Individual Response to External Training Load in Elite Football Players.

Purpose: To investigate within-player effect, between-player effect, and individual response of external training load from player tracking devices on session rating of perceived exertion training load (sRPE-TL) in elite football players.

Methods: The authors collected sRPE-TL from 18 outfield players in 21 training sessions. Total distance, high-speed running distance (>14.4 m/s), very high-speed running distance (>19.8 m/s), PlayerLoad™, PlayerLoad2D™, and high-intensity events (HIE > 1.5, HIE > 2.5, and HIE > 3.5 m/s) were extracted from the tracking devices. The authors modeled within-player and between-player effects of single external load variables on sRPE-TL, and multiple levels of variability, using a linear mixed model. The effect of 2 SDs of external load on sRPE-TL was evaluated with magnitude-based inferences.

Results: Total distance, PlayerLoad™, PlayerLoad2D™, and HIE > 1.5 had most likely substantial within-player effects on sRPE-TL (100%-106%, very large effect sizes). Moreover, the authors observed likely substantial between-player effects (12%-19%, small to moderate effect sizes) from the majority of the external load variables and likely to very likely substantial individual responses of PlayerLoad™, high-speed running distance, very high-speed running distance, and HIE > 1.5 (19%-30% coefficient of variation, moderate to large effect sizes). Finally, sRPE-TL showed large to very large between-session variability with all external load variables.

Conclusions: External load variables with low intensity-thresholds had the strongest relationship with sRPE-TL. Furthermore, the between-player effect of external load and the individual response to external load advocate for monitoring sRPE-TL in addition to external load. Finally, the large between-session variability in sRPE-TL demonstrates that substantial amounts of sRPE-TL in training sessions are not explained by single external load variables.