The study aimed to evaluate the effect of an integrated muscle strengthening program on the improvement of muscular and technical parameters in young football players.
There were two objectives, ...scientifically to measure the impact of integrated muscle strengthening on young players, and practically to present an educational tool for coaches and students to understand this concept of training. To carry on this research, we proceeded to a development of the 8-week program applied to a sample of 24 well-trained players of the first division under 18 years. The hypotheses put forward, were confirmed through the educational intervention and the results obtained were significant. Our results have increased the importance of strength training integrated into the training of young footballers. The margin progress of the experimental group was significant compared to the control group, and the impact of this concept proved to be positive in the approach to the physical preparation of young footballers. It is recommended to pay attention to the concept of integrated muscle building, with all its technical components.
Identification of talents in football is one of the most important tasks of coaches in youth football selection. The main focus of this paper was to review the available literature on talent ...identification in youth football. A systematic review of PubMEd, Medline, ResearchGate and Elsevier databases was performed according to PRISMA guidelines. The following keywords were used: „identification of talents“, „football talent“, „selection in football“, and „management in sport clubs“. Of 137 studies initially identified, of which 17 met the inclusion criteria of the review. Mentioned studies were analyzed and discussion was created with the emphasis on 4 segments: 1) analysis of physiological aspects and identification of talents 2) importance of specific contents for identification of talent 3) biological and chronological age as an important aspect of selection of young players 4) multidisciplinary approach to the selection of young players. It is concluded that process of identification of talents needs to be approached multidisciplinary with all contents of physiological and physical assessment and with specific football contents (SSG and TE-TA contents) respectively. Great role in performance on the field has the biological age, on which coaches need to pay attention to when evaluating quality of players.
Introduction: To enhance players' performance and implement effective injury prevention protocols and surveillance programs in football, it is essential to conduct epidemiological studies. Since ...significant disparities in injury rates across various football competitions were reported, it is important to characterize injuries in the context of the African cup of nation (AFCON) competition. Aim: To determine the incidence and factors associated with injuries among African footballers during the 2024 AFCON competition, which will be held in Ivory Coast from January 13 to February 11, 2024. Methods: Two expert physician in sports medicine will perform an analytical study (i.e.; a video-based analysis) of the 52 matches that will be played during the 2024 AFCON. The following parameters will be noted: i) Injury incidence, ii) Characteristics of injured players such as age, on-field position, and player league continent, iii) Characteristics ofinjuries such as mechanism, body location, moment of injury in terms of the minute of play and the round of the match, place of the injury in term of stadium zone, replacement consequent to the injury, absence next match, re-injury, recurrence of the injury with the same location during the competition, referee decision, and stoppage time for on-field injury, and iv) Characteristics of matches such as the match’ schedule, ambient temperature, humidity, and wind speed. Conclusion: This study will allow enriching the existing literature with additional data regarding the injuries and the players’ characteristics in the African context.
Purpose: It has been hypothesized that sports injury risk is explained by muscle metabolism. The objective was to evaluate the muscle oxygen saturation slopes (ΔSmO
2
slopes) and muscle oxygenation ...asymmetry (MO
2
Asy) at rest and to study their associations with injuries during the pre-season. Methods: A total of 16 male and 10 female footballers participated in this study. Injuries were diagnosed and classified by level of severity during the pre-season. The workload was also evaluated using the rate of perceived exertion × training time, from which the accumulated loads. The SmO
2
was measured at rest in the gastrocnemius muscle using the arterial occlusion method in the dominant and non-dominant legs. The repeated measures ANOVA, relative risk, and binary logistic regression were applied to assess the probability of injury with SmO
2
and workload. Results: Higher MO
2
Asy and ΔSmO
2
Slope 2 were found among footballer who suffered high-severity injuries and those who presented no injuries. In addition, an MO
2
Asy greater than 15% and an increase in accumulated load were variables that explained a greater probability of injury. Conclusion: This study presents the new concept of muscle oxygenation asymmetry in sports science and its possible application in injury prevention through the measurement of SmO
2
at rest.
