In 2009, FIFA promoted and disseminated the FIFA 11+ injury prevention programme worldwide. Developed and studied by the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC), the programme was based ...on a randomised controlled study and one countrywide campaign in amateur football that significantly reduced injuries and healthcare costs. Since the FIFA 11+ launch, key publications have confirmed the preventive effects of the programme and have evaluated its performance effects in female as well as male amateur football players. Furthermore, implementation strategies of this prevention programme have also been studied. The goal of this narrative review was to summarise the available scientific evidence about the FIFA 11+ programme. While FIFA continues to disseminate and implement FIFA 11+ among its Member Associations, adaptations of the injury prevention programme for children and referees have been developed and are currently being evaluated.
The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between body composition and physical performance in college soccerplayers. Twenty-six male players with an average age of 20.7 years (SD = ...1.7), belonging to the representative soccer teams of twoMexican universities participated in the research. Morphological, body composition, and physical characteristics were measured for thedefense, midfield, and forward positions. The level of association between variables was determined. The results show that defendershave greater body mass, humerus diameter, and hip circumference than forwards (p <. 05), whereas no differences were found incomparison to midfielders. There is no difference in players’ expression of physical abilities and percentage of fat mass by playingposition (p > .05). Fat mass was directly associated with speed (.427 *, p < .05). Differences were found in bone and body mass byplaying position between defenders, midfielders, and forwards. The findings hint at an influence of body composition on participants’physical performance
Se propuso determinar la relación que existe entre la composición corporal y el rendimiento físico de jugadores de fútbolsoccer universitario. Participaron 26 jugadores de sexo masculino con edad promedio de 20.7 años (DT = 1.7), pertenecientes a losequipos representativos de fútbol soccer de dos universidades mexicanas. Se midieron características morfológicas, de composicióncorporal y físicas para las posiciones de defensa, mediocampo y delantero. Se determinó el nivel de asociación entre las variables. Losresultados muestran que los defensas presentan mayor masa corporal, diámetro de húmero y circunferencia de cadera que los delanteros(p < .05), no así respecto a los jugadores de mediocampo. No se presenta diferencia en la expresión de las capacidades físicas y delporcentaje de masa grasa de los jugadores por posición de juego (p > .05). La masa grasa se asoció de manera directa con la velocidad(.427*, p < .05). Se encontraron diferencias en la masa ósea y corporal por posición de juego entre defensas, mediocampistas y delanteros.Los hallazgos sugieren la influencia de la composición corporal en el rendimiento físico de los participantes
Background:
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction (ACLR) is common after an ACL tear and is thought to restore functional stability to the knee. A recent investigation demonstrated that ...individuals who have undergone ACLR exhibited increased lower extremity coupling variability during gait, suggestive of altered dynamic stability. However, little is known about whether they exhibit alterations in lower extremity variability during dynamic sport-specific tasks.
Purpose:
To determine if female soccer players who have had an ACLR demonstrate differences in lower extremity coupling variability as compared with athletes with no history of knee injury during a side-step cutting maneuver.
Study Design:
Controlled laboratory study.
Methods:
Ten female soccer players who had undergone ACLR served as the experimental group, and 10 female soccer players with no history of knee ligament injury composed the control group (CON). Three-dimensional kinematics and ground-reaction forces were collected while each participant performed a side-step cutting maneuver. Based on known ACL loading patterns, 7 lower extremity intralimb couplings were created. With use of a vector-coding technique, the coordination variability was calculated for each coupling. Independent t tests were used to determine group differences in variability for each coupling (P ≤ .05).
Results:
Individuals who had undergone ACLR exhibited increased lower extremity variability during side-step cutting as compared with control subjects in the following couplings: hip rotation/knee abduction-adduction (27.2° ± 11.5° ACLR vs 19.7° ± 6.8° CON; P = .04), hip flexion-extension/knee abduction-adduction (26.0° ± 13.3° ACLR vs 18.6° ± 5.3° CON; P = .05), knee abduction-adduction/knee flexion-extension (13.5° ± 5.7° ACLR vs 7.3° ± 2.7° CON; P < .01), and knee abduction-adduction/knee rotation (26.4° ± 10.8° ACLR vs 19.3° ± 4.5° CON; P = .03). In addition, there was a trend toward increased variability in the hip rotation/ankle inversion-eversion coupling (22.9° ± 9.3° ACLR vs 18.0° ± 6.7° CON; P = .09) and knee abduction-adduction/ankle inversion-eversion coupling (25.9° ± 10.0° ACLR vs 20.2° ± 9.7° CON; P = .10).
