The contributing external load factors to internal load during small-sided games in professional rugby union players.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate which external load variables were associated with internal load during three small-sided games (SSG) in professional rugby union players.

Methods: Forty professional rugby union players (22 forwards, 18 backs) competing in the English Gallagher Premiership were recruited. Three different SSGs were designed: one for backs, one for forwards, and one for both backs and forwards.

Designing a small-sided game to elicit attacking tactical behaviour in professional rugby union forwards.

This study aimed to investigate the consistency of attacking tactical and technical behaviour, and physical characteristics, over multiple bouts, and variability across days, of a specific rugby union forwards small-sided game (SSG). Data was collected from 21 professional rugby union forwards during four training sessions. The SSG, consisting of five bouts of work (150-s) interspersed by passive recovery (75-s), aimed to elicit specific attacking tactical behaviour.

Testing for a deficit in single-case studies: effects of departures from normality.

In neuropsychological single-case research inferences concerning a patient's cognitive status are often based on referring the patient's test score to those obtained from a modestly sized control sample. Two methods of testing for a deficit (z and a method proposed by Crawford and Howell [Crawford, J. R.