Jan; Chalkley, Daniel; Pepping, Gert-Jan
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1769174
Purpose: The visual exploratory actions (i.e., scanning head movements) used by football players to perceive their surrounding environment have recently gained interest. While this has resulted in important findings relating to visual exploration during natural match-play, often the study designs lacked the experimental control of laboratory-based experimental settings. We aimed to investigate whether visual exploratory action is associated with passing performance for high-level U13 and U23 players in a controlled skill assessment setting. Methods: Fourteen U13 and 13 U23 football players from a Bundesliga club completed a standardised 32-trial sequence in the Footbonaut. Exploratory head movements were recorded with a head-worn inertial sensor, from which the count, frequency and excursion of head movements were extracted before and during ball possession. Ball reception and disposal were coded for each trial, and performance was operationalised as the time taken to complete each trial. Results: Across all players, visual exploratory action was associated with passing performance. The variables that best explained faster performance were 1) a higher number of head turns before receiving the ball, 2) a lower number of head turns when in possession of the ball, and 3) being an U23 player. However, different combinations of variables explained performance for U13 and U23 players. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate the value of scanning before receiving the ball to prospectively control passing actions in the Footbonaut. Future research should investigate the shared and contrasting characteristics of scanning actions, as they are observed by players in skill assessment tasks such as the Footbonaut, during training and during match-play.
Sheehan, William B.; Tribolet, Rhys; Spurrs, Robert; Fransen, Job; Novak, Andrew R.; Watsford, Mark L.
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1745264
Purpose: To provide a simplified, novel method for analysing the physical demands in an Australian Football context by reducing the dimensionality of commonly reported physical characteristics obtained from match play. This may facilitate their practical use and interpretability. Methods: A retrospective longitudinal design was utilised with individual players’ physical outputs, measured via global navigation satellite system devices, collected during official Australian Football League matches over three seasons. A principal component analysis was used to reduce a large number of correlated physical characteristics related to the analysis of physical match demands into a smaller set of uncorrelated components. Results: Forty-six variables were reduced to five principal components whilst maintaining 56% of the variance in the original dataset. The principal component analysis derived five individual-based principal components pertaining to low-moderate movement volume, high speed running volume, accelerations, change of direction and impacts. Conclusions: Utilising factor loadings (eigenvectors) derived from a principal component analysis, this study is the first to provide a simplified, novel method for analysing the physical demands in an Australian Football context with the derived metrics revealing useful information for coaches and practitioners. This may consequently guide training implementation, player performance ratings and player selection. Further, these new values may facilitate the monitoring of physical player loads.
Tofari, Paul J.; Kemp, Justin G.; Cormack, Stuart J.
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1746824
Introduction: Competitive soccer results in acute physiological and perceptual disturbances lasting up to 96-h, yet multiple games are often played with 72-h rest. Contextual factors influence match activities, impacting the assessment of post-match responses. We assessed the within- and post-match responses to two self-paced simulations (SIM1 and SIM2) in a 72-h period. Method: Eleven male team-sport athletes attended eight consecutive testing sessions after familiarisation. Assessments occurred at pre-, half-time, post- and 2 h post-SIM1, and daily up to four-days after SIM2. Statistics included effect size ± 90% CL comparisons to pre-SIM1 and regression analysis. Results: At half time there was reduced voluntary activation (SIM1: −1.52 ± 1.41 and SIM2: −0.50 ± 0.58) and potentiated twitch torque (SIM1: −0.50 ± 0.37 and SIM2: −0.31 ± 0.37), suggesting central and peripheral fatigue, respectively. The difference in activity profiles between simulations was unclear. Both simulations resulted in acute physiological and perceptual decrements, similar to published data from competitive matches. Higher strength was associated with reduced soreness and fatigue at all time points (range: r = 0.27 to 0.69) and lower peripheral fatigue. vV.O2peak was negatively associated with CK (range: r = −0.28 to −0.70). Conclusion: 72-h recovery is sufficient to maintain activity between simulations. Lower-body strength and aerobic capacity displayed protective effects against post-simulation decrements.
