Quantifying volume and high-speed technical actions to inform the rehabilitation process
FEATURE / GLYN LEWIS, CHRIS DOMOGALLA, CHRIS TOWLSON, STEVE BARRETT
IS IT A BATTLE BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND TECHNICAL…. OR ARE THEY A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN?
Professional football training programmes prescribed by coaches are multi-factorial
due to the physical, technical, tactical, and psychological demands of match-play (1). While the physical outcomes of football training have been well-reported through time-motion analyses collected using global positioning systems (GPS; (1, 2, 4,5), limited data is available exploring the volume and speed of technical actions (kicking actions defined as passes, crosses and shots) performed by football players(6, 7). The primary objective of external training load monitoring is to maximise both performance and player availability, thus it has been suggested that this process should encompass all movements that require either a physiological or biomechanical stress to the athlete, including different mechanical actions such as kicking (8, 9). Despite this, understanding the implications of performing an increased number of technical actions performedat higher speed in football and whether they should be incorporated into training load models requires further exploration.
Further understanding of both the physical and technical outputs within professional football training and match-play may permit practitioners to prescribe more appropriate training programmes which are specific to the number of days pre-ceding/post-game day, along with identifying risk of injury during kicking actions (10) and planning return to play protocols specific to football players (11).