Purpose
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures are considered high burden injuries in sports with high pivotal activity, especially for professional footballers. A lack of evidence exists about ...long-term follow up of professional elite athletes who underwent ACL reconstruction. The purpose of the study is to analyze the return to play and the career of professional footballers who underwent ACL reconstruction with hamstrings, to evaluate re-rupture and reoperation at either indexed and contralateral knee, and to assess the long-term clinical subjective outcomes and satisfaction.
Methods
Twenty-eight professional footballers that underwent 33 ACL reconstructions were retrospectively included in the study. All surgical interventions were performed using hamstring tendons graft and an over the top technique. Inclusion criteria were: inability to compete due to joint instability caused by total or subtotal ACL lesion, patients contracted to a professional football team at time of surgery. Exclusion criteria were: multi-ligament reconstruction or concomitant meniscal allograft transplantation. Patients were contacted by phone and a brief questionnaire about surgery was administered. Subsequently, a Lysholm knee scoring scale was obtained. After that, an online research was performed on publicly available websites in order to retrieve information of the patients included after surgery.
Results
In all cases, ACL Reconstruction was performed with hamstring tendons using a non-anatomic Double-Bundle technique in 16 cases (49%), an Over-The-Top Single-Bundle technique in 9 cases (27%), and an Over-The-Top Single-Bundle plus Lateral Plasty technique in 8 cases (24%); moreover, a meniscal lesion was present in 20 cases (61%). Three (9%) of the 33 ACL reconstruction failed (2/16 Double-Bundle, 1/9 Single- Bundle, 0/8 Single-Bundle + Lateral Plasty; p = n.s.), with two of them within 12 months from surgery. Other procedures, mainly arthroscopic meniscectomies, were performed in 10 cases (30%). The first official match was played after an average of 8.0 ± 3.6 (4.6–18.2) months in 31 cases (94%). Patients were evaluated after 12.6 ± 3.3 years (6.7–17.5) from the indexed ACL reconstruction. The average Lysholm score was 94.2 ± 8.3.
Conclusions
In our small case-series, professional soccer players were able to return to play at a competitive level with a hamstrings over the top technique. Patients with long careers had a high percentage of reoperation on the contralateral knee.
Level of evidence
IV.
Objectives
Investigate the characteristics of wrist, hand and finger (WHF) injuries in Australian footballers presenting to EDs and determine if injury profiles differed between females and males, ...and between children and adults.
Methods
In this prospective observational study that took place during an entire football season, patients attended 1 of 10 EDs in Victoria, Australia with a WHF injury sustained while playing Australian football. Data were extracted from patient medical records by trained researchers. Data included injury type (e.g. fracture), body part (e.g. metacarpal) and mechanism of injury. Males versus females, and children versus adults were compared using chi‐squared tests or Fisher's exact tests.
Results
In total, 528 patients had a WHF injury, of which 105 (19.9%) were female and 308 (59.2%) were children. Fractures and sprains were the most common injury types (45.3% and 38.6%, respectively). Fingers were more often injured than wrists or hands (62.5%, 23.5% and 15.0%, respectively). Ball contact was the most common mechanism of injury (38.1% of injuries). Females were more likely than males to (i) have a sprain/strain injury, (ii) injure a finger (rather than wrist or hand) and (iii) injure themselves through ball contact. Children were more likely to injure their wrists, have a sprain/strain injury, or be injured falling to the ground. Adults were more likely to dislocate a joint or injure their hands.
Conclusions
Differences in injury type, location and mechanism between females and males, and children and adults, suggest an opportunity for customised injury prevention and management strategies by sex and age.
