Thomas A. Haugen

The role and development of sprinting speed in soccer

The overall objective of this review was to investigate the role and development of sprinting speed in soccer. Time-motion analyses show that short sprints occur frequently during soccer games. Straight sprinting is the most frequent action before goals, both for the scoring and assisting player. Straight-line sprinting velocity (both acceleration and maximal sprinting speed), certain agility skills, and repeated-sprint ability are shown to distinguish groups from different performance levels. Professional players have become faster over time, indicating that sprinting skills are becoming more and more important in modern soccer. In research literature, the majority of soccer-related training interventions have provided positive effects on sprinting capabilities, leading to the assumption that all kinds of training can be performed with success. However, most successful intervention studies are time consuming and challenging to incorporate into the overall soccer training program. Even though the principle of specificity is clearly present, several questions remain regarding the optimal training methods within the larger context of the team-sport setting. Considering time-efficiency effects, soccer players may benefit more by performing sprint-training regimens similar to the progression model used in strength training and by world-leading athletics practitioners, compared with the majority of guidelines that traditionally have been presented in research literature.

The Road to Gold: Training and Peaking Characteristics in the Year Prior to a Gold Medal Endurance Performance

Purpose To describe training variations across the annual cycle in Olympic and World Champion endurance athletes, and determine whether these athletes used tapering strategies in line with recommendations in the literature. Methods Eleven elite XC skiers and biathletes (4 male; 28±1 yr, 85±5 mL. min−1. kg−1 , 7 female, 25±4 yr, 73±3 mL. min−1. kg−1 ) reported one year of day-to-day training leading up to the most successful competition of their career. Training data were divided into periodization and peaking phases and distributed into training forms, intensity zones and endurance activity forms. Results Athletes trained ∼800 h/500 sessions.year−1, including ∼500 h. year−1 of sport-specific training. Ninety-four percent of all training was executed as aerobic endurance training. Of this, ∼90% was low intensity training (LIT, below the first lactate threshold) and 10% high intensity training (HIT, above the first lactate threshold) by time. Categorically, 23% of training sessions were characterized as HIT with primary portions executed at or above the first lactate turn point. Training volume and specificity distribution conformed to a traditional periodization model, but absolute volume of HIT remained stable across phases. However, HIT training patterns tended to become more polarized in the competition phase. Training volume, frequency and intensity remained unchanged from pre-peaking to peaking period, but there was a 32±15% (P<.01) volume reduction from the preparation period to peaking phase. Conclusions The annual training data for these Olympic and World champion XC skiers and biathletes conforms to previously reported training patterns of elite endurance athletes. During the competition phase, training became more sport-specific, with 92% performed as XC skiing. However, they did not follow suggested tapering practice derived from short-term experimental studies. Only three out of 11 athletes took a rest day during the final 5 days prior to their most successful competition.

THE DIFFERENCE IS IN THE START: IMPACT OF TIMING AND START PROCEDURE ON SPRINT RUNNING PERFORMANCE

Haugen, TA, Tønnessen, E, and Seiler, SK. The difference is in the start: impact of timing and start procedure on sprint running performance. J Strength Cond Res 26(2): 473–479, 2012—The difference is in the start: impact of timing and start procedure on sprint running performance. The purpose of this study was to compare different sprint start positions and to generate correction factors between popular timing triggering methods on 40-m/40-yd sprint time. Fourteen female athletes (17 ± 1 years), personal best 100 m: 13.26 (±0.68) seconds and 11 male athletes (20 ± 5 years), personal best 100 m: 11.58 (±0.74) seconds participated. They performed 2 series of 3 40-m sprints in randomized order: (a) start from the block, measured by means of Brower audio sensor (BAS) and Dartfish video timing (DVT), (b) 3-point start, measured by using hand release pod (HR) and DVT, and (c) standing start, triggered by both photocell across starting line (SFC), and foot release (FR) plus DVT. Video analysis was performed by 2 independent observers and averaged. Simultaneous measurements at national athletics competitions demonstrated that DVT and BAS were equivalent to Omega Timing within the limits of precision of video timing (±0.01 seconds). Hand and floor timer triggering showed small but significant biases compared with movement captured from video (0.02–0.04 seconds), presumably because of sensitivity of pressure thresholds. Coefficient of variation for test-retest timing using different starting positions ranged from 0.7 to 1.0%. Compared with block starts reacting to gunfire, HR, SFC, and FR starts yielded 0.17 ± 0.09, 0.27 ± 0.12, and 0.69 ± 0.11 second faster times, respectively, over 40 m (all p < 0.001) because of inclusion or exclusion of reaction time, plus momentum, and body position differences at trigger moment. Correction factors for the conversion of 40 m/40 yd and 40 yd/40 m were 0.92 and 1.08, respectively. The correction factors obtained from this study may facilitate more meaningful comparisons of published sprint performances.

