– It becomes an endless match program, without a break.
Håvard Wiig talks about top football as it has developed both nationally and internationally in recent years.
Perhaps it is even tougher for the promising young players, who get the chance on many different teams at once.
GPS in "Sports Bra"
"The problem is that it quickly becomes too much over time. Normally, when you start at a sports academy, you train fully with your team in the evening; in addition, you also have training in the morning. If you are a good player, you might play on multiple teams, e.g., the national team and the senior team. You should ideally train a bit in between [these sessions] otherwise your form will decline over time," says Wiig.
This is where his research comes in.
Wiig has been a PhD research fellow at the Institute for Physical Performance at the Norwegian School of Sports Science (NIH) and looked at various tools that can ensure that the coach and club have control over the players' load.
Have you seen the "sports bra" most football players run around with? Inside it are GPS units that provide important data.
With this data, you can find out how much the player ran, at what speed, and the number of accelerations during the match.
But what does it really mean if a player runs 10,000 meters during a match?
"If you have good tools to control how much load the players have, it becomes easier to plan for the load during matches and training," explains Wiig.
21 sessions with Strømsgodset
His research group followed 18 players in the top-league Strømsgodset football club over 21 sessions.
The players wore a GPS unit and registered how they themselves perceived the load (1-10).
The results showed that there was a strong correlation between how tough the players perceived the session was and the external load that the GPS unit measured.
But perhaps the most interesting finding for the football researchers is how large the individual differences between the players were.
The players had different perceived loads at the same external load, and they varied in how they perceived the difference between a low and high external load.
They have their own profile in a way.
However, the GPS unit does not provide all the answers.
"The GPS units do not capture everything. For example, there may be a session with a lot of dueling and jumping. This is an activity that is tiring, without generating such a great distance on the GPS measurements," says Wiig.
He adds, "Those are some of the most important things I want to convey from my research. Football players are different and must be followed up individually and should be measured against themselves."
Require three days before the next game
In another study, they followed 81 players from six different clubs in a single match with motion sensors. In addition, the researchers performed several tests after the match, such as a jump test, sprint test, running test, blood tests, and muscle biopsies.
One of the main findings was that football matches lead to minor damage in muscle cells. The amount of such damage seems to be related to the distance the players have at high speed.
This, in turn, affects recovery.
– It may be important for clubs that use GPS units to specifically look at the distance the players have at high speed. But we also saw that the players who ran the longest distances did worse on a sprint test they performed on day three after the match.
But when can a player really be ready for the next game?
Wiig believes that, as a rule, you need three days before a new game. Which his research also shows.
"It depends on the game you have played and the recovery measures you take, and there are probably some individual differences as well. Most people probably need three days before a new game."
Youth coaches must pay special attention He thinks coaches in youth football should pay special attention.
"Three games a week is too much. If you play on Sunday, it's not good to play a new game on Tuesday. It doesn't happen often in elite football, but in youth football, it probably happens to a greater extent. If you are not careful to control the load, there will quickly be overexploitation of some players."
Even if youth teams do not have the resources to use GPS units, as the top clubs mostly do, there are several ways to manage the load.
"You can use the subjective method where you get the players to rate the session from 1-10 based on how tough it was, and then multiply by the duration. Then you get a measure of the load," says Wiig.
But the calendar can be just as important a tool.
"The easiest thing is probably to use the calendar and see how many sessions and matches the players have. And then make sure there are enough rest days in between. It is difficult for a 16 or 17 year old to say no to playing those extra matches. So here the coach has an even more important role," believes Wiig.
Read the dissertation at nva.sikt.no
This article was translated with AI and reviewed by NIH's editorial team.