Accumulative weekly load in a professional football team: with special reference to match playing time and game position

David Casamichana; Andrés Martín-García; Antonio Gómez Díaz; Paul S Bradley; Julen Castellano

doi:10.5114/biolsport.2021.102924

eISSN: 2083-1862
ISSN: 0860-021X

Biology of Sport

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1/2022
vol. 39

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abstract:

Original paper

Accumulative weekly load in a professional football team: with special reference to match playing time and game position

David Casamichana

^{1, 2}

,

Andrés Martín-García

³

,

Antonio Gómez Díaz

^{4, 5}

,

Paul S Bradley

⁶

,

Julen Castellano

⁷

Atlantic European University. Santander, Spain
Real Sociedad Sports Performance Department, San Sebastian, Spain
FC Barcelona Sports Performance Department. Barcelona, Spain
Murcia University, Faculty of Sports Sciences, San Javier, Spain
Polish Football Federation
Research Institute for Sport & Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain

Biol Sport.2022:39(1):115-124.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2021.102924

Online publish date: 2021/03/04

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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 km·h-1), sprint meters (SPR; >25.2 km·h-1), high metabolic load distance (HMLD; >25.5 W·kg-1), number of accelerations (ACC; >3 m·s-2) and decelerations (DEC; <-3 m·s-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.

keywords:

Accumulative weekly load in a professional football team: with special reference to match playing time and game position

David Casamichana 1, 2 , Andrés Martín-García 3 , Antonio Gómez Díaz 4, 5 , Paul S Bradley 6 , Julen Castellano 7

Football, GPS, Periodization, Training load, Positional role

David Casamichana

^{1, 2}

,

Andrés Martín-García

³

,

Antonio Gómez Díaz

^{4, 5}

,

Paul S Bradley

⁶

,

Julen Castellano

⁷