Women's Football: An Examination of Factors That Influence Movement Patterns.

Griffin, J, Larsen, B, Horan, S, Keogh, J, Dodd, K, Andretta, M, and Minahan, C. Title: Women's football: An examination of factors that influence movement patterns. J Strength Cond Res 34(8): 2384-2393, 2020-The popularity and professionalism of women's football has increased in conjunction with participation rates over the last 10 years, with projected female participation rates to double worldwide by 2026. Scientific interest has also increased, in part due to Fédération Internationale de Football Association now allowing global positioning system (GPS) units to be worn during all competitive matches, resulting in investigations into the match demands of women's football. Therefore, the purpose of the present review is to provide a summary of the literature specific to the movement patterns of women's football matches. Contemporary scientific investigation using GPS match data has led to a greater understanding of the movement patterns of football. Greater emphasis has been placed on high-speed running and sprinting during matches because of the strong link to scoring opportunities and being a distinguishing factor between international and national along with elite and subelite competition levels. Further research, however, is warranted in regard to accelerations and decelerations, given the high metabolic and mechanical loads and contribution to high-speed running and sprinting. With an influx of research into the movement patterns of match-play, investigators have begun to examine factors affecting match performance such as positional demands, age, level of competition, opponent, scoreline, and phase of the game. An understanding of the factors that influence match demands is vital to ultimately be able to understand the effects on performance and how manipulating these factors may improve football performance and reduce the risk of injury.

Modelling the Acceleration and Deceleration Profile of Elite-level Soccer Players.

The ability to change velocity rapidly is a key element of field-based sports. This study quantified the acceleration and deceleration profiles of soccer players during match play. Global positioning system measures were collected from 20 male soccer players competing in the Australian Hyundai A-League during 58 matches. Match data were organized into ten 9 min periods (i. e., P1: 0-9 min) and the time spent at moderate (1-2 m·s-2) and high (>2 m·s-2) acceleration and deceleration thresholds were quantified. Additionally, a novel deceleration: acceleration ratio was quantified to identify the transient nature of deceleration activity. Linear mixed models were used to model the acceleration and deceleration profiles. All acceleration and deceleration metrics displayed negative logarithmic curves within each half. There was no change in the ratio of high deceleration: acceleration; however, a significant increase in the ratio of moderate deceleration:acceleration was evident. Using negative logarithmic curves to illustrate the acceleration and deceleration decay provides a novel methodological approach to quantify the high-intensity actions during match play. A decrease in the time spent decelerating throughout a match may be attributed to a lack of opportunity. Practitioners can use the coefficients, intercepts, and deceleration: acceleration ratios to monitor a player's deceleration profile in match play.

What Enables Child Sexual Abuse in Sport? A Systematic Review.

Sporting environments provide opportunities for perpetrators to commit child sexual abuse (CSA). While awareness of CSA in sport and preventative interventions are increasing, CSA in sport still occurs at alarming rates. A systematic review was conducted to identify and synthesize the extant literature on the enabling factors for CSA in sport. The 34 included articles were peer-reviewed and were primary sources; had full-text versions in English; included the individual, situational, environmental, or systemic antecedent factors and characteristics which enable CSA in organized sport (clubs, schools, universities, and representative teams); and focused on abuse in children (0-18 years old), and included retrospective incidents. The enabling factors from across the broader sports system were identified and mapped using a systems thinking-based approach, the Risk Management Framework (RMF) and the associated AcciMap method. The results indicated that enabling factors for CSA in sport were identified at multiple levels of the sporting system hierarchy. The results show that 24.1% (n = 46) of the enabling factors identified in the literature relate to the hierarchical level of the Athlete, teammates, opponents, and fans levels, and 52.9% (n = 101) of the enabling factors relate to the level of Direct supervisors, management, medical, and performance personnel level. However, only 13% (n = 25) of enabling factors to CSA in sport were identified at the combined top four hierarchical levels. Results indicate that the problem of CSA in sport is a systems issue, and future research is required to explore how these factors interact to enable CSA in sport.

The Communication and Passing Contributions of Playing Positions in a Professional Soccer Team.

