Horizontal alternation in daily training load within Arabic professional youth soccer players during the in-season

2^nd International Conference on Sports Medicine and Fitness

April 18-20, 2016 Dubai, UAE

Guido Seerden

Al Shabab Al Arabi Football Club, UAE

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Sports Med Doping Stud

Abstract :

Fifteen U15 youth soccer players playing in a professional youth academy team in Saudi Arabia were selected for this study. A minimum of 2 players were chosen from each of the 3 main out-field playing positions. Goalkeepers were not included in this study. Session-Rate of Perceived Exertion (sRPE) was used as an indicator of daily training load (TL): RPE (1-10 Borg scale) multiplied by the session duration (Arbitrary Units). Data was collected for 9 typical training weeks during the in-season and consisted of an average number of 5 sessions, including one game. Training days were categorized according to different training approaches based on days before or after the game: Loading (Match day -4 and -3), tapering (Match day -2 and -1), match day and recovery (Match day +1 and +2). Results showed that TL was statistically different when using a different training approach (p<0.0005). Post hoc analysis revealed statistically significant differences in TL between only recovery (Mdn=83.61 AU) and match day (Mdn=239.06 AU) (p<0.005), and tapering (Mdn=135.42 AU) (p=0.022) and match day, but not between recovery and tapering, recovery and loading (Mdn=197.73 AU), tapering and loading, and loading and match day. Therefore, horizontal alternation in daily TL within Arabic professional youth soccer players during the in-season is only apparent between recovery and match day, and between tapering and match day.

Biography :

Guido Seerden has completed his Bachelor’s degree from Fontys University of Applied Sciences and Master’s in Human and Movement Science from VU University. He completed his Master’s Research Internship at Liverpool John Moores University in cooperation with their Science and Football Department. Currently, he is the Lead Academy Fitness Coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi, a professional football club in Dubai. He has won the Young Investigator Award at the 4th World Conference on Science and Soccer in 2014 and published on fitness in Soccer.

Email: mail@guidoseerden.com