Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and is performed by men and women, children and adults with different levels of expertise. Soccer performance depends upon a myriad of factors such as technical/biomechanical, tactical, mental and physiological areas. One of the reasons that soccer is so popular worldwide is that players may not need to have an extraordinary capacity within any of these performance areas, but possess a reasonable level within all areas. However, there are trends towards more systematic training and selection influencing the anthropometric profiles of players who compete at the highest level. As with other activities, soccer is not a science, but science may help improve performance. Efforts to improve soccer performance often focus on technique and tactics at the expense of physical fitness. During a 90-minute game, elite-level players run about 10 km at an average intensity close to the anaerobic threshold (80-90% of maximal heart rate). Within this endurance context, numerous explosive bursts of activity are required, including jumping, kicking, tackling, turning, sprinting, changing pace, and sustaining forceful contractions to maintain balance and control of the ball against defensive pressure. The best teams continue to increase their physical capacities, whilst the less well ranked have similar values as reported 30 years ago. Whether this is a result of fewer assessments and training resources, selling the best players, and/or knowledge of how to perform effective exercise training regimens in less well ranked teams, is not known. As there do exist teams from lower divisions with as high aerobic capacity as professional teams, the latter factor probably plays an important role. This article provides an update on the physiology of soccer players and referees, and relevant physiological tests. It also gives examples of effective strength- and endurance-training programmes to improve on-field performance. The cited literature has been accumulated by computer searching of relevant databases and a review of the authors' extensive files. From a total of 9893 papers covering topics discussed in this article, 843 were selected for closer scrutiny, excluding studies where information was redundant, insufficient or the experimental design was inadequate. In this article, 181 were selected and discussed. The information may have important implications for the safety and success of soccer players and hopefully it should be understood and acted upon by coaches and individual soccer players.

http://carlocapelli.it/ftp/didattica/master calcio/bibliografia_essenziale/stolen_et_al_2005.pdf

Physiology of Soccer: An Update

The ability to change direction while sprinting is considered essential for successful participation in most team and individual sports. It has traditionally been thought that strength and power development would enhance change of direction (COD) performance. The most common approach to quantifying these relationships, and to discovering determinants (physiological and mechanical) of COD performance, is with correlation analysis. There have not been any strength or power variables that significantly correlated with COD performance on a consistent basis and the magnitude of the correlations were, for the most part, small to moderate. The training studies in the literature that have utilized traditional strength and power training programmes, which involved exercises being performed bilaterally in the vertical direction (e.g. Olympic-style lifts, squats, deadlifts, plyometrics, vertical jumping), have mostly failed to elicit improvements in COD performance. Conversely, the training protocols reporting improvements in COD performance have utilized exercises that more closely mimic the demands of a COD, which include horizontal jump training (unilateral and bilateral), lateral jump training (unilateral and bilateral), loaded vertical jump training, sport-specific COD training and general COD training.

Understanding change of direction ability in sport: a review of resistance training studies.

In this study, we examined gender and age differences in physical performance in football Thirty-four elite female and 34 elite male players (age 17 ± 16 to 24 ± 34 years) from a professional football club were divided into four groups (n = 17 each) according to gender and competitive level (senior males, senior females, junior males, and junior females) Players were tested for specific endurance (Yo-YoIR1), sprint over 15 m (Sprint-15m), vertical jump without (CMJ) or with (ACMJ) arm swing, agility (Agility-15m), and ball dribbling over 15 m (Ball-15m) The Yo-YoIR1 and Agility-15m performances showed both a gender and competitive level difference (P   005) More ma

Fitness determinants of success in men's and women's football

The ability to change direction while sprinting is considered essential for successful participation in most team and individual sports. It has traditionally been thought that strength and power development would enhance change of direction (COD) performance. The most common approach to quantifying these relationships, and to discovering determinants (physiological and mechanical) of COD performance, is with correlation analysis. There have not been any strength or power variables that significantly correlated with COD performance on a consistent basis and the magnitude of the correlations were, for the most part, small to moderate. The training studies

http://www.luzimarteixeira.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Understanding-Change-of-Direction-Ability-in-Sports1.pdf

