TY - JOUR
T1 - A four-season study quantifying the weekly external training loads during different between match microcycle lengths in professional rugby league
AU - Parmley, J.
AU - Jones, Ben
AU - Sawczuk, T.
AU - Weaving, D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Parmley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2022/1/31
Y1 - 2022/1/31
N2 - This study investigated differences in external training load between microcycle lengths and its variation between microcycles, players, and head coaches. Commonly used external training load variables including total-, high-speed- (5–7 m·s
-1), and sprint-distance (> 7 m·s
-1) alongside combined high acceleration and deceleration distance (> 2 m·s
-2). Which were also expressed relative to time were collected using microtechnology within a repeated measures design from 54 male rugby league players from one Super League team over four seasons. 4337 individual observations across ninety-one separate microcycles and six individual microcycle lengths (5 to 10 day) were included. Linear mixed effects models established the differences in training load between microcycle-length and the variation between-microcycles, players and head coaches. The largest magnitude of difference in training load was seen when comparing 5-day with 9-day (ES = 0.31 to 0.53) and 10-day (ES = 0.19 to 0.66) microcycles. The greatest number of differences between microcycles were observed in high- (ES = 0.3 to 0.53) and sprint-speed (ES = 0.2 to 0.42) variables. Between-microcycle variability ranged between 11% to 35% dependent on training load variable. Training load also varied between players (5–65%) and head coaches (6–20%) with most variability existing within high-speed (19–43%) and sprinting (19–65%). Overall, differences in training load between microcycle lengths exist, likely due to manipulation of session duration. Furthermore, training load varies between microcycle, player and head coach.
AB - This study investigated differences in external training load between microcycle lengths and its variation between microcycles, players, and head coaches. Commonly used external training load variables including total-, high-speed- (5–7 m·s
-1), and sprint-distance (> 7 m·s
-1) alongside combined high acceleration and deceleration distance (> 2 m·s
-2). Which were also expressed relative to time were collected using microtechnology within a repeated measures design from 54 male rugby league players from one Super League team over four seasons. 4337 individual observations across ninety-one separate microcycles and six individual microcycle lengths (5 to 10 day) were included. Linear mixed effects models established the differences in training load between microcycle-length and the variation between-microcycles, players and head coaches. The largest magnitude of difference in training load was seen when comparing 5-day with 9-day (ES = 0.31 to 0.53) and 10-day (ES = 0.19 to 0.66) microcycles. The greatest number of differences between microcycles were observed in high- (ES = 0.3 to 0.53) and sprint-speed (ES = 0.2 to 0.42) variables. Between-microcycle variability ranged between 11% to 35% dependent on training load variable. Training load also varied between players (5–65%) and head coaches (6–20%) with most variability existing within high-speed (19–43%) and sprinting (19–65%). Overall, differences in training load between microcycle lengths exist, likely due to manipulation of session duration. Furthermore, training load varies between microcycle, player and head coach.
KW - Adult
KW - Athletic Performance/physiology
KW - Exercise/physiology
KW - Humans
KW - Male
KW - Rugby
KW - Running/physiology
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0263093
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0263093
M3 - Article (journal)
C2 - 35100267
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
IS - 1
M1 - e0263093
ER -