Conclusion:
Female soccer players who have undergone ACLR and returned to sports participation exhibit altered lower extremity coupling variability during side-step cutting.
Clinical Relevance:
While individuals who have had an ACLR exhibit mechanical knee stability before returning to sports, the observed increased movement variability during side-step cutting is likely reflective of altered neuromuscular control and may contribute to the known increased risk for ACL reinjury and knee osteoarthritis after return to sports participation. Improving the understanding of altered lower extremity coupling variability after ACLR will aid in the development of more effective rehabilitation programs.
The incidence of injury for elite youth and professional adult soccer players is an important concern, but the risk factors for these groups are different.
To summarize and compare the injury ...incidences and injury characteristics of male professional adult and elite youth soccer players.
We searched MEDLINE and Web of Science using the search terms elite, international, European, soccer, football, injury, injuries, epidemiology, incidence, prevalence, not female, not American football, and not rugby. We also used the search terms professional for studies on professional adult soccer players and high-level, soccer academy, youth, adolescent, and young for studies on elite youth soccer players.
Eligible studies were published in English, had a prospective cohort design, and had a minimum study period of 6 months. To ensure that injury data were assessed in relationship to the athlete's individual exposure, we included only studies that reported on injuries and documented exposure volume.
Two independent reviewers applied the selection criteria and assessed the quality of the studies.
A total of 676 studies were retrieved from the literature search. Eighteen articles met the inclusion criteria: 6 for elite youth and 12 for professional adult soccer players.
Injury rates were higher for matches than for training for both youth and adult players. Youth players had a higher incidence of training injuries than professionals. Efforts must be made to reduce the overall injury rate in matches. Therefore, preventive interventions, such as adequately enforcing rules and focusing on fair play, must be analyzed and developed to reduce match-related injury incidences. Reducing training injuries should be a particular focus for youth soccer players.
To visually perceive opportunities for action, athletes rely on the movements of their eyes, head and body to explore their surrounding environment. To date, the specific types of technology and ...their efficacy for assessing the exploration behaviours of association footballers have not been systematically reviewed. This review aimed to synthesise the visual perception and exploration behaviours of footballers according to the task constraints, action requirements of the experimental task, and level of expertise of the athlete, in the context of the technology used to quantify the visual perception and exploration behaviours of footballers. A systematic search for papers that included keywords related to football, technology, and visual perception was conducted. All 38 included articles utilised eye-movement registration technology to quantify visual perception and exploration behaviour. The experimental domain appears to influence the visual perception behaviour of footballers, however no studies investigated exploration behaviours of footballers in open-play situations. Studies rarely utilised representative stimulus presentation or action requirements. To fully understand the visual perception requirements of athletes, it is recommended that future research seek to validate alternate technologies that are capable of investigating the eye, head and body movements associated with the exploration behaviours of footballers during representative open-play situations.
The physical demands of English Premier League soccer goalkeepers were quantified during training and match-play in a two-part study. Goalkeeper-specific micromechanical electrical systems (MEMS) ...devices, profiled training and match-day activities throughout one competitive week (n=8; part A). Changes in MEMS-derived outputs were also profiled throughout match-play (100 matches; n=8, 18±14 observations per goalkeeper; part B). In part A, goalkeeping-training elicited the most dives (51±11) versus all activities (all p≤0.030) except shooting-training (p=0.069). Small-sided games elicited the fewest (5±3) dives (all p≤0.012). High-speed distance covered in match (103±72 m) was similar to goalkeeping-training (p=0.484), while exceeding shooting-training, small-sided games, pre-match shooting, and pre-match warm-up (all p=0.012). Most changes of direction (34±12) and explosive efforts (70±18) occurred during goalkeeping-training, with values exceeding match (both p=0.012). In part B, between-half reductions in total distance, but increased high-speed changes of direction and explosive efforts, occurred (both p≤0.05). Excluding the number of high jumps, all variables differed from 0-15-min during at least one match epoch, with more dives (1.3±1.4 vs 1.0±1.1) and explosive efforts (2.5±2.4 vs 2.0±1.8) performed between 75-90-min versus 0-15-min (all p<0.05). These data highlight the differing physical demands of various activities performed by professional soccer goalkeepers throughout a competitive week.
To assess the physiological change of blood fatty acid composite during the seasonal performance of soccer players with omega-6/omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid balanced dietary supplementation.
