Elite North American soccer performance in thermally challenging environments: An explorative approach to tracking outcomes.

Aims: The physiologic challenges related to performances in hot conditions calls for dedicated consideration when planning athlete training, although complete amelioration of the effects of heat may not be possible. We aimed to quantify within-subject correlations between different measures of environmental temperature and performance changes over multiple elite soccer competitions.

Methods: Thirty-seven elite male soccer players (age: 26 ± 3.

The Uptake of Nordic Hamstring Exercise Program for Injury Prevention in Major League Soccer and Its Barriers to Implementation in Practice.

Context: It is well demonstrated that Nordic hamstring (NH) program has poor compliance across European soccer clubs, but little is known about its implementation in Major League Soccer (MLS). The authors aimed to investigate MLS hamstring prevention practices and compliance with the NH program and understand the reasons for its inclusion or exclusion.

Design: A cross-sectional electronic survey was completed by 24 of the 26 (92%) MLS top-division soccer clubs.

Fast reconstruction of centre of mass and foot kinematics during a single-legged horizontal jump: A point-cloud processing approach.

Horizontal jumps are discrete, fast, over-ground movements requiring coordination of the centre of mass (CoM) and base of support and are routinely assessed in sports settings. There is currently no biomechanics-based system to aid in their quick and objective large-scale assessment. We describe a practical system combining a single low-cost depth-sensing camera and point-cloud processing (PCP) to capture whole-body CoM and foot kinematics.

Do environmental temperatures and altitudes affect physical outputs of elite football athletes in match conditions? A systematic review of the 'real world' studies.

Players involved in the various football codes compete throughout the calendar year around the world. Therefore, environmental stressors such as temperature and altitude should be considered in preparation for, and during, matches. We aimed to systematically review the observational and quasi-experimental studies that have been specifically designed to quantify the effects of temperature (hot or cold) high altitude on in-match physical performance indicators.

The effect of bio-banding on the anthropometric, physical fitness and functional movement characteristics of academy soccer players.

The study examined if maturity status bio-banding reduces within-group variance in anthropometric, physical fitness and functional movement characteristics of 319, under-14 and under-15 players from 19 UK professional soccer academies. Bio-banding reduced the within-bio-banded group variance for anthropometric values, when compared to an aggregated chronological banded group (chronological: 5.1-16.