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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1454519

Changes in female football players' in-season training load, intensity and physical performance: training progression matters more than accumulated load

Provisionally accepted
Eero Savolainen Eero Savolainen 1*Johanna K. Ihalainen Johanna K. Ihalainen 1,2Tomi Vanttinen Tomi Vanttinen 2Simon Walker Simon Walker 1,3
  • 1 Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, Finland
  • 2 Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Jyväskylä, Central Finland, Finland
  • 3 Neuromuscular Research Center, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, Central Finland, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This observational study investigated: 1) potential changes in female football players' in-season training load, intensity and physical performance, and 2) if in-season accumulated training load, intensity, or their progression are associated to changes in physical performance.Thirty-five national level female players (~21 years, n=35) from three top-teams of the Finnish national league participated. Players performed tests at the beginning and at the end of the 27-week in-season. Tests were: 30-meter sprint, countermovement jump (CMJ) and 1200-meter shuttle run, used to calculate maximal aerobic speed (MAS). Players' external and internal training load and intensity were monitored in all on-field training sessions and official matches (3941 data samples) using Polar Team Pro system.Training load decreased towards the end of the in-season (p<0.05), but intensity remained stable. No changes in physical performance test results occurred from before to after in-season tests at a group level. Change of CMJ correlated negatively with accumulated training load, intensity and progression of total distance (TD) and low-intensity running distance (LIRD) (r= -0.398 to -0.599, p<0.05). Instead, development of MAS correlated positively with progression of TD and LIRD intensities (r= 0.594 and 0.503, p<0.05). Development of both CMJ and MAS correlated positively with intensity progression of very-high-intensity running distance (VHIRD) and number of accelerations and decelerations (r= 0.454 to 0.588, p<0.05).Reduced training load over the in-season is not detrimental for players' physical performance when training intensity progressively increases. Intensity progression of VHIRD, moderate-and highintensity accelerations and decelerations are indicators of both MAS and CMJ development, respectively.

    Keywords: Soccer, Women, periodization, fitness, Monitoring

    Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Savolainen, Ihalainen, Vanttinen and Walker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Eero Savolainen, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.