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Study: Soccer players’ training, competition workload may help predict injuries
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Findings from an analysis of youth soccer players that focused on possible links between training and injury have resulted in a set of initial guidelines that may help reduce the occurrence of injuries in elite youth soccer, also known as football, according to a press release from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
The guidelines include having players attain higher fitness levels, which will reduce the type of fatigue related to contact injury. Also, training, for instance, should be organized so that across a 4-week training period the total load/forces and high speeds to which an athlete is subjected fluctuates in such a way that high, as well as low workloads, are both equally achieved.
Results of the analysis performed by Laura Bowen, BSc, who is the first team data scientist at Southampton FC, and colleagues, were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It was the first study to use GPS technology to monitor injury risk by tracking the speed and acceleration of players in the training and competitive soccer setting.
“Our research has huge practical and scientific application. It expands a recent body of literature in rugby league and cricket which has proposed that the prescription of workloads may be more indicative of injury than the load itself,” Bowen said in the press release.
“The results of our study demonstrate this, with high, excessive workloads associated with the greatest injury risk. However, when the players were exposed to these high loads progressively, over a period of time, the risk of injury reduced significantly. Ultimately, players who safely train harder, may develop a greater resilience and tolerance for the intensity and fatigue of competition by increasing their physical capacities,” she said.
François-Xavier Li, PhD, of the University of Birmingham’s School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, who supervises Bowen’s work on this project, said in the press release, “An appropriate balance is required between training, competition and recovery to hit peak performance, whilst avoiding injury. However, the balance is not always adequately maintained — highlighted by the higher injury rate in football than many other team sports.”
He said these findings apply solely to elite youth soccer, and coaches should be cautious about directly applying results of this study to different types of teams that play different sports.
Reference:
Bowen L, et al. Br J Sports Med. 2016;doi:10.1136/bjsports-2015-095820. [Epub ahead of print].
Disclosures: Bowen and Li report no relevant financial disclosures.