...This study included 20 healthy and trained male soccer players. During the study, data collection was performed three times (pre-, mid-, post-season). Anthropometric data collection and blood sampling for the assessment of the omega index were performed. The mid- and post-seasonal data were compared with baseline data collected before the starting season (pre-seasonal data).
Elevated levels of omega-3, HS-omega, and trans fatty acid were observed in both the mid- and post-seasonal data. During the season, the levels of omega-6/omega-3 and saturated fatty acid decreased, whereas there were no differences in total cholesterol, cholesterol LDL, HDL, BUN/Cr, HbA1c (NGSP), and cystatin C.
n-3 PUFA-enriched dietary supplementation might alter blood omega-3 indices in soccer players during the season.
El objetivo fue analizar la influencia de las modalidades de juego aplicadas a la competición en categoría sub-12 sobre el regate. Se analizaron 18 partidos, 6 por modalidad, registrando 785 regates. ...Las variables dependientes fueron regates realizados (RT), ganados (RG) y perdidos (RP). Se registraron en función a zonas del campo: pasillos laterales (PLD+PLI) y central (PC); sector defensivo (SD), medio defensivo (SMD), medio ofensivo (SMO) y ofensivo (SO). Enfútbol 11 (F11) el número de RG fue significativamente mayor (p<0,05) que en Fútbol 7 (F7). Los RT y RG realizados en PLI+PLD fueron mayores (p<0,05) en F11 que F7. Además en fútbol 8 (F8) y F11 el RT era mayor (p<0,01) en PLD+PLI que en PC, también era menor (p<0,01) en SD que en SMD y SO. La dimensión del terreno de juego es determinante en la acción técnica del regate en jugadores de categoría sub-12.
Small-sided games (SSGs) are played on reduced pitch areas, often using modified rules and involving a smaller number of players than traditional football. These games are less structured than ...traditional fitness training methods but are very popular training drills for players of all ages and levels. At present, there is relatively little information regarding how SSGs can best be used to improve physical capacities and technical or tactical skills in footballers. However, many prescriptive variables controlled by the coach can influence the exercise intensity during SSGs. Coaches usually attempt to change the training stimulus in SSGs through altering the pitch area, player number, coach encouragement, training regimen (continuous vs interval training), rules and the use of goalkeepers. In general, it appears that SSG exercise intensity is increased with the concurrent reduction in player number and increase in relative pitch area per player. However, the inverse relationship between the number of players in each SSG and exercise intensity does not apply to the time-motion characteristics. Consistent coach encouragement can also increase training intensity, but most rule changes do not appear to strongly affect exercise intensity. The variation of exercise intensity measures are lower in smaller game formats (e.g. three vs three) and have acceptable reproducibility when the same game is repeated between different training sessions or within the same session. The variation in exercise intensity during SSGs can also be improved with consistent coach encouragement but it is still more variable than traditional generic training methods. Other studies have also shown that SSGs containing fewer players can exceed match intensity and elicit similar intensities to both long- and short-duration high-intensity interval running. It also appears that fitness and football-specific performance can be improved equally with SSG and generic training drills. Future research is required to examine the optimal periodization strategies of SSGs training for the long-term development of physiological capacity, technical skill and tactical proficiency.
Soccer is dominated by game indicators that can influence the performance of teams and their players. Therefore, this study analyzed the influence of game indicators on the partial and final ranking ...of Spanish LaLiga teams, independently for the pre-COVID-19, COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 periods. In addition, the statistical differences between the pandemic periods were identified. A total of 2660 Spanish LaLiga matches played over seven seasons (from the 2014–2015 to the 2020–2021 season) were analyzed. The game indicators analyzed were the yellow cards, red cards, ball possession, total shots, shots on goal, shots off goal, free kicks, corners, offsides, goalkeeper saves, fouls committed, attacks, dangerous attacks, total passes, and tackles. Data were collected from the official Spanish LaLiga website, and recorded on a post hoc observation sheet. The intra-observer concordance was almost perfect (Cohen’s kappa values > 0.83). In each pandemic period, the findings indicated that the statistically significant game indicators had a greater influence on the final ranking, with an intermediate and large effect (η2 ≥ 0.060), than on the partial ranking (little or no effect). In this regard, the LaLiga teams ranked in a European competition position (final ranking) reported a higher ball possession (p < 0.001) and total passes (p < 0.001). A higher ball possession allowed them to take more shots (offensive actions), and therefore to have a better chance of winning. Similarly, these game indicators were higher post-COVID-19, compared to pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19. This is interesting information for the preparation and management of matches.
PDF