Wilson, Robbie S.; Smith, Nicholas M. A.; Bedo, Bruno Luiz Souza; Aquino, Rodrigo; Moura, Felipe Arruda; Santiago, Paulo Roberto Pereira
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1780468
Team sports such as soccer require individuals to play specific team roles, and success in each role is likely to be associated with a certain combination of traits. Despite this, scientific protocols for talent identification do not consider the diversity of roles played by individual players in a team. Here, we aimed to identify those players suited to the maintenance of possession by testing each individual’s sprinting, dribbling, passing, athleticism, and fitness, and showing how these traits were related to success in a small-sided possession game (4 vs 3). Passing and dribbling performance but not athleticism were the best predictors of game success. On average, 79.4 ± 8.0% of passes were successful, and those players that made a higher number of successful passes were significantly more likely to receive/possess the ball (r = 0.91; P < 0.0001). Passing success in games was best predicted by performance in dribbling and passing tests but not sprinting, fitness, or running anaerobic sprint test (F2,23 = 20.74; adjusted r2 = 0.61; P < 0.001). By identifying those traits associated with other game-specific activities, one could further improve talent identification protocols that reflect the diversity of player-types and help design individual-specific training regimes.
Bonney, Nathan; Berry, Jason; Ball, Kevin; Larkin, Paul
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1758338
Introduction: This study investigated if the technical and physical match performance outcomes can be replicated in a 5v6 small-sided game (SSG). Methods: Sixteen youth Australian Football (AF) players (mean ± SD; age 16.5 ± 1.0 years, height 179.1 ± 8.0 cm, weight 69.5 ± 9.5 kg) were randomly recruited. Participants were assessed in the SSG during the week prior to the assessed match play. The technical variables assessed were kicking proficiency, number of kicks executed and the amount of time each player had with the ball before kick execution (i.e., under 2s, 2-4s, over 4s). The physical variables assessed were odometer, meters travelled per minute, maximum velocity and percentage of high intensity running. Results: The results suggest kicking proficiency, the number of kicks executed, meters travelled per minute and percentage of high intensity running were all higher in the SSG than during match play. Furthermore, the SSG had less technical variability in comparison to match play. During match play, players had less time affordance to execute a kick and achieved higher maximum running velocities than during the SSG. Conclusion: This research provides coaches with greater insights into the technical and physical performance demands of match play.
de Lima-E-Silva, Felipe Xavier; Oliveira, Gabriel Santos; Medeiros, Thales Menezes; Dornelles, Maurício Pinto; Ribeiro-Alvares, João Breno Araujo; Baroni, Bruno Manfredini
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1751871
This study aimed to verify the hamstring flexibility, strength, and fascicle length of football (soccer) players with and without history of hamstring strain injury (HSI) in the prior season. Eighty male football players (45 from senior category and 35 from under-20 category) were included in this case–control trial: 20 with history of unilateral HSI in the prior season, and 60 free of HSI in the prior season. Passive straight-leg raise (PSLR) test, isokinetic dynamometry, and biceps femoris long head (BFLH) ultrasonography were performed at preseason to identify risk factors for HSI. No significant differences were found between injured and uninjured limbs of the previously injured players for any outcome (p > 0.05; trivial effect sizes). Uninjured players had higher values than both injured and uninjured limbs of previously injured players for hamstring-to-quadriceps (H/Q) conventional and functional ratios (p < 0.05; medium effect sizes), as well as BFLH fascicle length (p < 0.05; small to medium effect sizes). Football players that had sustained unilateral HSI in the prior season demonstrated lower H/Q strength ratios and shorter BFLH fascicles in both limbs compared to uninjured players.
Sabou, Vlad; Rush, Chris; Mason, Liam; Dupont, Grégory; Louis, Julien
2020 Science and Medicine in Football
doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1761558
Objective: To examine the effects of training intensity and environmental condition on the hydration status of Elite football players. Methods: Eleven elite football players completed three training sessions of varying intensity in cool (12°C) and warm (23°C) environments. Training demands was measured by Global Positioning System, sweat rate and sweat sodium concentration were measured using dermal patches and body mass change. Results: Warm condition increased sweat rate (0.9 ± 0.3 vs 1.7 ± 0.3 L.h-1, P<0.001), fluid intake (0.7 ± 0.1 vs 1.5 ± 0.2 L, P<0.001), total sodium loss (1405 ± 340 vs 2946 ± 958 mg, P<0.001) and total sweat loss (1.4 ± 0.5 vs 2.5 ± 0.4 L, P<0.001) compared to cool. Training intensity increased sweat sodium concentration (16.1 ± 6.6 vs 54.6 ± 22.2 mmol.L-1, P<0.001) and sodium loss (779 ± 231 vs 1405 ± 340 mg) in both environmental conditions. Total sweat loss and sodium loss were positively correlated with total distance covered (r=0.48, P=0.005 and r=0.4, P=0.023, respectively), meanwhile sodium loss was also positively correlated with the total number of high-intensity efforts (r=0.35, P=0.045). Conclusions: The results show that training load and environmental condition have a major impact on the hydration status of elite football players, hence hydration strategies should be developed accordingly.