Quantifying Offense and Defense Workloads in Professional Rugby Union.

Purpose: Rugby union is a contact team sport demanding high levels of physical capacity, and understanding the match workloads can be useful to inform training. In this study, the factors influencing locomotion and contact workloads for offensive and defensive ball-in-play periods are quantified.

Methods: Locomotion and contact metrics were collected from global positioning system units and videos for 31 professional players of a Super Rugby team across 14 games in the 2021 season.

A 0.1% L-Menthol Mouth Swill in Elite Male Rugby Players Has Different Effects in Forwards and Backs.

Purpose: Menthol mouth swills can improve endurance performance in the heat, which is attributed to attenuations in nonthermally derived thermal sensation (TS) and perception of effort. However, research in elite team-sport athletes is absent. Therefore, this study investigated the performance and TS responses to a 0.

The Acute and Longer-Term Effects of Cold Water Immersion in Highly-Trained Volleyball Athletes During an Intense Training Block.

The use of cold water immersion (CWI) as a recovery strategy following exercise has drawn mixed findings over the last few decades. The purpose of the current study was two-fold; (1) to determine the acute effects of CWI within the training week, and (2) to investigate the longer-term effects of CWI over a 16-day period. In a randomized, controlled trial, 13 national-level volleyball athletes were allocated to two groups, an experimental (CWI, = 7) and a control group ( = 6) during a 3-week national training camp.

Effects of Chronic Cold-Water Immersion in Elite Rugby Players.

Purpose: Although the acute effects of cold-water immersion (CWI) have been widely investigated, research analyzing the effects of CWI over a chronic period in highly trained athletes is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of CWI during an intense 3-wk preseason phase in elite rugby athletes.

Methods: A total of 23 elite male rugby union athletes were randomized to either CWI (10 min at 10°C, n = 10) or a passive recovery control (CON, n = 13) during 3 wk of high-volume training.

Wellness, muscle soreness and neuromuscular performance during a training week in volleyball athletes.

Background: The purpose of the current study is to analyze the acute effects of volleyball training and to compare the responses of different perceptual and neuromuscular measures to overall training load.

Methods: The training load, wellness, neuromuscular performance and perceptual measures of soreness of 13 highly-trained volleyball athletes (18±1 years; 187.1±7.

An examination of the jump-and-lift factors influencing the time to reach peak catch height during a Rugby Union lineout.

The goal of an offensive Rugby Union lineout is to throw the ball in a manner that allows your team to maintain possession. Typically, the player catching the ball jumps and is lifted upwards by two teammates, reaching above the opposing player who is competing for the ball also. Despite various beliefs regarding the importance of the jumper's mass and attempted jump height, and lifters' magnitude and point of force application, there is negligible published data on the topic.

The effect of training load on neuromuscular performance, muscle soreness and wellness during an in-season non-competitive week in elite rugby athletes.

Background: In the elite rugby setting, it is critical to understand the effects of training load on the levels of fatigue, soreness and readiness of the athletes.

Methods: The training load, wellness, neuromuscular markers of fatigue and various perceptual measures of soreness of 16 elite rugby athletes were monitored during a training week. Training load was obtained for field training sessions, extra conditioning and gym-based sessions.

Fatigue and Recovery in Rugby: A Review.

The physical demands and combative nature of rugby lead to notable levels of muscle damage. In professional rugby, athletes only have a limited timeframe to recover following training sessions and competition. Through the implementation of recovery strategies, sport scientists, practitioners and coaches have sought to reduce the effect of fatigue and allow athletes to recover faster.

Are there useful physiological or psychological markers for monitoring overload training in elite rowers?

There is a need for markers that would help determine when an athlete's training load is either insufficient or excessive. In this study we examined the relationship between changes in performance and changes in physiological and psychological markers during and following a period of overload training in 10 female and 10 male elite rowers. Change in performance during a 4-wk overload was determined with a weekly 30-min time-trial on a rowing ergometer, whereas an incremental test provided change in lactate-threshold power between the beginning of the study and following a 1-wk taper after the overload.

Variability and predictability of finals times of elite rowers.

Purpose: Little is known about the competitive performance characteristics of elite rowers. We report here analyses of performance times for finalists in world-class regattas from 1999 to 2009.

Methods: The data were official race times for the 10 men's and 7 women's single and crewed boat classes, each with ∼ 200-300 different boats competing in 1-33 of the 46 regattas at 18 venues.