THIS MANUSCRIPT IS PROVIDED IN CONFIDENCE TO DETERMINE REPRINT INTEREST ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE DISTRIBUTED EITHER INTERNALLY OR EXTERNALLY VIA PRINT OR ELECTRONIC MEDIA FOR OTHER THAN THE STATED PURPOSE. Understanding Change of Direction Ability in Sport A Review of Resistance Training Studies

We sought to study the physical demands and match performance of women soccer players. Nineteen top-class and 15 high-level players were individually videotaped in competitive matches, and time-motion analysis were performed. The players changed locomotor activity >1,300 times in a game corresponding to every ~4 seconds and covered 9-11 km in total. The top-class players ran 28% longer (P < 0.05) at high intensities than high-level players (1.68 +/- 0.09 and 1.33 +/- 0.10 km, respectively) and sprinted 24% longer (P < 0.05). The top-class group had a decrease (P < 0.05) of 25-57% in high intensity running in the final 15 minutes compared with the first four 15-minutes intervals, whereas the high-level group performed less (P < 0.05) high-intensity running in the last 15 minutes of each half in comparison with the 2 previous 15-minute periods in the respective half. Peak distance covered by high intensity running in a 5-minute interval was 33% longer (P < 0.05) for the top-class players than the high-level players. In the following 5 minutes immediately after the peak interval top-class players covered 17% less (P < 0.05) high-intensity running than the game average. Defenders performed fewer (P < 0.05) intervals of high-intensity running than midfielders and attackers, as well as fewer (P < 0.05) sprints than the attackers. In conclusion, for women soccer players (1) top-class international players perform more intervals of high-intensity running than elite players at a lower level, (2) fatigue develops temporarily during and towards the end of a game, and (3) defenders have lower work rates than midfielders and attackers. The difference in high-intensity running between the 2 levels demonstrates the importance of intense intermittent exercise for match performance in women soccer. Thus, these aspects should be trained intensively in women soccer.

Match activities of elite women soccer players at different performance levels

We compared the efficacy of three physical conditioning programmes provided over a 12 week period (24 h in total) on selected anthropometric and physical fitness parameters in female soccer players. Two of the groups received physical conditioning training in accordance with speed, agility and quickness (SAQ); one group used specialized resistance and speed development SAQ equipment (equipment group; n = 12), while the other group used traditional soccer coaching equipment (non-equipment group; n = 12). A third group received their regular fitness sessions (active control group; n = 12). All three interventions decreased (P <0.001) the participants' body mass index (−3.7%) and fat percentage (−1.7%), and increased their flexibility (+14.7%) and maximal aerobic capacity ([Vdot]O2max) (+18.4%). The participants in the equipment and non-equipment conditioning groups showed significantly (P <0.005) greater benefits from their training programme than those in the active control group by performing significantly better on the sprint to fatigue (−11.6% for both the equipment and non-equipment groups versus −6.2% for the active control group), 25 m sprint (−4.4% vs −0.7%), left (−4.5% vs −1.0%) and right (−4.0% vs −1.4%) side agility, and vertical (+18.5% vs +4.8%) and horizontal (+7.7% vs +1.6%) power tests. Some of these differences in improvements in physical fitness between the equipment and non-equipment conditioning groups on the one hand and the active control group on the other hand were probably due to the specificity of the training programmes. It was concluded that SAQ training principles appear to be effective in the physical conditioning of female soccer players. Moreover, these principles can be implemented during whole team training sessions without the need for specialized SAQ equipment. Finally, more research is required to establish the relationship between physical fitness and soccer performance as well as the principles underlying the improvements seen through the implementation of SAQ training programmes.

Darren Walsh

Papers

Effective conditioning of female soccer players

Effective conditioning of female soccer players.