Journal
JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES
Volume 32, Issue 20, Pages 1858-1866Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2013.823227
Keywords
football; GPS; activity; team sports; match analysis
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We compared the match activity profiles of elite footballers from Australian football (AF), rugby league (RL) and soccer (SOC), using identical movement definitions. Ninety-four elite footballers from AF, RL or SOC clubs in Australia participated in this study. Movement data were collected using a 5-Hz global positioning system from matches during the 2008-2011 competitive seasons, including measures of velocity, distance, acceleration and bouts of repeat sprints (RS). Australian footballers covered the greatest relative running distances (129 +/- 17m.min(-1)) compared to RL (97 +/- 16m.min(-1)) and SOC (104 +/- 10m.min(-1)) (effect size [ES]; 1.0-2.8). The relative distance covered (4.92 +/- 2.10m.min(-1) vs. 5.42 +/- 2.49m.min(-1); 0.74 +/- 0.78m.min(-1) vs. 0.97 +/- 0.80m.min(-1)) and the number of high-velocity running (0.4 +/- 0.2 no.min(-1) vs. 0.4 +/- 0.2 no.min(-1)) and sprint (0.06 +/- 0.06 no.min(-1) vs. 0.08 +/- 0.07 no.min(-1)) efforts between RL and SOC players were similar (ES; 0.1-0.3). Rugby league players undertook the highest relative number of accelerations (1.10 +/- 0.56 no.min(-1)). RS bouts were uncommon for all codes. RL and SOC players perform less running than AF players, possibly due to limited open space as a consequence of field size and code specific rules. While training in football should be code specific, there may be some transference of conditioning drills across codes.
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