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

Women's participation in intercollegiate athletics has increased dramatically in recent years. Greater participation has increased awareness of health and medical issues specific to the female athlete. Some reports have noted a higher susceptibility to knee injury, specifically injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament, in female athletes as compared with their male counterparts. We performed a 5-year evaluation of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in collegiate men's and women's soccer and basketball programs using the National College Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System. Results showed significantly higher anterior cruciate ligament injury rates in both female sports compared with the male sports. Noncontact mechanisms were the primary cause of anterior cruciate ligament injury in both female sports. Possible causative factors for this increase in anterior cruciate ligament injuries among women may be extrinsic (body movement, muscular strength, shoe-surface interface, and skill level) or intrinsic (joint laxity, limb alignment, notch dimensions, and ligament size).

Knee Injury Patterns Among Men and Women in Collegiate Basketball and Soccer NCAA Data and Review of Literature

Purpose:To examine the activity profile and physical loading of elite female soccer players during match play and to study the relationship between training status and physical match performance.Methods:Time-motion analysis and HR recordings were performed on 14 elite female soccer players d

Physical demands during an elite female soccer game: importance of training status.

Purpose:Video match analysis is used for the assessment of physical performances of professional soccer players, particularly for the identification of "high intensities" considered as "high running speeds." However, accelerations are also essential elements setting metabolic loads, even whe

/pdf/energy-cost-and-metabolic-power-in-elite-soccer-a-new-match-usg77jfmt3.pdf

Energy cost and metabolic power in elite soccer: a new match analysis approach.

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are occurring at a higher rate in female athletes compared with their male counterparts. Research in the area of anterior cruciate ligament injury has increasingly focused on the role of joint proprioception and muscle activity in promoting knee joint stability. We measured knee joint laxity, joint kinesthesia, lower extremity balance, the amount of time required to generate peak torque of the knee flexor and extensor musculature, and electromyographically assessed muscle activity in 34 healthy, collegiate-level athletes (average age, 19.6 +/- 1.5 years) who played soccer or basketball or both. Independent t-tests were used to determine significant sex differences. Results revealed that women inherently possess significantly greater knee joint laxity values, demonstrate a significantly longer time to detect the knee joint motion moving into extension, possess significantly superior single-legged balance ability, and produce significantly greater electromyographic peak amplitude and area of the lateral hamstring muscle subsequent to landing a jump. The excessive joint laxity of women appears to contribute to diminished joint proprioception, rendering the knee less sensitive to potentially damaging forces and possibly at risk for injury. Unable to rely on ligamentous structures, healthy female athletes appear to have adopted compensatory mechanisms of increased hamstring activity to achieve functional joint stabilization.

Knee joint laxity and neuromuscular characteristics of male and female soccer and basketball players.

Women’s soccer is in its infancy as a sport and research into its physiological demands and the physical characteristics of players is somewhat limited. There is now an increasing demand for scientific investigation of the female game and of the players, match analysis and role variations requiring particular attention. Current research suggests that the demands of the game for women are similar to those placed on male players. Women are reported to cover a similar distance (mean 8471m) to their male counterparts during a game and much the same proportions of the game appear to be devoted to exercise of varying intensities. Furthermore, female and male players appear to tax the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems to a similar level. The physical and physiological characteristics of female soccer players are comparable with those of other female games players and are more favourable than average for the population. Mean body fat percentages of between 19.7 and 22.0% and V02max values of between 47.1 and 57.6 ml/kg/min have been reported for elite female players, while faster than average sprint times are also characteristic of them.

Jackie A. Davis

Papers

Applied Physiology of Female Soccer Players