Performance Development in Adolescent Track and Field Athletes According to Age, Sex and Sport Discipline

Introduction Sex-specific differences that arise during puberty have a pronounced effect on the training process. However, the consequences this should have for goal-setting, planning and implementation of training for boys and girls of different ages remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to quantify performance developments in athletic running and jumping disciplines in the age range 11-18 and identify progression differences as a function of age, discipline and sex. Methods The 100 all-time best Norwegian male and female 60-m, 800-m, long jump and high jump athletes in each age category from 11 to 18 years were analysed using mixed models with random intercept according to athlete. Results Male and female athletes perform almost equally in running and jumping events up to the age of 12. Beyond this age, males outperform females. Relative annual performance development in females gradually decreases throughout the analyzed age period. In males, annual relative performance development accelerates up to the age of 13 (for running events) or 14 (for jumping events) and then gradually declines when approaching 18 years of age. The relative improvement from age 11 to 18 was twice as high in jumping events compared to running events. For all of the analyzed disciplines, overall improvement rates were >50% higher for males than for females. The performance sex difference evolves from < 5% to 10-18% in all the analyzed disciplines from age 11 to 18 yr. Conclusion To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to present absolute and relative annual performance developments in running and jumping events for competitive athletes from early to late adolescence. These results allow coaches and athletes to set realistic goals and prescribe conditioning programs that take into account sex-specific differences in the rate of performance development at different stages of maturation.

Maximal Aerobic Capacity in the Winter-Olympics Endurance Disciplines: Olympic-Medal Benchmarks for the Time Period 1990–2013

PURPOSE To generate updated Olympic-medal benchmarks for VO2max in winter endurance disciplines, examine possible differences in VO2max between medalists and nonmedalists, and calculate gender difference in V˙ O2max based on a homogeneous subset of world-leading endurance athletes. METHODS The authors identified 111 athletes who participated in winter Olympic Games/World Championships in the period 1990 to 2013. All identified athletes tested VO2max at the Norwegian Olympic Training Center within ±1 y of their championship performance. Testing procedures were consistent throughout the entire period. RESULTS For medal-winning athletes, the following relative VO2max values (mean:95% confidence intervals) for men/women were observed (mL · min-1 · kg-1): 84:87-81/72:77-68 for cross-country distance skiing, 78:81-75/68:73-64 for cross-country sprint skiing, 81:84-78/67:73-61 for biathlon, and 77:80-75 for Nordic combined (men only). Similar benchmarks for absolute VO2max (L/min) in male/female athletes are 6.4:6.1-6.7/4.3:4.1-4.5 for cross-country distance skiers, 6.3:5.8-6.8/4.0:3.7-4.3 for cross-country sprint skiers, 6.2:5.7-6.4/4.0:3.7-4.3 for biathletes, and 5.3:5.0-5.5 for Nordic combined (men only). The difference in relative VO2max between medalists and nonmedalists was large for Nordic combined, moderate for cross-country distance and biathlon, and small/trivial for the other disciplines. Corresponding differences in absolute VO2max were small/trivial for all disciplines. Male cross-country medalists achieve 15% higher relative VO2max than corresponding women. CONCLUSIONS This study provides updated benchmark VO2max values for Olympic-medal-level performance in winter endurance disciplines and can serve as a guideline of the requirements for future elite athletes.

VO2max characteristics of elite female soccer players, 1989-2007.

PURPOSE To quantify VO2max among female competitive soccer players as a function of performance level, field position, and age. In addition, the evolution of VO2max among world-class players over an 18-y period was quantified. METHODS Female players (N = 199, 22 ± 4 y, 63 ± 6 kg, height 169 ± 6 cm), including an Olympic winning squad, were tested for VO2max at the Norwegian Olympic Training Center between 1989 and 2007. RESULTS National-team players had 5% higher VO2max than 1st-division players (P = .042, d = 0.4), 13% higher than 2nd-division players (P < .001, d = 1.2), and 9% higher than junior players (P = .005, d = 1.0). Midfielders had 8% higher VO2max than goalkeepers (P = .048, d = 1.1). No significant differences were observed across outfield players or different age categories. There was a trend toward lower relative VO2max across time epochs. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that VO2max varies across playing-standard level in womens soccer. No significant differences in VO2max were observed across outfield positions and age categories. Over time, there has been a slight negative development in VO2max among elite Norwegian soccer players.

