In-season training responses and perceived wellbeing and recovery status in professional soccer players

This study aimed to describe professional soccer players` training responses during a competitive season and to investigate the relationship between these responses with wellbeing and recovery indices. Thirteen professional soccer players from the same Spanish Second Division team were monitored during a sixteen-week in-season period. Players` external loads were analyzed using global positioning measurement units (GPS). Additionally, subjective reporting of sleep quality, sleep duration, fatigue, muscle soreness, and stress were assessed with a customized wellness questionnaire at the beginning of each training session. A two-step cluster analysis identified profiles of different training responses generally described as lower-demand sessions, intermediate-demand sessions, running-based sessions, and sprint-based sessions; which were discriminated by different total distance covered and high-intensity actions. Interestingly, no probabilistic interactions were found between these training responses with wellbeing and recovery markers (i.e., Bayes factor < 1 suggesting no evidence, for all the variables). These findings may raise concerns about using self-reporting tools, as they show that players` wellness data is probably not accounted for when coaching staff plan and optimize the training process. However, results should be interpreted with caution, due to representing a single team and coaching staff.
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Bibliographic Details
Subjects:
Notations:sport games
Published in:PLOS ONE
Language:English
Published: 2021
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254655
Volume:16
Issue:7
Pages:e0254655
Document types:article
Level:advanced