Playing exposure does not affect movement characteristics or physiological responses of elite youth footballers during an intensified period of competition.

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of playing time on physiological and perceptual responses to six, 60 min matches played over five days. Thirty youth football players (age = 14.1 ± 0.4 years; body mass = 57.4 ± 12.9 kg; stature 169.3 ± 7.7 cm) were grouped into low (<250 min; LPG, n = 18) and high (≥250 min; HPG, n = 12) match exposure groups and monitored daily for lower body power and perceived wellness. GPS technology was used to assess match running demands in total distance (m•min-1), low (<13 km•h-1) and high (≥13 km•h-1) speed running categories. Hypothesis based testing and effect sizes (ES) were used to analyse data. The HPG performed moderately more total distance (103.7 ± 10.4 cf. 90.2 ± 19.7 m•min-1, P = 0.03; ES=0.74 ± 0.63) and high speed running (26.7 ± 6.6 cf. 20.3 ± 6.5 m•min-1, P = 0.01; ES=0.87 ± 0.6) than the LPG across all six matches. Differences of a small magnitude were observed between groups for lower body power (P = 0.08; ES =0.59 ± 0.8) and perceived wellness (P = 0.09; ES=0.42 ± 0.4) which were both higher in the HPG. Youth football players appear well equipped to deal with intensified period of competition, such as those experienced in tournaments, irrespective of match exposure.