Quantifying change of direction load using positional data from small-sided games in soccer.

Purpose: Quantifying change of direction (COD) load through positional data from small-sided games (SSG) and assess its criterion and construct validity.

Methods: Elite male youth soccer players ( = 25, 16.8 ± 1.

Resilience in sports: a multidisciplinary, dynamic, and personalized perspective.

Athletes are exposed to various psychological and physiological stressors, such as losing matches and high training loads. Understanding and improving the resilience of athletes is therefore crucial to prevent performance decrements and psychological or physical problems. In this review, resilience is conceptualized as a dynamic process of bouncing back to normal functioning following stressors.

Nonergodicity in Load and Recovery: Group Results Do Not Generalize to Individuals.

Purpose: The study of load and recovery gained significant interest in the last decades, given its important value in decreasing the likelihood of injuries and improving performance. So far, findings are typically reported on the group level, whereas practitioners are most often interested in applications at the individual level. Hence, the aim of the present research is to examine to what extent group-level statistics can be generalized to individual athletes, which is referred to as the "ergodicity issue.

How soccer scouts identify talented players.

Scouts of soccer clubs are often the first to identify talented players. However, there is a lack of research on how these scouts assess and predict overall soccer performance. Therefore, we conducted a large-scaled study to examine the process of talent identification among 125 soccer scouts.

The validity of small-sided games in predicting 11-vs-11 soccer game performance.

Predicting performance in soccer games has been a major focus within talent identification and development. Past research has mainly used performance levels, such as elite vs. non-elite players, as the performance to predict (i.

Methodological Issues in Soccer Talent Identification Research.

Talent identification research in soccer comprises the prediction of elite soccer performance. While many studies in this field have aimed to empirically relate performance characteristics to subsequent soccer success, a critical evaluation of the methodology of these studies has mostly been absent in the literature. In this position paper, we discuss advantages and limitations of the design, validity, and utility of current soccer talent identification research.

Predicting Future Perceived Wellness in Professional Soccer: The Role of Preceding Load and Wellness.

Purpose: The influence of preceding load and future perceived wellness of professional soccer players is unexamined. This paper simultaneously evaluates the external load (EL) and internal load (IL) for different time frames in combination with presession wellness to predict future perceived wellness using machine learning techniques.

Methods: Training and match data were collected from a professional soccer team.

When Something Is at Stake: Differences in Soccer Performance in 11 vs. 11 During Official Matches and Training Games.

Olthof, SBH, Frencken, WGP, and Lemmink, KAPM. When something is at stake: Differences in soccer performance in 11 vs. 11 during official matches and training games.

A Match-Derived Relative Pitch Area Facilitates the Tactical Representativeness of Small-Sided Games for the Official Soccer Match.

Olthof, SBH, Frencken, WGP, and Lemmink, KAPM. A match-derived relative pitch area facilitates the tactical representativeness of small-sided games for the official soccer match. J Strength Cond Res 33(2): 523-530, 2019-Small-sided games (SSGs) are a promising training format in soccer to replicate (situations of) the official match across all age groups.

Selection procedures in sports: Improving predictions of athletes' future performance.

The selection of athletes has been a central topic in sports sciences for decades. Yet, little consideration has been given to the theoretical underpinnings and predictive validity of the procedures. In this paper, we evaluate current selection procedures in sports given what we know from the selection psychology literature.

Relationships Between the External and Internal Training Load in Professional Soccer: What Can We Learn From Machine Learning?

Purpose: Machine learning may contribute to understanding the relationship between the external load and internal load in professional soccer. Therefore, the relationship between external load indicators (ELIs) and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was examined using machine learning techniques on a group and individual level.

Methods: Training data were collected from 38 professional soccer players over 2 seasons.

Seasonal Training Load and Wellness Monitoring in a Professional Soccer Goalkeeper.

