Introduction: The fluctuation of external match load throughout a season is influenced by several contextual factors. While some, have been deeply analysed in men`s football literature, information is lacking on how other contextual elements, such as player`s age or experience, may affect the match-to-match variability of locomotor activities. In fact, aging has been described as a multifactorial process with the potential to affect human performance. The aim of this study is to assess if the variability of match locomotor performances fluctuates according to the players` age. Methods: 59 female players from four top-level clubs were divided into three age groups and monitored during two seasons using GPS APEX (STATSports, Northern Ireland), with a sampling frequency of 10Hz, in 150 official matches to determine the coefficient of variation (CV) of full-match and 1-min peak locomotor demands of total distance (TD), high-speed running distance, sprint distance (SpD), accelerations, and decelerations. To test whether there was a group effect of age on match-to-match variability we used a one-way ANOVA with CV% as the independent variable. Results: CV values of full match variables ranged from 3.8% to 27.8%, with total distance (3.8%) in the peak age group and SpD (27.8%) in the pre-peak age group. Similarly, CV values of 1-min peaks ranged from 4.1% (post-peak group) in TD to 22.3% (peak group) in SpD. Discussion: The main finding was that there were no significant differences between the different age groups in the metrics analysed although trends indicate less variability in the post-peak age group.
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