Association between preseason training and performance in elite Australian football
- Authors: McCaskie, Callum , Young, Warren , Fahrner, Brendan , Sim, Marc
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance Vol. 14, no. 1 (2019), p. 68-75
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- Description: Purpose: To examine the association between preseason training variables and subsequent in-season performance in an elite Australian football team. Methods: Data from 41 elite male Australian footballers (mean [SD] age = 23.4 [3.1] y, height =188.4 [7.1] cm, and mass = 86.7 [7.9] kg) were collected from 1 Australian Football League (AFL) club. Preseason training data (external load, internal load, fitness testing, and session participation) were collected across the 17-wk preseason phase (6 and 11 wk post-Christmas). Champion Data© Player Rank (CDPR), coaches’ ratings, and round 1 selection were used as in-season performance measures. CDPR and coaches’ ratings were examined over the entire season, first half of the season, and the first 4 games. Both Pearson and partial (controlling for AFL age) correlations were calculated to assess if any associations existed between preseason training variables and in-season performance measures. A median split was also employed to differentiate between higher- and lower-performing players for each performance measure. Results: Preseason training activities appeared to have almost no association with performance measured across the entire season and the first half of the season. However, many preseason training variables were significantly linked with performance measured across the first 4 games. Preseason training variables that were measured post-Christmas were the most strongly associated with in-season performance measures. Specifically, total on-field session rating of perceived exertion post-Christmas, a measurement of internal load, displayed the greatest association with performance. Conclusion: Late preseason training (especially on-field match-specific training) is associated with better performance in the early season.
Different methods of training load quantification and their relationship to injury and illness in elite Australian football
- Authors: Veugelers, Kristopher , Young, Warren , Fahrner, Brendan , Harvey, Jack
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Vol. , no. (2015), p.
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- Description: Objectives: To compare different methods of training load (TL) quantification and their relationship to injury and illness in elite Australian footballers. Design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: Forty-five elite Australian footballers (mean ± standard deviation: age = 23.4 ± 3.8 years) from one elite club participated in this 15 week pre-season study. TL was quantified every session for each individual using four different methods involving rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Two of these methods enabled the quantification of TL for all exercise modalities whilsttwo were applicable only to outdoor field activities. One- and two-weekly cumulative TL was investigated against injury and illness data using a logistic regression model where the low TL group was considered as the reference group. Results: A general trend existed across all TL methods which suggested lower odds of injury and illness in high TL groups. The one-week RPE (all) and one-week RPE x Duration (all) methods detected reduced odds ofinjury inhighTL groups comparedto low TL groups (p < 0.05, OR = 0.199–0.202). Similarly,the one-week RPE (field) method identified lower illness odds in the high TL groups (p < 0.05, OR = 0.083–0.182). Conclusions: Higher TL appeared to provide a protective effect against both injury and illness. The inclusion of duration in the quantification of TL via RPE did not improve the ability of RPE to predict change in odds of injury or illness. © 2015 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
GPS variables most related to match performance in an elite Australian football team
- Authors: Bauer, Alexandra , Young, Warren , Fahrner, Brendan , Harvey, Jack
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport Vol. 15, no. 1 (2015), p. 187-202
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- Description: Player Rank (PR) and coaches' ratings (CR). Variables were sampled at 10Hz and partial correlations adjusted for game time were calculated between all variables and both performance measures, by position. Variables that displayed the highest partial correlations with both performance measures were used in a stepwise regression to identify the most relevant to performance. For the nomadic group, a negative relationship (P<0.05) was found between walking (distance and # entries) and PR. For the fixed players, a negative relationship (P<0.05) was evident between sprinting (# entries) and PR. However, a positive relationship (P<0.05) was found between CR and HSR (% time) and sprinting (distance). This indicates that the GPS variables that most relate to performance depend on the performance measure employed by coaches. The purpose of this study is to identify which GPS variables are most related to Australian football (AF) physical performance. Data was collected from thirty-five professional AF players over 11 games early in the 2013 Australian Football League (AFL) season. Match performance was measured by the Champion Data © 2015 International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport.