Guido Seerden
Al Shabab Al Arabi Football Club, UAE
Title: Horizontal alternation in daily training load within Arabic professional youth soccer players during the in-season
Biography
Biography: Guido Seerden
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.