The purpose of this investigation was to (1) quantify the training load practices of a professional soccer goalkeeper and (2) investigate the relationship between the training load observed and the subsequent self-reported wellness response. One male goalkeeper playing for a team in the top league of the Netherlands participated in this case study. Training load data were collected across a full season using a global positioning system device and session-RPE (rating of perceived exertion).

Match-derived relative pitch area changes the physical and team tactical performance of elite soccer players in small-sided soccer games.

Small-sided games (SSGs) are used in training sessions to prepare for full-sized matches. For the same number of players, smaller pitch sizes result in decreased physical performance and shorter interpersonal distances. A relative pitch area derived from the full-sized match results in larger pitch sizes and this may increase the fit between SSGs and full-sized matches.

Examination of the external and internal load indicators' association with overuse injuries in professional soccer players.

Objectives: Research in professional soccer focusing on the relevance of external and internal load indicators for injury prevention is scarce. This study examined the relationship between load indicators and overuse injuries.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Differences in game reading between selected and non-selected youth soccer players.

Applying an established theory of cognitive development-Skill Theory-the current study compares the game-reading skills of youth players selected for a soccer school of a professional soccer club (n = 49) and their non-selected peers (n = 38). Participants described the actions taking place in videos of soccer game plays, and their verbalisations were coded using Skill Theory. Compared to the non-selected players, the selected players generally demonstrated higher levels of complexity in their game-reading, and structured the information of game elements-primarily the player, teammate and field-at higher complexity levels.

Impaired Player-Coach Perceptions of Exertion and Recovery During Match Congestion.

Unlabelled: During intensified phases of competition, attunement of exertion and recovery is crucial to maintain performance. Although a mismatch between coach and player perceptions of training load is demonstrated, it is unknown if these discrepancies also exist for match exertion and recovery.

Purpose: To determine match exertion and subsequent recovery and to investigate the extent to which the coach is able to estimate players' match exertion and recovery.

Understanding the Mismatch Between Coaches' and Players' Perceptions of Exertion.

Unlabelled: A mismatch between the training exertion intended by a coach and the exertion perceived by players is well established in sports. However, it is unknown whether coaches can accurately observe exertion of individual players during training. Furthermore, the discrepancy in coaches' and players' perceptions has not been explained.

Relationships Between Training Load Indicators and Training Outcomes in Professional Soccer.

Background: In professional senior soccer, training load monitoring is used to ensure an optimal workload to maximize physical fitness and prevent injury or illness. However, to date, different training load indicators are used without a clear link to training outcomes.

Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to identify the state of knowledge with respect to the relationship between training load indicators and training outcomes in terms of physical fitness, injury, and illness.

The older, the wider: On-field tactical behavior of elite-standard youth soccer players in small-sided games.

Purpose: Young soccer players need excellent tactical skills to reach the top. Tactical behavior emerges through interactions between opposing teams. However, few studies have focused on on-field tactical behavior of teams with talented soccer players.

Length, width and centroid distance as measures of teams tactical performance in youth football.

Small-sided games are commonly used in training and teaching contexts of football. However, few studies have focused on the tactical implications of this type of drills. The aim of this study is to identify how tactical collective behaviour varies with age in different small-sided game formats.

Variability of inter-team distances associated with match events in elite-standard soccer.

In soccer, critical match events like goal attempts can be preceded by periods of instability in the balance between the two teams' behaviours. Therefore, we determined periods of high variability in the distance between the teams' centroid positions longitudinally and laterally in an international-standard soccer match and evaluated corresponding match events. Position data were collected with AMISCO Pro®.

Soccer-specific accuracy and validity of the local position measurement (LPM) system.

Limited data is available on accuracy and validity of video-based, GPS and electronic tracking systems, particularly with reference to curved courses and short high intensity running activities. The main goal of this study was to assess soccer-specific accuracy and validity of the radio-frequency based local position measurement (LPM) system (1000Hz) for measuring distance and speed during walking and sprinting. Three males walked and sprinted 4 soccer-specific courses 10 times each.