Anti-social behavior at football contest is a well-recognized issue. Due to this fact, associations and government have devised variety of interventions and strategy characterized by high tension and ...tempo among players and spectators which usually generate disorderliness of varying intensify. This study focuses on investigation of etiological factors of anti-social behaviors among players and spectators of football clubs in Nigeria during matches, with a view to coming up with coherent strategies for its enervation. Self-development questionnaire tagged perceived etiology of antisocial behavior among football players and spectators of selected football clubs (SPEABFC) was used for data collection, with reliability value of 0.85. Two thousand seven hundred (2700) out of three thousand (3000) copies of questionnaire administered were retrieved and coded for analysis with adoption of percentages and chi-square x
tool at 0.05 level at significant. The study copiously found that poor officiating, winning at all costs, conduct of coach and alcohol consumption are significant in causing anti-social behavior among players and spectators. Consequently, it is re-concluded among others that known troublemakers should be disallowed from entering the game venue, sale of alcohol be restricted to a place far from game site. The outcome is highly significant in view of the fact it might be helpful to scientifically develop appropriate strategies to control sale of drugs and alcohol at game site. The study is greatly insightful to sensitizes the management of football competitions to look inward more effective methods capable of making soccer context anti-behavior free. A adage says prevention is better than cure, the research is highly informative to authorities concerned with organization of football competitions map out preventive measures to unethical attitude by players, spectators as well fans for better attendance at game site which is likely to translate into making more profit for the organizers. An adequate provision for police and other security agents will go a long way to reduce anti-social behavior. We are now in the world of business geared towards profitability, any competition occasioned by riot and chaos is likely to negate this objective as attendance may reduce thereby drastically cutting the expected profit. The promoters of competition will be abreast this fact and develop remedies to counter it ahead at planning stage. The erring players should be sanctioned accordingly. The use of credible and competent officials with records of integrity and credibility will in part promote sanity during the matches.
This article deploys frameworks from the fields of trade union theory and professional football governance theory to gain an understanding of the tactics deployed by the Professional Footballers' ...Association, Scotland (PFAS) for collectively representing the interests of its members. The article explores how the union used the advantages gained through participation in a counter match-fixing project managed by FIFPro to establish itself as a member of an array of committees, task groups and panels so that it might become the collective 'voice' of players at the institutional level in football. The article commences with a review of the industrial relations landscape of professional football and the 'peculiarities' of the labour market that have produced equally unique trade union strategies that seek to individualise rather than collectivise wage bargaining. The implications of such a strategy are felt in the lack of appropriate contemporary theories of trade union power that might act as explanatory frameworks to aid an understanding of the tactics deployed by PFAS. The article proposes a return to a political institutional model of trade union power popularised by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in the late nineteenth-century. An analysis of interview data collected from a small cohort of expert informants shows that PFAS has taken advantage of a new body in Scottish professional football, the integrity forum, to establish itself as a credible and trustworthy voice of players within broader governing structures, while acknowledging that its sphere of influence remains constrained within a system dominated by more established institutions.
Relevance. Modern trends in the athletes’ training need to find new ways to improve the structure and content of different structural units of the training process. One of the most effective ...theoretical and methodological approaches in the athletes’ training is programming. The purpose is to launch structural units program of the training process and, on this basis, to increase the efficiency of qualified football players training in the annual macrocycle in terms of higher educational establishments. Results. Research was conducted in student football team. Age of players is 18–23 years old. Sports qualification – candidate masters, athletes of the first category. The study had been conducting during two years. In the first year, a confirmatory experiment was conducted, in the second – forming. Structural units programs of qualified football players training process were launched and experimentally grounded. On the basis of the main competitions calendar, the replayed training cycle of qualified football players was planned. The program of each cycle of the annual macro cycle consists of four blocks: the duration of the preparation, competitive periods and the transition phase; quantitative indicators of trainings; the ratio of training work means and training loads of different orientations; criteria of athletes’ preparation. Conclusions: it is established that the construction of the training process on the basis of structural units programming of the training process allows optimizing managerial influences at different stages of the annual macro cycles, depending on the three phases of the sports form of skillful football players.
PDF