Not quite so fast: effect of training at 90% sprint speed on maximal and repeated-sprint ability in soccer players

Abstract The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of training at an intensity eliciting 90% of maximal sprinting speed on maximal and repeated-sprint performance in soccer. It was hypothesised that sprint training at 90% of maximal velocity would improve soccer-related sprinting. Twenty-two junior club-level male and female soccer players (age 17 ± 1 year, body mass 64 ± 8 kg, body height 174 ± 8 cm) completed an intervention study where the training group (TG) replaced one of their weekly soccer training sessions with a repeated-sprint training session performed at 90% of maximal sprint speed, while the control group (CG) completed regular soccer training according to their teams’ original training plans. Countermovement jump, 12 × 20-m repeated-sprint, VO2max and the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Level 1 test were performed prior to and after a 9-week intervention period. No significant between-group differences were observed for any of the performance indices and effect magnitudes were trivial or small. Before rejecting the hypothesis, we recommend that future studies should perform intervention programmes with either stronger stimulus or at other times during the season where total training load is reduced.

The Annual Training Periodization of 8 World Champions in Orienteering

One year of training data from 8 elite orienteers were divided into a transition phase (TP), general preparatory phase (GPP), specific preparatory phase (SPP), and competition phase (CP). Average weekly training volume and frequency, hours at different intensities (zones 1-3), cross-training, running, orienteering, interval training, continuous training, and competition were calculated. Training volume was higher in GPP than TP, SPP, and CP (14.9 vs 9.7, 11.5, and 10.6 h/wk, P < .05). Training frequency was higher in GPP than TP (10 vs 7.5 sessions/wk, P < .05). Zone 1 training was higher in GPP than TP, SPP, and CP (11.3 vs 7.1, 8.3, and 7.7 h/wk, P < .05). Zone 3 training was higher in SPP and CP than in TP and GPP (0.9 and 1.1 vs 1.6 and 1.5 h/ wk, P < .05). Cross-training was higher in GPP than SPP and CP (4.3 vs 0.8 h/wk, P < .05). Interval training was higher in GPP than TP, SPP, and CP (0.7 vs 0.3 h/wk, P < .05). High-intensity continuous training was higher in GPP than CP (0.9 vs 0.4 h/ wk, P < .05), while competition was higher in SPP and CP than in TP and GPP (1.3 and 1.5 vs 0.6 and 0.3 h/wk, P < .01). In conclusion, these champion endurance athletes achieved a progressive reduction in total training volume from GPP to CP via a shortening of each individual session while the number of training sessions remained unchanged. This decrease in training volume was primarily due to a reduction in the number of hours of low-intensity, non-sport-specific cross-training.

Effect of an intense period of competition on race performance and self‐reported illness in elite cross‐country skiers

The aim of this study was to determine whether participating in a cross‐country skiing stage race (Tour de Ski; TDS) affects subsequent illness incidence, training, and race performance. Self‐reported training and illness data from 44 male and female elite cross‐country skiers were included. In total, 127 years of data were collected (2–3 seasons per athlete). Illness incidence, training load, and performance in international competitions were calculated for athletes who did and did not participate in TDS. Forty‐eight percent of athletes reported becoming ill during or in the days immediately after taking part in TDS vs 16% of athletes who did not participate. In both groups, illness incidence was somewhat lower for female athletes. For male athletes, race performance was significantly worse for 6 weeks following TDS vs 6 weeks before TDS. Furthermore, while female athletes who participated in TDS performed relatively better than controls in Olympics/World Championships, male athletes who participated in TDS typically performed worse in subsequent major championships. Participating in TDS appears to result in ∼ 3‐fold increase in risk of illness in this period. Male athletes appear more prone to illness and also see a drop in race performance following TDS, possibly linked to differences in training load before and after the event.

Sprint time differences between single- and dual-beam timing systems.

Abstract Haugen, TA, Tønnessen, E, Svendsen, IS, and Seiler, S. Sprint time differences between single- and dual-beam timing systems. J Strength Cond Res 28(8): 2376–2379, 2014—Valid and reliable measures of sprint times are necessary to detect genuine changes in sprinting performance. It is currently difficult for practitioners to assess which timing system meets this demand within the constraints of a proper cost-benefit analysis. The purpose of this investigation was to quantify sprint time differences between single-beam (SB) and dual-beam (DB) timing systems. Single-beam and DB photocells were placed at 0, 20, and 40 m to compare 0–20 and 20–40 m sprint times. To control for the influence of swinging limbs between devices, 2 recreationally active participants cycled as fast as possible through the track 25 times with a 160-cm tube (18 cm diameter) vertically mounted in front of the bike. This protocol produced a coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.4 and 0.7% for 0–20 and 20–40 m sprint times, respectively while SEM was 0.01 seconds for both distances. To address the primary research question, 25 track and field athletes (age, 19 ± 1 years; height, 174 ± 8 cm; body mass, 67 ± 10 kg) performed two 40 m sprints. This protocol produced a CV of 1.2 and 1.4% for 0–20 and 20–40 m, respectively while SEM was 0.02 seconds for both distances. The magnitude of time differences was in the range of ±0.05–0.06 seconds. We conclude that DB timing is required for scientists and practitioners wishing to derive accurate and reliable short sprint results.