Training intensity monitoring is a daily practice in soccer which allows soccer academies to assess the efficacy of its developmental interventions and management strategies. The current systematic review’s purpose is to: (1) identify and summarize studies that have examined external and internal training intensity monitoring, and to (2) provide references values for the main measures for young male soccer players. A systematic review of EBSCO, PubMed, Scielo, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science databases was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. From the 2404 studies initially identified, 8 were fully reviewed, and their outcome measures were extracted and analyzed. From them, the following range intervals were found for training: rated perceived exertion (RPE) 2.3–6.3 au; session-RPE, 156–394 au; total distance, 3964.5–6500 m and; distance >18 km/h, 11.8–250 m. Additionally, a general tendency to decrease the intensity in the day before the match was Found. This study allowed to provide reference values of professional young male players for the main internal and external measures. All together, they can be used by coaches, their staff, or practitioners in order to better adjust training intensity.

Background: The interpretation of the load variations across a period seems important to control the weekly progression or variation of the load, or to identify within- micro and mesocycle variations. Thus, the aim of this study was to describe the in-season variations of training monotony, training strain, and acute: chronic workload ratio (ACWR) through session rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE), total distance and high-speed running (HSR) according to playing positions in an elite soccer team. Methods: Seventeen professional players from an European First League team participated in this study. They were divided four central defenders (CD), three wide defenders (WD), four central midfielders (CM), three wide midfielders (WM) and three strikers (ST). The players were monitored daily over a 41-week period of competition where 52 matches occurred during the 2015–2016 in-season. Through the collection of s-RPE, total distance and HSR, training monotony, training strain and ACWR were calculated for each measure, respectively. Data were analysed across ten mesocycles (M: 1–10). Results: The main results showed significant differences (p < 0.05) for TMs-RPE between CD vs. ST (moderate effect) in M2; between CD vs. CM (moderate effect) for TS of s-RPE; between CD vs. ST moderate effect) in M6 for ACWR of s-RPE. In addition, there was significant difference between CM vs. ST (moderate effect) in M2 for TS of TD; between WD vs. ST (moderate effect) in M3 for ACWR of TD. Moreover, there were significant differences for TM of HSR between CD vs. WD (very large effect); CD vs. WD (moderate effect) in M4 for TS of HSR. Conclusions: The present study presents new insights to coaches and technical staff about the variation profiling of TM, TS, and ACWR calculated with internal and external load measures, between player positions during 10 mesocycles.

Background and Objectives: Interpretation of the load variations across a period seems important to control the weekly progression or variation of the load, or to identify in-micro- and mesocycle variations. Thus, the aims of this study were twofold: (a) to describe the in-season variations of training monotony, training strain and acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) through session ratings of perceived exertion (s-RPE), total distance and high-speed running (HSR); and (b) to compare those variations between starters and non-starters. Materials and Methods: Seventeen professional players from a European First League team participated in this study. They were divided in two groups: starters (n = 9) and non-starters (n = 8). The players were monitored daily over a 41-week period of competition where 52 matches occurred during the 2015–2016 in-season. Through the collection of s-RPE, total distance and HSR, training monotony, training strain and ACWR were calculated for each measure, respectively. Data were analyzed across ten mesocycles (M: 1 to 10). Repeated measures ANOVA was used with the Bonferroni post hoc test to compare M and player status. Results: The results revealed no differences between starters vs. non-starters (p > 0.05). M6 had a greater number of matches and displayed higher values for monotony (s-RPE, total distance and HSR), strain (only for total distance) and ACWR (s-RPE, TD and HSR). However, the variation patterns for all indexes displayed some differences. Conclusions: The values of both starters and non-starters showed small differences, thus suggesting that the adjustments of training workloads that had been applied over the season helped to reduce differences according to the player status. Even so, there were some variations over the season (microcycles and mesocycles) for the whole team. This study could be used as a reference for future coaches, staff and scientists.

The aims of this study were to compare external match load between home and away matches as well as the result of the match (win, draw, and loss). The secondary aim was to quantify external training load that preceded the next match taking into account both match location and result. Ten elite women soccer players participated in the study (age 24.6 ± 2.3 years). Seven home and seven away matches in which four wins, three draws, and seven losses occurred. The following global positioning system (GPS) metrics were analyzed: duration, total distance, high-speed running distance (HSR, ≥15 km h ⁻¹ ), number of accelerations (ACC) and decelerations (DEC), average speed, and player load. There were no significant differences between match results and match locations. Regarding comparisons of training data preceding different match results, only duration and player load did not differ while HSR, number of ACC and DEC showed to be higher when the next match was a loss ( p < 0.05, moderate to very large effect). Regarding comparisons of training data preceding different match locations, only duration, total distance, and player load did not differ while HSR, average speed, number of ACC and DEC in all zones were higher when the next match was at home ( p < 0.05, moderate to very large effect). In conclusion, this study showed that match result and location did not have a significant effect on GPS metrics exhibited during match-day. However, training data influenced the contextual factors of the next match which should be considered when planning training sessions.

INPLASY202180055 Reference values for external and internal load monitoring in young male soccer players: A systematic review Keywords: football; load quantification; training load; workload. Downl…

This study aimed to quantify the absolute and relative data across a typical microcycle (MC) in female professional soccer players utilizing a match day minus (MD-) approach. Ten players (24.7 ± 2.6 years) from an elite female Portuguese team participated in this case study. Data was analyzed in absolute or relativized values (per minute) and included the following metrics: duration, total distance, high-speed running distance (HSR, >15 km/h), number of accelerations (ACC, >1–2 m.s⁻² [ACC1]; >2–3 m.s⁻² [ACC2]; >3–4 m.s⁻² [ACC3]; >4 m.s⁻² [ACC4]) and decelerations (DEC, <1–2 m.s⁻² [DEC1]; <2–3 m.s⁻² [DEC2]; <3–4 m.s⁻² [DEC3]; <4 m.s⁻² [DEC4]). Total distance showed a significant difference between MD-4 and MD-2 (p = 0.047, moderate effect), which presented the lowest value of all MC days, while MD presented the highest value of HSR compared to all training days (p < 0.001, large to very large effect) for both absolute and relativized data. Relative data showed higher values for MD-5 with significant differences during MD-2 for ACC1, ACC2, DEC1, and DEC2 (p < 0.01, large to very large effect), while absolute data showed higher values during MD-4 for ACC2, DEC1, and DEC2 (p < 0.01, large to very large effect). Absolute ACC3 was higher during MD-3, denoting significant differences from MD-2 (p = 0.002, large effect). This study highlighted that it is possible to train, in specific sessions, with identical loading patterns of match play, specifically for ACC and DEC metrics. However, HSR distance was found to be higher during MD, while training values were significantly lower.