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INJURY PREVENTION
TRAINING IN
FOOTBALL
TIME TO CONSIDER TRAINING UNDER
FATIGUE?
– Written by Darren Paul, George Nassis, Qatar and Joao Brito, Portugal
Muscle injuries often occur towards the movements such as accelerating and The work rate of a player in a match is also
end of each half and this has been associated decelerating, changing direction, jumping dependent on many other factors. Some of
with fatigue1. Current practice often means and tackling, parts of which are likely to these are:
injury prevention training is performed at impact on the characteristics of the match2. • the quality of the opposition,
the start of the session. The hypothesis is To do this players need an appropriate level • changes in positional role,
that when training is performed in a fresh of fitness, namely moderate-to-high aerobic • the effects of previous and/or
state it allows players to demonstrate better and anaerobic power, good agility, flexibility forthcoming game commitments,
form. In this article we will look at fatigue, and muscular development and the ability • environmental conditions,
fitness and training order to question to generate power during fast movements. • dehydration,
this existing practice and build a case for Although players may not excel across all • cultural differences and other intrinsic
performing injury prevention at the end of of the physical components, they should and extrinsic factors.
practice, when in a fatigued state. possess levels that will allow them to One example of the complexities is the
remain competitive for the whole match. distance covered. In the English Premier
DEMANDS OF FOOTBALL It is clear that physical qualities are not League players from less successful teams
Football is a sport where players perform the only determinant of match performance. cover significantly greater distances in
bouts of high intensity activity interspersed The outcome of a match depends on the high-intensity activities than their more
with periods of lower intensity. The demands complex interaction of several physical, successful counterparts3. The opposite was
are increased by having to execute complex psychological, technical and tactical factors. found in Italy where players of the most
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successful teams from the Italian Serie body temperature and dehydration) prevent analysis means players are unlikely to
A perform more high-intensity activities total breakdown of any single peripheral perform to their maximal capacity during
during a game when in possession of physiological system, either prematurely or most matches.
the ball compared with players of less in the final periods of the match6.
successful teams4. It is improper to suggest Fatigue has become a hot topic in football FITNESS
that superior fitness and/or players'/teams' despite being regarded as a complex and When planning training sessions,
levels will manifest in higher amounts of multi-factorial entity. There is growing coaches should take into account that
effort during any given match. interest as to how fatigue relates to playing and training affect each individual
recovery, player fitness and effort during player differently. One of the objectives of a
FATIGUE matches. To avoid exhausting themselves fitness test battery is to identify differences
Given the demanding nature of football, before the final whistle, players are likely in players' physical characteristics. A
players will likely experience a degree of to adopt a pacing strategy that allows them variety of fitness tests are currently used
transient or accumulated fatigue at some to be involved in demanding and critical to monitor performance and evaluate
stage of the match. The oversimplification moments, even during the final stages training response. Unfortunately, there is
of interpreting this with time-motion of a match. The regulation of self-chosen no exact measure for ‘physical performance’
analysis is that players tend to experience high intensity activity is also an important in a football match. This stresses the fact
this fatigue or/and impaired performance product of training, as players need to learn that individual performance in fitness
mainly after short-term, intense periods to adopt pacing strategies that will allow tests should not be used to directly predict
in both halves and towards the end of the a high effort even during the final stages, performance in competition. Nonetheless,
match5. However, basing assumptions or when required. For example, an early player fitness should be considered as a
regarding physical fitness and fatigue sending off might increase the overall work factor that contributes to match result. This
purely on activity profile statistics is flawed; rate of outfield players. Hence, there is likely means that using fitness tests together
particularly given that our understanding a demand to cover more distance in order with physiological data might be useful
of physiological responses during match to counteract the numerical disadvantage. for monitoring performance measure
activity remains limited. For example, it is This may result in higher levels of fatigue changes and directing training prescription.
