Examining Physical and Physiological Requirements of Experienced Soccer Players during Competition: A Review | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world with nearly 200 million practitioners. Match analysis of the physical demand have revealed that the game is characterized by the mix of short-duration sprints, high-intensity running, jumps, duels, tackles, directional changes, backwards, and walking and standing episodes with an average game intensity ranging from 80 to 90 of maximal heart rate (HRmax). For instance, top-level players require developing specific physical capacities such as an elevated aerobic power and the ability to perform repeated HIR (including sprinting) with limited rest period, to be able to cope with the game demands. The utilization of glycogen stores during a football match was suggested to be 155 – 160 g from the muscle glycogen stores, with an estimated 600 kcal of energy provided, while blood glucose derived from the liver may account for approximately 210 kcal of energy during the game. In accordance, the endogenous CHO stores are suggested to supply ~55 of the energy requirements of match-play, and a substantial utilization of lipids and proteins must also be taken into account. The running demands of professional soccer match-play are widely established, with players performing various high-intensity actions interspersed with periods of low-intensity activity. However, the demands of in-season training sessions, and how closely they relate to match-play, remain largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the running demands of professional soccer players during in-season field-based training sessions and matches, and to examine whether the demands of training are similar to those of competition.