Mind the Gap: Comparison of External Load and Load Variation Between a Reserve Team in a 1-Game Week Microcycle and Its First Team in a 2-Game Week Microcycle Within an Elite Professional Soccer Club.

ABSTRACT: Carpels, T, Scobie, N, Macfarlane, NG, and Kemi, OJ. Mind the gap: comparison of external load and load variation between a reserve team in a 1-game week microcycle and its first team in a 2-game week microcycle within an elite professional soccer club. J Strength Cond Res 38(5): e235-e242, 2024-The aim of this study was to quantify and compare weekly external load and within-week load variation of reserve team players (RES) in a 1-game week microcycle to first team players (FT) in a 2-game week microcycle within the same professional soccer club. External load data were collected between 2017 and 2020 for the following parameters: duration, total distance (TD), total high-speed distance (THSD; >19.8 km·h -1 ), high-speed distance (HSD; 19.8-25.2 km·h -1 ), sprint distance (SD; >25.2 km·h -1 ), number of sprints (number of efforts >25.2 km·h -1 ), number of high-speed efforts (number of HS efforts >19.8 km·h -1 ), meters per minute (m·min -1 ), and high-speed meters per minute (HS m·min -1 ). First team players were subcategorized into starters (ST) and nonstarters (NST). Intergroup differences in cumulative weekly load and weekly load patterns were statistically analyzed, whereas training monotony (TM) was quantified to assess intragroup, within-week, load variation. Reserve team players showed similar weekly loads to ST, apart from significant differences ( p < 0.005) in duration (8%), TD (21%), and HS efforts (16%). Similar to ST, RES showed greater values than NST ( p < 0.0005) for duration (10%), TD (9%), THSD (30%), HSD (26%), SD (45%), sprints (40%), and HS efforts (22%). Weekly patterns in RES were different from ST and NST ( p < 0.05). Training monotony was highest for NST for all parameters, apart from the number of sprints. Reserve team players need to be prepared to cope with cumulative weekly loads and the lack of recovery between games that ST face. However, when RES become NST, effective loading strategies need to be designed within the limits of 2-game week microcycles to ensure continuous development.

Graduate prospects explain undergraduate program standing in university league sports science tables.

UK university undergraduate programs are compared by independent subject-specific rankings (Complete, Guardian, and Times), based on data from the National Student Survey, Higher Education Statistics Agency, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, Research Excellence Framework, and the universities. The sports and exercise science program at the University of Glasgow has steadily risen to currently rank as the top UK program. This investigation aimed to identify the underlying factors that explain this. Therefore, we obtained underlying scores for entry standard, student satisfaction, research foundation, graduate prospects, staff-to-student ratio, expenditure/student, continuation, program support to students, and teaching quality from the ranking providers for years 2010-2024, and statistically modeled which factors significantly affected the rankings. We found that entry standards and graduate prospects strongly correlated significantly with ranking results. Principal component analysis indicated that a model of graduate prospects and entry standards explained 66.2% of the variance in ranking results. Multiple linear regression with all underlying factors included in the model indicated they explained 78% (R2 = 0.78) of the total variance, while stepwise elimination of insignificant factors identified graduate prospects as the sole factor that significantly affected outcome by explaining 71% (R2 = 0.71) of the variance. Therefore, the primary predictor of ranking success in UK university league tables for sports science is graduates' professional success (graduate prospects).NEW & NOTEWORTHY University rankings are used by applicants and stakeholders to judge programs, including undergraduate studies. In the rankings, undergraduate UK programs are compared and contrasted against each other based on how they score for criteria that affect student life and future prospects. Here, we determined the relative influence of those criteria and found that graduate prospects, how students professionally benefit from their study after graduation, is the factor that matters most for the ranking results.

Use of Lt Systems in Large Class Lab Delivery.

The attainment of laboratory-based skills is essential for the development of all students who study the Life Sciences. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Universities worldwide closed campuses, there was great uncertainty around how long people would have to work from home, leading to a real risk that students could miss out on obtaining laboratory practice for one or perhaps 2 years. It, therefore, became critical that processes were put in place that would allow students the opportunity to gain insight into what the laboratory environment is like, and to also gain experience in data collection, interpretation, and analysis. The adoption of Lt systems (a cloud-based learning platform for the Life Sciences) to create laboratory-based teaching allowed for these issues to be addressed. Detailed planning, teamwork and production of online lab sessions allowed for the creation of bespoke lessons that replicated as best as possible the 'face-to-face' experience. This was achieved by taking aspects of pre-existing labs, filming new material and utilising interactive data analysis tools in order to create online Lt labs that gave students a feel of what it would be like to be in a laboratory on campus. Lt systems also doubled as a revision tool to enhance student learning and ultimately allowed intended learning outcomes to be successfully met. The labs were well received by students and the online material meant that they could access content at a time convenient to them. This 'online anytime' possibility was crucial for such a large class (n = 378) who were working from home in many different countries worldwide during a pandemic. Going forward, the online lessons built during the pandemic can be integrated with future face-to-face sessions to create a more enhanced learning experience for the student.

Youth-to-Senior Transition in Elite European Club Soccer.

The priority for soccer academies is to develop youth players that graduate and transfer directly to their senior squads. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of this direct youth-to-senior pathway by examining the extent to which club-trained players (CTPs) are currently involved in elite male European soccer. Relevant demographic longitudinal studies between 2009 and 2020 conducted by the International Centre for Sports Studies Football Observatory were analysed. The main findings were that the proportion of CTPs in senior squads has decreased from 23% to 17% over this time period, while the proportion of expatriates (EXPs) has increased from 35% to 42%. Moreover, clubs resorted more frequently to making new signings (NS, i.e. association-trained players (ATPs) and/or EXPs), with squad proportion increasing from 37% to 44%, while only launching one debutant (DBT, i.e. CTP with no previous senior experience) on average per season. Similar trends are observed in the evolution of playing time: while the fielding of CTPs remained constant (15%), EXPs and NS are fielded increasingly more (49% and 36%, respectively), despite a positive relationship between CTP match fielding and league ranking, with a Spearman Rank correlation r = 0.712 (95% confidence interval [0.381-0.881]), p < 0.01. In conclusion, young talents are still provided opportunities; however, these are limited and increasingly less frequent at their parent clubs. This potentially suggests a dysfunctional direct youth-to-senior development pathway.