still unknown to what extent the dynamic towards the end of the game6. The large If testing and/or monitoring are not done
responses to match demands (such as match-to-match variability of individual often, coaches might not detect adaptations,
accumulation of metabolites in muscles, player work rates, particularly high intensity which can occur faster than the time
plasma osmolality, substrate availability, activity, as a representation of time-motion between tests. From an applied perspective,
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SPORTS SCIENCE
this remains a challenge, as coaches are sprint performance during the latter stages between a negative (fatigue) and positive
sometimes reluctant to sanction frequent of the test7. Such research supports our function (fitness). There is a fine line
testing within the season. This is despite hypothesis that fatigue is a major injury risk between improving fitness and negatively
the fact that routine monitoring may aid factor of match play. overloading the player, which could cause
periodisation strategies, prevent under/ Low fitness level is thought to be an injury. There is now growing emphasis
overtraining and maintain players in injury risk factor for players3. Therefore, placed on monitoring training loads
optimal condition. practitioners often try to elevate physical (using global positioning systems, heart
A relevant question when planning fitness in the belief that this will reduce rate monitors, time-motion analysis and
training sessions relates to fatigue. This is the incidence of fatigue and accompanying subjective scales such as rate of perceived
important as muscle injuries (e.g. hamstring injury. It cannot be overlooked, however, exertion) to allow teams to better manage
strains, the most prevalent muscle injuries that players with greater physical fitness and monitor training loads. Such tools
in football) typically occur in the latter will simply work at a greater, rather than are commonly used within the applied
stages of a match7. Interestingly, fatigue reduced, relative intensity, the implication setting and are deemed important to
during the match has been associated with being players may still suffer from fatigue. develop performance-enhancing training
decreased eccentric strength and flexibility7. Players tend to perform less physical work guidelines.
Most joint sprains also occur towards the and fewer skilled actions in the second half
final stages of each half of the match. We of a match compared to the first, regardless TRAINING ORDER
think that this might be associated with of ability. However, given that players may The issue of training order is considered
fatigue-related changes in neuromuscular rarely perform to the maximum capacity in an important factor in the design of
control, joint dynamic stability, and a match, the relationship between maximal training programmes. Generally, this con-
postural control. This may result in players (test) performance, fitness and injury cept has been considered with regards
performing ‘different’ movement patterns occurrence is far from simple. This is likely to to the order of endurance and strength
than when they are fresh. Fatigue may have profound implications for conditioning training and a possible interference effect8.
lead to players using potentially injurious as part of the training programme. Despite Either order of training has its advantages
landing and turning techniques that occur such knowledge, there appear to be few and disadvantages. This means it is
during the later stages of football activity. time-related guidelines on when to embed important to consider the objective of the
Evidence to support this theory was seen injury prevention training into the practice training session. For example, residual
using a 90-minute intermittent exercise sessions. fatigue from the endurance component
protocol, representative of football match Resistance to fatigue is a key factor of concurrent training may compromise
play. During the protocol, players had for a player to continually perform the ability to develop tension during the
time-dependent impairments in sprinting throughout the whole match. Indeed, strength element of concurrent training.
kinematics, peak eccentric hamstring the player’s performance in response to Essentially, there appears a likely trade-off
torque, functional strength ratio and overall training can be estimated from the balance that needs to be considered in view of the
training goal.
SPECIFICITY
Injury The law of training specificity states that
prevention the specific nature of a training load produces
training performed in its own specific response and adaptations9.
fatigued state? By inference, it would seem training in a
fatigued state may improve performance
in a fatigued state, too (Figure 1). In terms
Injuries are of injury prevention training, it seems
Principle of
more common the general approach is to perform drills
specificity of
towards the earlier at the start of the session, often in a
training
end of matches non-fatigued state. The justification is that
players perform efforts in a ‘fresh condition’
that allows the musculature to produce the
appropriate responses of protective function
Players face fatigue or
in maintaining stability, balance and body
decreased performance
control. We propose some injury prevention
towards the end of
training would be effective when performed
matches after rather than before fatigue sets in. The
reality of the match means that players will
execute specific tasks in both non-fatigued
Figure 1: Rationale for training under fatigued conditions. and fatigued conditions. Hence, it would
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training in a fatigued 7. Small K, McNaughton LR, Greig M,
Lohkamp, Lovell R. Soccer fatigue,
performance in a
8. Rønnestad BR, Hansen EA, Raastad T. High
volume of endurance training impairs
adaptations to 12 weeks of strength
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