2021/03/16 by David Casamichana, Andrés Martín-García, Antonio Gómez Díaz +4
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · #Genetics and Physical Performance #Sports Performance and Training #Sports injuries and prevention
paper · pdf · doi:10.5114/biolsport.2021.102924
openalex publication_date 2021/03/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The aim of this study was to compare weekly accumulative load during the in-season competitive period by professional soccer players according to the amount of time played in official matches (90-min, >60-min, <60-min, and 0-min) regarding the players' position. Twenty-four professional outfield football players were monitored by GPS devices during training sessions and official matches and the accumulative weekly load were calculated for the following external load variables: total distance (TD; m), high speed running (HSR; >19.8 kmh -1 ), sprint meters (SPR; >25.2 kmh -1 ), high metabolic load distance (HMLD; >25.5 Wkg -1 ), number of accelerations (ACC; >3 ms -2 ) and decelerations (DEC; <-3 ms -2 ). This study revealed that players (as a whole o per demarcation) with more match playing time had a higher accumulative weekly load for most of the variables, but particularly at TD and HMLD (90-min and >60-min vs. <60-min and 0-min), HSR (90-min vs. <60-min and 0-min) and SPR (90-min vs. <60-min and 0-min). In addition, less positional variation was observed in relation to the competition requirements. This information would allow coaches to refine the required load with the objective of optimizing performance to soccer players.