Determining the connectivity of team members in sport provides important information on team functioning. In soccer, teams that are highly connected via passing have been shown to be more successful compared to teams less connected via passing. In addition to passing connectivity, players are connected with each other via intra-team communication (ITC) through verbal instruction, and nonverbal cues. Despite ITC being a known component of effective teamwork to enhance strategy, efficiency, motivation and concentration, ITC of individual playing positions has not previously been measured during soccer games, nor has it been associated with passing connections in a performance context. In this study, the received ITC that was perceived to be beneficial to performance during 22 competitive professional soccer matches was measured, in conjunction with the passing connections between team members. In total, 526 ITC ratings were collected and analysed, and a total of 7,693 passes were analysed. From the ITC and passing measures, a player connectivity index (PCI) representing the coupling of ITC and passing, was developed to determine the overall connectivity of the individual playing positions. Social network analysis (SNA) centrality metrics were used to determine the connectivity of the playing positions. There were significant (p < .05) main effects between playing positions for beneficial ITC, passing, and the PCI for centrality metrics, indicating that different playing positions interact with other team members differently. Pairwise comparisons indicated significant differences between individual playing positions for ITC, passing and the PCI. The two central defenders and the two central defensive midfielders had the highest mean values for ITC, passing, and the PCI compared to the other playing positions. The current findings suggest that central defenders and central defensive midfielders are positioned tactically to be highly involved in the build-up of passing moves, and to deliver beneficial task related information to team members. These findings have implications for performance analysis, coaches, and for talent identification.

Contextual factors influencing the characteristics of female football players.

Women's football participation rates are projected to increase to 60 million worldwide by 2026, doubling the current participation. Growing investment and the increase in research in women's football has had a positive effect on the level of performance over the last 10 years. The present review aimed to examine the literature on the physical and physiological characteristics of female football players from 2010 to 2019 to reflect the recent changes in professionalism. Characteristics investigated include anthropometry, strength, speed, endurance, power, change of direction and repeated sprint ability. These characteristics are presented in relation to playing position, age and competition-level. Results revealed that goalkeepers (171 cm, 66 kg) and defenders (168 cm, 61 kg) were the tallest and had the greatest body mass, while attackers were the fastest players over 20 m (3.05 s) and 30 m (4.38 s) and midfielders had the highest endurance (55.4 mL∙kg-1∙min-1) (P<0.05). Characteristics tended to improve with age until full biological maturity around 17 to 18 years of age. Competition comparisons demonstrated international players have significantly greater speed, repeated sprint ability, power and endurance characteristics (P<0.05). By identifying influential factors, coaches may be able to optimize their training and physical assessment practices, to better expose players to the required stimulus to develop these characteristics considered crucial to improved performance.

Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg: Using Systems Archetypes to Understand Common and Recurring Issues in Sports Coaching.

Background: Systems thinking, a fundamental approach for understanding complexity, is beginning to gain traction in sports science. Systems archetypes (SAs) describe common recurring patterns of system behaviors and have been used extensively in other domains to explain the system wide influences on behavior. SAs look at the deeper levels of systemic structure by identifying what creates system behaviors, which supports the development of interventions to identify and resolve problem sources. Methods: Four commonly used SAs were used to explain the dynamics underpinning recurring issues for coaching in football: (1) Fixes that fail, (2) Shifting the burden, (3) Drifting goals, and (4) Success to the successful. The SAs models were built, refined and validated by seven subject matter experts (SMEs) including experienced football researchers, systems thinking experts, an international football coach, a skill acquisition specialist, and an experienced exercise scientist. Results: The findings show that the SAs fit well in the football coaching context, providing further evidence that a complex system thinking approach is required when considering football performance and its optimization. The developed SAs identify the factors that play a role in recurring issues in football coaching and highlight the systemic structures that contribute to the issues. The developed SAs identify the appropriate leverage points in the system where sustainable change can be made to improve coaching practice and subsequent performance of players. Discussion: A common theme emerging across the analyses was that systemic problems often arise in football when quick fixes are attempted. Whereas, improvements to system behavior usually require a delay after the implementation of the appropriate corrective action. The SAs developed in the current study also provide practical templates of common problems in football that can be used to prompt discussions around how to avoid ineffective interventions and instead make sustainable improvements across multiple aspects of football performance.

Talent identification for soccer: Physiological aspects.

OBJECTIVES: Soccer coaches are always looking to discover the next star player, without investing the necessary resources, time, and effort into a player's development. In the modern era, talent identification in soccer seems to be a comparative process rather than a developmental process. This article will look at the physiological profiles of soccer players in the modern era and how testing and talent identification processes should coincide with this data. DESIGN: An extensive literature search identifying the physiological attributes of soccer players that are required to compete at an elite level was conducted. An examination of the methods to test these attributes was also conducted. METHODS: Studies were assigned into three areas to understand the physiological aspect of soccer: physiological testing methods, benchmark values, and correlations between different tests. RESULTS: A testing battery was established to test the key physiological attributes of prospective youth soccer players. Benchmark levels were also identified to allow coaches to understand areas of improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Using a physiological testing battery will allow teams to track their players' progress throughout their developmental years. This allows coaches to consistently identify a player's strengths and weaknesses, as well as allow players who may experience late maturation to still be identified.